'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' is not only the latest in a series of lauded murder mysteries directed by Rian Johnson and starred in by Daniel Craig but is the latest in 2025's cultural and political commentaries disguised as popcorn-generating, big-budget, genre flicks.
First there was Bong Joon-ho's long awaited 'Parasite' follow up, 'Mickey 17'. This space-faring sci-fi adaptation offered a pointed critique at the elite classes' indifference toward their lower counterparts - Robert Pattinson literally plays 'an expendable'. The main thread between all these films is established here also, a character - in this case played by Mark Ruffalo - whose cult of personality resembles a certain orange felon who I heard stopped 7 - no, maybe eight - wars that definetly already existed.
Next was 'Eddington'. Ari Aster's neo-Western set at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic features an online conspiracy theorist Austin Butler, an anti-vaxxer and BLM-despising sheriff played by Joaquin Pheonix, as well as liberal mayor Pedro Pascal. This star-studded A24 film highlights the dangers of modern America by demonstrating the immeasurable toll it takes on the fictional small town of Eddington. And for some food for thought, the movie opens with a data centre and closes with a data centre.
In September we got 'One Battle After Another', a Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece starring non-other than Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed-up revolutionary smoking weed, watching 'The Battle of Algiers', and struggling to raise his strong-willed teenage daughter. The film quite literally opens with a group of militants calling themselves the French 75 freeing immigrants from an ICE detention centre, need I say more?
And finally, that brings us to 'Wake Up Dead Man'. The flick follows almost the same exact formula as the previous two Knives Out films, ridiculous-cast, Daniel Craig with an accent, puzzle-box murder mystery, and some social critique for good measure. This time however, the critique is heavily applied, imagine a 6-year-old, a full-to-the-brim jar of Nutella, and a plain, depressed pancake with a large surface-area.
'Wake Up Dead Man' has the balls to tackle some serious themes. The plot revolves around Josh O'Connor who plays a young Priest sent to a controversial church in upstate New York. Here he meets not Father Wicks, but Monsignor Wicks, an aggressive Priest played by Josh Brolin. Monsignor Wicks is not like other Priests, he is aggressive, angry, and enjoys scaring off newcomers to his church, leaving only a small group of misfit regulars. The Monsignor also has a sort of cult-of-personality about him, resembling a certain orange felon who I heard stopped 7 - no, maybe eight - wars that definetly already existed. Yes, I was too lazy to write a whole other inuendo to the fat man in The White House. Just go with it (no, not the Adam Sandler film, just the phrase).
The film also features an 'alt-right bro' who posts anything and everything to social media with a vlog setup that any budding influencer would be jealous of. It also lightly touches on its main subject matter, religion, with Benoit Blanc believing the whole thing to be lies and 'storytelling' despite Rian Johnosn also showing the benefits of organised religion through some touching scenes with Josh O'Connor.
With the social commentary out of the way, here are some general pointers:
- Josh O'Connor is amazing. Give him an Oscar nomination.
- The best Knives Out film so far, without a doubt.
- Gets really boring in the middle.
- Could have been 1 hour shorter.
- Landed the ending.
3.5 stars.