Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

Wake Up Dead Man. A Knives Out Mysteru (2025)
 there is no antagonist. In an ordinary murder mystery, there is always the threat that the killer will strike back and/or murder again to prevent getting caught. Here the protagonists are never in any jeopardy or under pressure.
People seem to like it, though.

WAKE UP DEAD MAN (2025):
I guess it's a controversial opinion, but I thought this was easily the best of the three star-studded KNIVES OUT holiday events and found it to be (besides a nearly perfect murder mystery) an extremely compelling character drama. This one boasts Josh Brolin (who currently has won 2025 after starring in the two best new films I've seen this year), the always magnificent Kerry Washington, Mila Kunis, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Thomas Haden Church, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, and the Great Jeffrey Wright. There's also an actor who I thought (in lieu of opening credits) was Jamie Bell in a career-best performance but is actually named Josh O'Connor, who manages to match Daniel Craig's intensity and conviction for 2.5 hours. Craig himself has really settled into the role of Benoit Blanc, at last making him a three-dimensional character as well as being typically entertaining to watch. The same might be said for series auteur Rian Johnson, whose work is totally assured without ever slowing to an expository crawl (at least imho) or overreaching into occasional clownishness, as might have been said about some of his previous efforts.

Also, as I know Rev. Powell is both a fan of the original KNIVES OUT and of Tom Waits, I'll mention that this film closes with one of my favorite Waits tracks.

As for one of Dr. Whom's key criticisms... [LIGHT NON-CLIMACTIC SPOILERS] ...It's true that there is less threat of mortal or physical danger here than in the two previous films (though not none). From an analytical perspective, the term "antagonist" need only refer to the force that opposes the protagonist/s in pursuing their objective, and indeed those forces are in effect in WUDM. But besides this splitting of hairs, I appreciate Whom's criticism as it made me reflect upon an element that causes me to more deeply admire WUDM, as I will explain (with ongoing light SPOILERS) as follows...

Ayn Rand (who wrote one Christie-ish whodunnit and one courtroom/homicide drama) once said she had to discontinue writing murder mysteries because anyone who'd read and understood her philosophy of Objectivism  would always instantly be able to identify the culprit. Among her other uhhh quirks, Rand saw murder as a pragmatic, even constructive act, thus only the strongest and most admirable protagonist could commit such an act in one of her stories.  After the first socially tinged KNIVES OUT and the more broadly satirical GLASS ONION, it's clear that Rian Johnson is, like Rand, an author of extreme principles, if probably oppositional to Rand in most ways. In the KNIVES OUT universe, the culprits are always "antagonists"... corrupt, callous, and/or outright evil characters whose general motivation is to make life less pleasant for the rest of the world. In order to complicate the mystery, Johnson fills his casts with such objectionable figures. In counterpoint, it's difficult to ever seriously suspect the second lead in these films of being the murderer - though WUDM does tease occasionally the idea, for funsies - because if one of Johnson's principled protagonists had committed a murder, they would do exactly what O'Connor's does in this film when he thinks he's somehow guilty........ they'd promptly turn themselves in. In the world of Benoit Blanc, it isn't just the crime that makes a character the Antagonist - it's the cover-up and the motivation. [END LIGHT NON-CLIMACTIC SPOILERS]

There are huge stakes for O'Connor's character, besides potential death, and for Benoit Blanc, too. Those stakes are legal but more importantly moral, ethical, and spiritual. Also, in its limited scope, WAKE UP DEAD MAN is concerned with the soul of the Catholic Church (whether you care about that, as O'Connor does, or you could care less, like Blanc and myself) and the United States of America. (I realize that viewers living in Belgium or elsewhere may be indifferent to that one, but I'm stuck here.) Thus Johnson's mere murder mystery seems at times closer to a philosophical treatise - but more engaging than those by Rand.

Great way to end the Movie year = 5/5

I am now won over and will eagerly await a new Blanc/KNIVES OUT mystery every 3 years as long as Craig and Johnson want to make them. (If Johnson runs out of novel celebrity guest stars he can always start recycling them, as he does each film with Noah Segan.)