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DokBrowne [ 9.5 ]
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And here I thought this series had hit its stride with A-/B+ adventures into perpetuity, that nothing could top the sheer pleasure of every delightful detail from the first "Knives Out", yet Rian Johnson has outdone himself with the best one yet. If we're talking franchises, there's simply no one out there doing it on Johnson's level with the richly rewarding, exceedingly well-written Benoic Blanc mysteries and each one is so flavorfully, aesthetically distinct and newly sophisticated in construction that it doesn't even matter if you can distill them all to a formulaic essence, but let's try anyway just for posterity - a pure-hearted person (Ana de Armas/Janelle Monae/Josh O'Connor) is cajoled, harassed and manipulated by a congregation of insidiously rotten people each representing a different ugly social archetype infecting the real world these days, oh yeah and someone gets murdered so Blanc arrives to help that one good person investigate a boatload of motives until they unfurl a dizzyingly arranged series of twists upon twists upon twists that feels more satisfyingly like solving a Rubik's Cube than any other whodunnit murder mystery in this currently trending revival era of them, and the open-hearted triumphs over the hateful, good over evil, in a way that often feels robotically obligatory in movieland but with Blanc cases always has powerful emotional stakes and greater meaning about life well lived with integrity and compassion, seemingly old-fashioned lessons in theory (not to get preachy here) but truly more crucial to filter through storytelling and cultural exposure for our national psyche than ever before, given how bad things have become out there in politics.
Johnson challenges himself to do so under the tricky subject of religion here, not just class division like the first two films, an endeavor to find the thematic resonance and virtuosity of spirit in a man dedicated to the teachings of God, even with his other lovable figurehead Blanc remaining staunchly atheistic throughout, and that he succeeds makes the movie a double accomplishment (although maybe it's actually easier to use religion this way since it's already an exploration of the core questions about why we're here, what value we have and how to connect with others; I think I have a real soft spot for intelligent, sincere, populist films that go this route, like Zemeckis' "Contact" or Ang Lee's "Life of Pi").
Forgiveness, grace, striving to be a better person even when it's not convenient or timely, these are beautiful notions stitched into the fabric of a spooky, captivatingly staged Southern Gothic (in upstate NY) sermon of a puzzle box film, that somehow also manages to be character-driven, and standalone about it too; it takes like 40 minutes for Blanc to even show up and he's the only returning person from any of the prior films. The movie rests predominantly on the shoulders of Josh O'Connor, who has a face, a presence, a gesticulation, an intuitive control and an elasticity, something that makes him instantly absorbing to watch and empathize with; he was the main star of my #1 favorite movie of last year, "Challengers" (and a big reason why it was so great), and now here he is commandeering one of the very best of 2025 as well. Usually takes actors a lot longer to become personal favorites of mine.
The rest of this cast serves their limited purposes terrifically and Daniel Craig always merits special recognition (who knew he could be this endearingly humane a hero after playing such a severe Bond) but I'll only mention Josh Brolin whose imposing bulk, intimidating flintiness, and history of portraying memorable villains all funnel into another for-the-ages creation as this vile fire-and-brimstone preacher. If the awards season we just started really made sense, Brolin and O'Connor would be in all the conversations, but of course they are in none.
If you ever watched the Rian Johnson/Natasha Lyonne TV series "Poker Face" (RIP) you'll recognize this and the other Benoit Blancscapades as elaborate versions of that's show style. They're like jumbo-sized special episodes of it. Johnson loves working in this arena; you could tell that'd be true as far back as his first films "Brick" and "The Brothers Bloom" which had their own poppin' pretzel-narrative logic, albeit more primitively. He's an ambitious and enthusiastic entertainer playing better and better 4D chess as he goes on, filling his films (including "Looper" and "The Last Jedi") with both commercial and artistic purpose. He respects convention and tradition of whatever genre or IP he's got but still reaches to surprise and refresh and even enlighten every time. It's why "The Last Jedi" works in spite of being trapped inside that franchise's strict parameters, and it's why these Benoit Blanc movies never get old. It's what we really want from mainstream filmmaking, if you think about it, but what we virtually never get elsewhere, not in its entirety at least. "Wake Up Dead Man", a magnificent film, made me a believer..that Rian Johnson has become one of the best we've got.
*very happy to say I made the time to see this in theaters even though it'll be on Netflix in just another few days. Worth the drive out of town and the extra money for tickets (since it's not playing at any Regals, where I have a membership [damn you Netflix]).
**also in competition for greatest closing use of an extraordinary song in a Rian Johnson joint; the smash cut to "Sister Ray" after "Brick" is a top 10 needle drop to me, but sending us out here to Tom Waits's "Come on Up to the House" made me want to stand up and salute the screen.
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.2 |
| No. Ratings | : 1 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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