Flasz On Film

Synopsis: A hot-headed former boxer turned priest (Josh O’Connor) is reassigned to a decaying rural parish, where he clashes with its extremist pastor (Josh Brolin)—only to become the prime suspect when the man is murdered during a Good Friday service. As a famed private detective Benoit Blanc investigates, buried secrets about faith, inheritance, and staged miracles surface, revealing a conspiracy that weaponizes resurrection to restore belief while framing the innocent.

Like clockwork, after a seemingly mandatory (though most probably self-imposed) three-year-long gap, a new instalment of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery series starring Daniel Craig as a charming Columbo-meets-Poirot with a Southern drawl has come out on Netflix to give fans of the canonical whodunit genre something to chew on. Following the established tradition of reclaiming titles of rock songs—Knives Out was named after a Radiohead song, while The Glass Onion winked at The Beatles—Wake Up Dead Man tips its hat at U2 as it readies itself to deliver another puzzle box with equal parts seriousness and snark, and a generous helping of relevant political commentary.

Thus, this new, completely standalone addition to the franchise is equally fresh as far as intellectual property goes—after all, it remains one of those rare examples of a long-running franchise disconnected from preexisting cultural entities—as it is familiar in its construction, mechanics and thematic makeup. In short, Wake Up Dead Man, in the tradition of many longstanding whodunit series, is fundamentally indistinguishable from the previous entries and differs only in the content of the story. Which is where the idea of recommending it to anyone boils down to assessing if they enjoyed any of the previous movies in the series (and they should); and if they did, chances are that this one will also register as a net positive in their estimations.

It is quite clear that Johnson and Craig have followed the age-old rule of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and simply assumed that the main driver for the success of a movie with a post-colon subtitle of A Knives Out Mystery is the tried and true combination of Benoit Blanc’s irrefutable swagger, complexity of the murder puzzle and a whiff of timely commentary sprinkled throughout the narrative. All three constituent elements are present in Wake Up Dead Man. Craig’s Blanc is predictably fun to follow around as he attempts to solve a seemingly intractable murder puzzle. The supporting cast including Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington and many others all come together to add dramatic density to the experience while also offering a few jolts of levity here and there. And finally, the movie itself positions itself temporally by referring directly to the rise of online rage bait and weaponization of religiosity sweeping the Western culture, much like The Glass Onion did by tethering its narrative to pandemic realities and the original commented tacitly on the cultural polarization accompanying the Trump presidency Mark 1.

Therefore, Wake Up Dead Man is exactly what you think it is. If only a tad overlong, it is a competent and light on its feet murder mystery with a comedic edge and a slight proclivity towards the macabre that should honestly satisfy any and all fans of the series who have waited patiently over the last three years to reunite with Benoit Blanc for another puzzle-solving engagement. At the same time, it is also abundantly obvious that this movie is not here to reinvent the wheel or attempt anything new and radical. It is an exercise in execution on what has worked well in the past, which unfortunately comes with diminishing returns.

Even though it is competent, well engineered and fundamentally entertaining, Wake Up Dead Man is not going to surprise anyone in any respect. Neither does this movie raise any stakes, which would imply big picture narrative progression found frequently in long-running series, nor does it introduce even a shred of novelty into the proceedings. Is it OK? Depends. There’s nothing wrong with going to the same restaurant multiple times and trying different dishes as long as you enjoy the experience and the food remains good. But expecting a burger joint to suddenly revamp their menu and offer Thai fusion for a change is a fool’s errand.

This movie is a burger plucked out of the menu at “The Knives Out Burger Kitchen.” It has exactly what you think it should have: a burger patty, a bun and cheese. The difference lies in add-ons. And I like burgers when they’re made well. For comparison’s sake, The Thursday Murder Club burger was nearly inedible. This one is just fine. Hell, when the fourth one comes around, I’ll still probably enjoy it. But the more burgers I eat at this place, the less exceptional the experience of eating out is going to feel. After all, variety is the spice of life. And this series seemingly thinks otherwise.