What's so appealing about Knives Out is that Rian Johnson has created a franchise that solely revolves around the brilliant, quirky private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) solving a murder. Each whodunit experiments with tone and setting while always having a joke and something to say about a dark corner of our world at the ready. Johnson keeps the franchise's batting average at 1.000 with his third mystery entitled Wake Up Dead Man, which is playing in select theaters now and debuts on Netflix this Friday.
As the trailers have indicated, Wake Up Dead Man sees Blanc get summoned to upstate New York by a small-town police chief (Mila Kunis) to solve the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), who was stabbed to death in a storage closet right next to the pulpit after delivering his Good Friday mass. Wicks presided over a church called Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a post that he inherited from his late grandfather Prentice (James Faulkner) who served in the role for decades before his demise. Wicks utilized an incendiary, confrontational preaching style that alienated most people that walked into his church, but he did have a small band of fiercely loyal regulars (Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Thomas Haden Church) that viewed him as a messiah. Given his proximity to the murder scene and checkered past as a former boxer who joined the priesthood with the hopes of atoning for his sin of accidently killing a man in the ring, Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) has emerged as the primary suspect. Rev. Jud had clashed with Wicks for months over the way that he conducted himself as the leader of a church and was transferred to Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude after giving into his violent impulses and punching another priest in the face at his last church. Blanc isn't so sure that Jud is behind it despite having the clearest motive of any present at that fateful Good Friday service and what he ends up finding challenges not just the way he does his job but the entire belief system that he lives by.
Releasing a movie about how faith is weaponized to serve a personal/political agenda and prey on the vulnerability of the people that are looking to the church to help them through whatever problem they're facing in life right now is perfect. Christian nationalism is one of the driving forces behind the rise of fascism globally and Johnson takes aim at every angle of their ideology as this complex, sometimes extremely bleak mystery unfolds. Johnson doesn't mention any politicians or faith-driven figures by name but it's pretty clear what kind of rhetoric he's talking about and the way that the character dynamics play out mirrors real life to an eerie degree.
Despite its critiques of the role religion plays in the world and the people that are shaping the conversations surrounding it, Wake Up Dead Man isn't an anti-religious text in the slightest. A big part of Johnson's message here is about the importance of having the right messengers delivering the teachings of the Bible. While this sounds like a preachy message on paper, it never feels like Johnson is arguing for or against believing in God and is instead just engaging with what the storytelling of the Bible means and how the distortion of the sacred text to serve a hate-fueled agenda is an afront to its true teachings. Certain people are inevitably going to get pissed off by what transpires in certain parts of this movie, but I feel like it could inspire a lot of important discussions among people who are willing to earnestly engage with the film and maybe even get people to reconsider how they engage with the intersection of faith and politics that is at the forefront of our culture. Some of the best art around makes the viewer really think about the world they live in and it's awesome that Johnson has used super entertaining, funny whodunits as a jumping off point for these vital reflections.
On a pure mystery level, Wake Up Dead Man is a little bit clunkier than its predecessors. None of the twists are overly shocking including the killer reveal and by focusing so much time on Rev. Jud's arc-which isn't a bad thing at all given the depth and gravitas O'Connor gives to the role, much of the supporting cast is sidelined for long stretches of the film-which minimizes the impact of the ensemble cast that has previously been one of the biggest assets of the Knives Out franchise. It's still a great time on the whole, I just feel like the flaws are pronounced enough here to put it behind it the first two installments after one viewing.
With Johnson's contract with Netflix officially up and him currently shopping an original script around Hollywood that he's hoping to shoot sometime next year, the future of Knives Out is currently wide open. It probably won't be the last time we see Blanc on screen, but it could end up being a bit before he returns, so I'll be sure to take some more time to savor Wake Up Dead Man before Johnson and Craig make their return at a TBD time on a TBD screen.
Grade: B+
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