Images courtesy of Netflix
Spotlight Presentation of the 61st Chicago International Film Festival
WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY— 4 STARS
This past decade has experienced a modern boom for true crime content that has invaded prestige television, big-screen and small-screen documentaries, and infinite podcasts with high-profile talent involved, big ratings, and often award-winning results. For some reason, the nonfiction landscape of reality and history has become scarier and more interesting than fictional yarns that dramatise crime. That’s a shame from originality and storytelling standpoints, yet, in a way, the pressure for popularity is now off, allowing anything more taboo to flow freely.
LESSON #1: MURDER HAS BECOME COMFORT FOOD— Considering the current landscape detailed above, this leads to a rather odd thing to say, and it’s the title of this lesson. Make a movie or show about a real-life serial killer with an actual body count of documented victims that used to live among us, and you’re frosting spines, locking your doors, and doom-scrolling the true story. Make a sly, stylish, spooky, or quirky movie of imaginary people getting slain in grandiose fashion, and you’re popping extra popcorn, smiling with delight, and relaxing anxiety-free on your couch. What a funny and fascinating development that is!
Look no further than Rian Johnson’s Knives Out trilogy, including his new cobweb of Wake Up Dead Man. His star-studded films have become reliable and satisfying entertainment—all in the name of having fun with murder—without the extra carnage that becomes nightmare fuel for casual viewers. With each new bite at the Benoit Blanc apple alongside his muse of Daniel Craig, Rian has scripted his own grand narratives that demonstrate how diverse the murder mystery genre is—from the breezy theatricality of Clue to classic noir novel templates and literary inspirations. In doing so, Rian Johnson has mastered the whodunit by his own hand and conviction arguably better than many who came before him.
Where the first Knives Out showed a sinister soul close to Agatha Christie, and the second, Glass Onion, went the “tropical getaway” and “puzzle box” routes, Wake Up Dead Man practically calls its shot by name-dropping its chief inspiration, right in the middle of the movie. This film celebrates The Hollow Man, a “locked room” mystery novel by John Dickson Carr. After finally arriving 45 minutes into the 144-minute movie, Craig’s confounded Benoit Blanc declares Carr’s book to be a syllabus on how to do the “perfectly impossible crime,” which is what he labels the clues he’s currently observing and processing.
Before the notable southern gentleman’s arrival, Wake Up Dead Man takes place in the invented hamlet of Chimney Rock, New York and is privy to the internal monologue of a young priest named Rev. Jud Duplenticy (The Crown Emmy winner and quickly rising movie star Josh O’Connor). After the reformed boxer punches a deacon, his wrist-slap reprimand from the cardinal (Jeffrey Wright, in a knockout cameo) is to take a reassignment post at Chimney Rock’s Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude parish, alongside the congregation’s longtime head priest Monsignor Jefferson Wilks (professional movie villain Josh Brolin). The place is built with a huge carved pulpit and a legendary old scandal involving the “Harlot Whore” (Annie Hamilton of The Wolf of Snow Hollow) and a missing jewel inheritance dubbed “Eve’s Apple.”
Msgr. Wilks, backed by the devout bookkeeping church lady Martha Delacroix (an icy Glenn Close), runs Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude with radical power and targeted diatribes that have scared away most of the new or outside potential parisioners. There is a core group of locals who have garnered the priest’s favour, yet are simultaneously held there by the will of Wicks. Each fiercely loyal member needs his guidance in unique and initially private ways, making Rev. Jud the outsider receiving a parade of cold shoulders and squinted eyes.
All of that changes when the domineering Monsignor drops dead during a Holy Week service before Easter with a knife in his back.
LESSON #2: THE BEAUTY OF SHORTHAND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT— In each of these Knives Out films, writer-director Rian Johnson has demonstrated a gift for shorthand character development. He deftly creates partnerships with his assembled troupe to create thick enough impressions, tone, and, in a murder mystery’s case, all while playfully exploiting—and then smudging when necessary—the reputations and preconceptions that come with each assembled star. Montages and economical dialogue are huge ingredients, but much is entrusted to the all-star performers he gathers. In the length of a film reel, Johnson can present a wide array of characters while still leaving more than enough meat on the bone for the smorgasbord of rising action that follows.
Beyond Jed and Martha, Wake Up Dead Man lassoes six other chief suspects. Three of them—the sidelined cellist Simon Vivane (Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny), the down-on-his-luck best-selling author Lee Ross (thespian supreme Andrew Scott-), and outside groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church)—seem pretty slight compared to the serious local lawyer Vera Draven (Emmy winner Kerry Washington), her politically-minded social media influencer son Cy (Daryl McCormack of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), and the newly divorced town physician, Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner, in first post-accident film role). Loyalties are tested, and motives are examined upon the arrival of the famed Benoit Blanc, enlisted by the local police chief (Mila Kunis) to crack the case.
LESSON #3: THE ESSENTIALS OF A “LOCKED ROOM” MYSTERY— Part of the enjoyment of Wake Up Dead Man is tracing the clues with Blanc and swimming with the story’s rhythm as a “locked room” mystery. To the unaware, the essentials of this type of mystery plot are a scenario where it appears impossible for the perpetrator to enter and leave the crime scene while committing the deadly deed. The dangerous nature of the unfeasibility opens the door to abnormal supernatural powers or, in this case, the kind of divine intervention preached about in houses of the Lord. Such a realm of possibilities, where so-called miracles mask murder, is an avenue the crassly atheist Blanc refuses to accept in an often frazzled fashion.
Matching the Ana de Armas role in the first Knives Out, Blanc pulls Jed to his side as his guide and host through the secrets of this semi-Gothic setting and multi-faceted felony. Don’t let the big ensemble or “for your consideration” category fraud fool you. This placement makes Wake Up Dead Man Josh O’Connor’s movie more than Daniel Craig’s by a country mile. Jed’s investigative presence rankles the parishioner suspects who already don’t like him, and adds one more weapon of Catholic aura to the film.
LESSON #4: THE CONFRONTATION OF CONFESSION— Ingeniously, Rian Johnson uses the venerable Sacrament of Reconciliation to his advantage as a conversation catalyst and confrontation trigger in Wake Up Dead Man. The act occupies a protected circle of trust that loosens restraint and enhances honesty in return for penance, right in line with Blanc’s parallel belief that “telling the truth can be a bitter herb.” First shared between Jefferson and Jed, sizing each other up and putting the younger man in his place, and then between Jed and others later, whose guilt finally leads to contrition, these provocative sitdowns of confessions lend themselves beautifully to the natural suspense of a murder mystery. In a way, Wake Up Dead Man finds increased stakes in bringing people to two Js: Jesus and justice.
With his now trio of whodunits, Wake Up Dead Man moves with sophisticated smoothness to show off man’s carnal flaws. Rian Johnson’s regular cinematographer and composer, Steve Yedlin and Nathan Johnson, use the tracking and dolly movements of the camera and a twitchy musical score to transform static confrontation scenes into kinetic shifts at the drop of a hat, with daring angles and pivots that twist like the plot. Moreover, Johnson consistently targets social class distinction and does his cinematic version of a shame-shame finger gesture to put the affluent in their place with climactic mistakes that lead to come-back-around denouement karma. Watching deserved comeuppance may be even better comfort food than rooting for fictional decadent murder, and that’s how Rian Johnson storytelling always gets us..
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1354)
