{"id":139649,"date":"2025-09-07T15:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139649\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:28:10","slug":"the-best-knives-out-movie-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139649\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Knives Out Movie Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d<\/a> is the \u201cKnives Out\u201d movie that\u2019s most preoccupied with existential questions surrounding death, writer\/director Rian Johnson\u2019s third film in the series is also the one that\u2019s most full of life. Yes, it brings back a delightful Daniel Craig as the fast-talking detective Benoit Blanc, but he is not the one who unlocks this movie\u2019s mysteries. No, in addition to Craig not saying a word for the film\u2019s entire opening act, he is merely there to serve the outstanding Josh O\u2019Connor. <\/p>\n

Not only does the franchise newcomer give an excellent comedic performance, the \u201cChallengers\u201d and \u201cGod\u2019s Own Country\u201d actor also brings a genuine amount of grace to a film that ends up becoming precisely about that.\u00a0It\u2019s Johnson\u2019s most elaborate murder mystery movie yet, but also his most emotional.<\/p>\n

What that entails requires being vague so as not to rob the film of its fun (this is a \u201cKnives Out\u201d movie after all), but the greatest revelation comes in how effective Johnson is in his exploration of faith, community, anger and redemption. He never sacrifices entertainment in the pursuit of doing so, moving at a rapid pace with one killer joke after another, including a couple of sly shots that it takes against its streaming home Netflix<\/a> and even Johnson\u2019s former film series Star Wars<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But the film\u2019s greatest strength comes in how it settles into something more thoughtful and reflective when you least expect it. In between extended jokes about masturbation, the film tackles the perilous rise of right-wing extremism and how religion can be a way to heal but also a convenient cover for hate. If this sounds like it could be too much for Johnson to pull off, have patience \u2014 your faith will be rewarded tenfold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Barbie\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The darker mystery Johnson plays around with this time centers on Rev. Jud Duplenticy (O\u2019Connor), who we first hear as he is recounting a long and winding story. To put it simply, after getting in a fight with another member of his faith, he is sent to a remote church with a dark past that is now struggling in the present. The cause for the struggles, both past and present, is that it is run by the tyrannical Msgr. Jefferson Micks (Josh Brolin), who is more interested in his own power than with any of his flock. Jud, though prone to swearing and many more ungodly things, soon tries to push back against this in any way he can.<\/p>\n

He tries to connect with those still caught in Micks\u2019 orbit, which is where we get to know the pitch-perfect new ensemble cast of Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, Glenn Close, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church. Matters become even more dire when there is a sudden death at a service that makes everyone a suspect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is when Blanc enters the story, but there is never a moment when you\u2019re impatient for him to arrive. Johnson is so confident in setting up all the new characters and their various hilarious dynamics that you get completely swept up in the lengthy introduction. With a profoundly funny O\u2019Connor as our guide into this entire new scenario, you\u2019re always completely enraptured with Johnson\u2019s commitment to both silliness and sincerity.<\/p>\n

Though \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d has the most confined setting of all the films, cinematographer Steve Yedlin, a close collaborator of Johnson\u2019s who shot \u201cThe Last Jedi<\/a>,\u201d the original \u201cKnives Out<\/a>\u201d and \u201cGlass Onion<\/a>\u201d among others, shoots the hell out of the whole thing. There are so many brilliant visual moments that make revealing use of lighting changes or become more haunting images of gothic horror when we get plunged into darkness. It\u2019s as though there are entire worlds contained within the church and surrounding forest from all the different ways they get captured. As we make our way through all of them, with O\u2019Connor and Craig both having mountains of chemistry to spare, you get to take in a production that\u2019s just as handsome as the two leading men.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"John\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The ultimate triumph of all these already great parts is how Johnson guides us into something more radical and contemplative once all the pieces of the mystery fall into place. Yes, there are many great monologues by Craig and pure fun to be had in seeing him stumble about before arriving at the eventual answer. However, it\u2019s the smaller, more subtle moments from O\u2019Connor that make \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d the surprisingly transcendent \u2014 yet still plenty silly \u2014 experience that it is. <\/p>\n

When we have the big reveals, of which there are a magnificent many, Johnson never loses sight of the spiritual core that O\u2019Connor carries with him. That it fits this all into one movie and comes out on the other side intact is a miracle, though one with the power to make even the director\u2019s greatest doubters into believers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d opens in select theaters on November 26 and comes to Netflix on December 12. <\/p>\n

Read all of our Toronto Film Festival coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d is the \u201cKnives Out\u201d movie that\u2019s most preoccupied with existential questions surrounding death,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206,46686,84120,86821],"class_list":["post-139649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-tiff","tag-tiff-2025","tag-wake-up-dead-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}