Even before Rian JohnsonStopping -loving third Knives Out Mystery World premiered at Toronto International Film Festival (as all Johnson’s tricky whodunits have), the word was already out on it this was a little darker. After all, it’s right there in the title “Wake Up Dead Man,” that does not complicate with the fact that as fun as these capers are, they are still approximately murder. And Johnson himself did not stay away from the early buzz and told the audience gathered at the Princess of Wales Theater on Saturday night as, about “Knives outside” was a more cozy mystery and “Glass Onion” was a larger, Sunner deconstruction of the genre“Wake up dead man“Was his dip in more Edgar Allan Poe-pinged water.
It works, and it’s not a big mystery why – Johnson knows his form and format, and delivers on it, playing with tone and message but never loses the view of why these stories are so damn entertaining to look at and pick up.
As always, Master Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is united by a murderer’s row (oh, are They now? Let’s see) of great names talents, although Josh O’Connor like Young Priest Jud Dupenticy steals the show as a terrified murder suspect that will cooperate with Benoit. Johnson has always been ace on casting, but he has given a special role here: both dark and fun, desperate and in control. When the movie really turns its tone about halfway, O’Connor Ably wears that twist. (And no, we doubt that some other young working actor is blinking to deliver a line of being “young, stupid and full of Christ” quite like the multifaceted O’Connor.)
While we do not see Benoit during the first half hour of the movie-in just over two hours and 21 minutes, the film is still moving on a Zippy Klipper-the audience will be naturally inclined to do some lead in his place, the better to be on the same side as detective genius when he arrives. With the help of Voiceover story of Jew (in the form of a letter, and guess who!), We quickly learn the country’s play: The young priest was called to the church after a rebellious youth as a brawling boxer, which is called the murder on good Friday has just occurred, and Jew is absolutely in the neck with strange potential bad.
Recently, delivered to a small congregation in Chimney Rock, New York, Jud has spent the last nine months trying to navigate through some nutty church policy. (The film’s attitude on the performance is reminiscent of “knives out” and is both cozy and unhappy, large old churches with gigantic marble crutches behind them will.) They have become much worse for a shocking and seemingly unresolved murder, which Benoit arrives to try to crack. Who else would so happy to register to opt out of a “completely impossible crime”? And who would not back when its elements get darker and deeper, grimber and lurker?
The head of the church – Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), please, not just “Father Wicks” – inherited his grandfather’s calling and has spent in recent years to bring together a small, but very Dedicated flock. Everyone is suspected: long-term employee Martha (Glenn Close), her boyfriend and the Church Handyman Samson (Thomas Haden Church), Pissy lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington), her Wannabe Political Influer adopted son Cy (Daryl McCormack), Maga-Cherry (author Lee (author of Naty (Jerer Nater), Jerate Renere), Jerate Renere), Celliste Sime) (Cailee Spaeny).
When the film turns on, we learn both the depth of the congregation’s commitment to Wicks and the unpleasant nature of his preaching. The product of a “Harlot Whore” mother (Annie Hamilton in Flashbacks), Wicks has slowly collected a loyal cadre of fans who see value in his messages, which is mostly about keeping unwanted much out and leaning on the type of godly principles too obsessed with the one who is obsessed with the terrible part.
All his favorites are somehow annoyed by their party in life, and Wick’s Firebrand -set appeals to their sense of justice and revenge, even though none of their worries are rooted in something so real. Disinformation reigns the highest in their feedback loops, outsiders are bad, the old ways are best, and at least one of them seriously asks: “What is the truth?”
You can see where this goes, even though Johnson, who also wrote the film’s script, leans hard into today’s day, quick connections-if these people could start their own social media platform just to preach if wicks they would, but at the moment youtube will have to do-in they lighten the gas just a little. These mysteries have always been about stories, what people share, what they do not and what they want to be seen for. Jew says that lying is not really necessary, just leave out the things that are not true, and Wicks and his band with brainwashed rageholics (Scott’s character has literally built a moat Around his house) has taken it to wild, glowing ends.
How do you fight with faith and faith? For someone like Benoit, so permeated with rationality, so happy to announce that he is a heretic while he is literally standing in a church, the question could not be more difficult to answer. Thankfully, Johnson and his roles are more than up for the task, guide “Wake up dead man” through all the necessary turns, ups and downs, revelations and revelations. Stories are spun and then immediately tied back into knots, and its Gothic drama gives a new place for Johnson to play in his preferred genre.
As blunt as some of its contemporary inspiration can feel in the moment-even about cy is horrible love for posting and his frightening youtube account (complete with wick’s sermons about everything from “non-binary to be non-good” to “There is God in Dogge”)-Johnson, Benoit and Jew. What does it mean to believe in something that seems impossible, to see things that no one else can, to draw links between different things and to tell stories about all this? In the world of knives it is a matter of both faith and entertainment, and it is easy to become ecstatic over both.
Rating: B+
“Wake up Dead Man” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2025. Netflix releases it in selected theaters on Wednesday, November 26 and on its streaming platform on Friday, December 12.
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