WAKE UP DEAD MAN: more Benoit Blanc Benoit Blancing via Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig, due 2025

As noted here:

https://x.com/rianjohnson/status/1794005920898502741

After all these years, it’s the first time U2’s Pop has had any influence on the culture at large…

Radiohead, Beatles, U2

i cannot believe anyone watched glass onion and wanted more of this

it won't surprise you to learn that U2 bit that title from an old blues song

i cannot believe anyone watched glass onion and wanted more of this

The first film was fun. The actors and director had fun making it. Audiences had fun watching it. It grossed beaucoup bucks. The makers concluded from this that a sequel would earn beaucoup bucks and all they had to do was repeat the formula, have fun and entertain themselves.

They forgot the part about audiences having fun. The sequel grossed beaucoup bucks anyway. The makers drew one important conclusion from this. Maybe they'll be proved right.

The sequel grossed beaucoup bucks anyway.

citation needed

i think Netflix said it did well for them

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/64RTtSZP6SA/hqdefault.jpg

yeah 2nd one only made 15 million at the box office but it was barely in theaters. It seemed to be popular on netflix despite no-one I personally know liking it

Yeah the theatrical run was I think over a Thanksgiving weekend and only in select theaters, typical Netflix stuff. Seemed like a self-own to me on that front.

I didn't really like either one but I thought Glass Onion was more fun. The wrestler in a banana hammock was funnier than anything in Knives Out.

Okay various cast members have been announced over the past week:

Cailee Spaeny
Josh O'Connor
Andrew Scott
Jeremy Renner
Mila Kunis
Glenn Close
Kerry Washington
Daryl McCormack

Plus rumor mill says Tom Hardy and Lindsay Lohan, which would be a combo.

And we got first teaser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRqU2276eaQ

!

This series has no fear of being corny af. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Been catching up on Poker Face and thinking about how Gen X Rian Johnson's reference points are — this real love of '70s pop entertainment, the murder mysteries and detective shows.

My not-so-measured opinion on this is that I’m certain I will love it, any haters can gargle on my nutsack for all I care

Don’t understand the hate for Glass Onion

there are some very well considered answers to that question on the other thread, Boring

Glass Onion was way better than Knives Out, maybe this will rise above occasionally amusing.

whaat

is there a missing comma? or is it like part of a to-do list?

tuesday:
get coffee
drop off e-waste at city recycling center
wake up dead man
lunch with terry

take it up with mr b. vox

I should maybe take this to the other thread, but one of things I appreciated about Glass Onion is that they didn't have to make a second film, and when they did, they could have made Knives Out II, and they didn't, it was very much its own thing. I'm looking forward to seeing what this is - maybe it'll be their A Haunting in Venice!

I sincerely hope the twist doesn't hinge on the missing comma

Wake up dead, man...

Seeing raves for Josh O'Connor's performance.

rewatching glass onion and it seems kind of like poker face season 2 to season 1, sillier, looser, ultimately less satisfactory but still quite enjoyable

Okay, new trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHM1K1JByBI

locked room mystery, I'm in

One last trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hc8yz5-d5Y

But, repeating myself from elsewhere as I just saw an early screening: three for three, Johnson and Craig et al can do wrong, completely right at my mental pleasure center once more when it comes to ensembles, whodunits, the whole nine yards. The accent's as thick/wonderful/crazy as ever, the meta is there once more in the best way, Josh O'Connor holds his own very well, deeply hilarious when it needs to be, harrowing when it needs to be. The vibe is spooky story as much as anything else, and it's a treat. It is also, without being a faith-based film at all, easily one of the most engaging and serious religious films I've seen in quite a while, overtly Catholic by default (all the more striking given Johnson was raised Evangelical) but beyond that, while at the same time I know my hardcore atheist mom will love it as much as my firmly Anglican dad will and the relaxed agnostic in me appreciated it all. Fun cameos too. I hope they make a million more of these in whatever way they want to go.

Seeing this with extended family first thing Wednesday morning!

Rian Johnson let slip on bluesky that he passed on a Benoit Blanc + Muppets mystery

that would be so great omg.

I don’t think it was anything formal, just that he was aware of the meme and didn’t think it would actually work.

he’s wrong

maybe he’s saving up that move for a foghorn leghorn joint

that's what a cold winter night is made for, cozying up and enjoying a foghorn leghorn joint.

Liked this one. Easily the most (sorry) soulful of the three.

There it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJxzhUAGBDw

Meantime, I quite like this. (Read it only after you've seen the film.)

I need to see this a second time

Okay, today's the Netflix day.

ooh thx

Netflix Day, the Day of Light

is Josh O'Connor nude in it

only if you believe in it

The Masterbehind

But, anyway, his performance caps a remarkable year: four distinct performances.

Truly. (And if you want to do a double feature, The Mastermind just landed at MUBI today in turn.)

It would be the fifth Charlie Cale by then though, we mightn’t even know who’s playing them

I really liked this, especially the Louise phone call.

It did feel not-so-much overstuffed but that there was perhaps too much of the best parts (Monsigneur and Father) and not enough of the parts that ended up being not-best (because they weren’t fleshed out enough) (the line of potential suspects)

Both Damascus moments seemed unnecessary and yet irremovable from the DNA of the plot

Second Damascus moment not unecessary at all imo! Unecessary to the mystery perhaps, but important thematically - it shows Blanc has developed respect for the priest's role (without renouncing his atheism) and sets him up for the moment of grace.

Oh no, it was intrinsic to the plotting— but it did (on my first viewing) feel like another speed bump in the pacing. It was an effective dovetail from Father Jud’s insistence that he “turn himself in”, bc grace etc.

This also felt like there was a scene missing telegraphing it. It could have been as small as an insert shot of Blanc having vague facial gymnastics that he goes through again as he processes the phone call scene, but maybe they didn't want to break from the flow.

ty for new dn

glenn close was really good in this. was a pretty good time overall, wish we had a little more between the two preachers, and maybe a tiny bit more focus on the ensemble but the emphasis on josh o’connor’s moral journey grounded this film a lot more than glass onion. i liked ana de armas in the first film, but she was basically a saint, while o’connor was a lot more complex

Glenn Close's performance was judt hammy enough without pushing it too hard

yup

I kept saying things like “oh, hey, [name of actor], glad to actually see you on screen” out loud

Like, I hadn’t seen Church or Renner or Close in anything in forever (I know they’ve all done stuff lately, it’s just stuff I haven’t watched)

yea andrew scott and cailee spaeny didn’t too much, which is too bad, and jeremy “facial muscles still recovering from catastrophic accident” renner was too vital to the plot for the impact he made on screen

should’ve switched scott and renner’s roles, maybe

A good interview from the National Catholic Reporter (I don't imagine it's hard to drag this information out of Johnson on this press tour, but I suspect not many are asking) https://www.ncronline.org/culture/very-catholic-knives-out-rian-johnson-talks-priests-forgiveness-and-complicated-faith

Enjoyed this, tho damn was I feeling the runtime by the end. Beautifully shot, even if we saw that one of the forest a few too many times. Jud’s active & sincere embracing of his social role while working thru his conflicted feelings was a highlight.

I kinda wish there was a few more jokes(the staircase bit near the end was great), and maybe a few less namedrops of culture war shit that marks it such a 2023-24 script.

Also, are MLB games still actually getting analog over-the-air broadcasts?

maybe a few less namedrops of culture war shit that marks it such a 2023-24 script.

the teenage twitter nazi in Knives Out is feeling pretty timeless, eight years after the script was finished

Yes, and I feel like this franchise from the get go has had "murder mystery setting for highly topical satire" baked into the pitch. If anything this one dials that back a bit from Glass Onion.

really enjoyed this and found it very moving as a lapsed catholic, maybe hitting harder since I was recently immersed in deeply catholic rituals after my father passed away. He would have really loved this one.

It was also vv funny in places of course and also exceptionally acted by the two leads. I like the on-point topicality, it’s better for going big with it. big lols at Cy’s rundown of the issues he focused on in his campaign.

I liked this one most of the three - great performances from O'Connor and Close, hung together well thematically - but do agree the secondary characters barely got any time

Watched it for the second time yesterday with the family. Very satisfying to rewatch knowing all, and getting to see others speculate.

Can someone refresh my hazy memory - did Blanc actually solve the mystery in 1 or 2? I was surprised when he actually had a clue this time.

Yes in 1, the same "yanking the protagonist back from a confession" as in this. Also in 2, both mysteries, though he is not the instrument of Justice there (but he does set it up)

It reminded me a lot of the Father Brown stories

― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, December 14, 2025 7:26 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I recommend Father Brown, Detective (Sedgwick, 1934), released this year by Kino Lorber (https://kinolorber.com/product/father-brown-detective).

I watched WUDM with my mother and sister (we saw the previous two movies on Christmas Day). This time around I wasn't as enthused. And I still don't quite understand how they faked Wicks' death enough to fool the police; "hitherto undiscovered poisons" would violate the Ronald Knox "10 Commandments of Detective Fiction." And in this context it's interesting that Knox was a Catholic priest as well as a mystery writer. Coincidence or...?

I've already proven that I don't understand these movies but IIRC they didn't fake Wicks's death, the doctor stabbed him while he was in a drugged sleep.

Oh, I am fascinated by the prospect of that, thank you j.lu - mostly because the first Father Brown story is such an odd one to adapt, it's pretty much entirely actionless.

Yeah the drug was to make him pass out and collapse, and seemingly die moments before he was actually stabbed to death.

Tbf the setup was so convincing that I still, still, remained sure that Wicks wasn’t dead even after Blanc assured us all that he was “as a doornail”

was quite disappointing on the first watch, there are some really good bits here and there but the pace was weird, and the main mystery kinda lost steam towards the end. not sure if the misdirection ("did wicks plan the whole thing himself?") was supposed to make it more interesting, but it turned into "how did they do it" instead of "who did it", and i think that's because the suspects ensemble wasn't given enough or interesting enough background stories.

there was also almost no interaction between them, unlike the first two movies where there were interesting dynamics between all the characters. it did make me realize that even though each movie tells a distinctly different story, they all are based on a group of parasitic characters who are dependent in some way on a central patriarch character. but that dependency wasn't fleshed out enough in Dead Man, so the stakes felt lower.

it'll probably be a better movie on a second watch, i didn't like Glass Onion the first time but did the second - once you don't care about the mystery, you can just enjoy all the little details, the sets and the delivery.

Blanc’s “hello?!” when he comes in the church is one of the funniest things I’ve seen this year

https://www.avclub.com/gji-rian-johnson-wake-up-dead-man-rickroll

this was definitely my favorite of the 3. has a little more to chew on and the best staging for the mystery

saw this last night. enjoyed knives out, really didn't like glass onion, thought this was marginally better than glass onion, but not by an awful lot.

scanner darkly otm about the group. there is no interaction between them and blanc, or the investigation at all really. so you just go between them... not doing much actually, just sort of sitting there, in a pew or a drawing room... and daniel craig chewing scenery. he even says just before the funeral 'i'm going to interview the suspects' and then... that doesn't happen? he just watches the video of them being burned by Wicks and they vamoose. and blanc's slightly panicky 'screwball' (not actually) rushing around is at odds with his 'inevitably his actions lead in an arc to the solution' philosophy. the story was not put together with any substance or construction, so came across as very creaky, though I think might have been told well if put together differently, even if motive and action were very weakly substantiated in Glenn Close and the doctor.

i will happily watch josh o'connor in anything really - he's got a sort of wonderful '70s feel to him, a bit like Donald Sutherland in some respects - though even his performance seemed badly directed or acted - pent up bruiser, convert to god, fine - embarrassed giggler and hider from *events*? doesn't go.

a matter of curiosity - I thought the religion stuff, the battle between brimstone and grace, blanc's decision to make himself look foolish, was quite well done - very Chesterton/Father Brown.

but generally, no planning, no order, heavily reliant on ham acting from famous faces. rather a coked-up sort of film in terms of editing and style, or is that in some way a matter of playing to social media? it all felt very surface, with little evident construction beneath.

The Hollow Man is exemplary in these regards – wonderful atmosphere, not one but two central mysteries that seem impossible, each member of the group of suspects with slightly occult concerns. I'll put the opening of that here as a way of retrieving something from what i thought was a disappointing film:

To the murder of Professor Grimaud, and later the equally incredible crime in Cagliostro Street, many fantastic terms could be applied – with reason. Those of Dr Fell’s friends who like impossible situations will not find in his casebook any puzzle more baffling or more terrifying. Thus: two murders were committed, in such fashion that the murderer must not only have been invisible, but lighter than air. According to the evidence, this person killed his first victim and literally disappeared. Again according to the evidence, he killed his second victim in the middle of an empty street, with watchers at either end; yet not a soul saw him, and no footprint appeared in the snow.

i will happily watch josh o'connor in anything really - he's got a sort of wonderful '70s feel to him, a bit like Donald Sutherland in some respects - though even his performance seemed badly directed or acted - pent up bruiser, convert to god, fine - embarrassed giggler and hider from *events*? doesn't go.

?

sorry, too many dashes. i found his performance to have too many incongruous elements. he nervously giggles a few times in response to awkward situations, runs away from a book being thrown at him, hides from the cadaver. it didn't jibe with the rest of his character for me.

On the contrary, those mannerisms seem exactly in character. *shrugs*

Those are the exact things I loved about O’Connor’s performance - not just the “intense young man” stuff but the equally adept (and integrated) comic moments - the whole package.

I enjoyed this but agree the other suspects were (mostly) boring. And Johnson is a great gag writer, but you want to hold him and tell him it’s okay to have three minutes pass without a joke

Loved Close.

i’m not sure i’ll watch it again to be able to reassess o’connor’s character, but noted!

but it turned into "how did they do it" instead of "who did it",

in a Benoit Blanc movie???!

best mysteries typically have a combination of both, but here i didn't particularly care for who did it, since the suspects were all essentially not much more than pencil outlines. i mean, christie has the same problem, yet somehow makes you care about _who_ did it.

the first movie is probably the closest to a classic murder mystery. i do appreciate all the calls out to the classic tropes (the love rain johnson has for the classics / the 10 rules etc clearly coming across is one of the best things about these movies imo, all the inner jokes / references, not just the stuff that gets explicitly referenced like the Hollow Man), but that's why it's all the more disappointing.

Knives Out > Dead Man > Glass Onion

Honestly I kinda think this is the best one.

a better movie? sure. a better mystery? i don't think it beats the first one.

Yeah, Knives>Dead>Glass. All good and fun but this is the only one with depth, too.

Dead Man has the most heart

I think the background characters having a bit more weight in the first movie (particularly JLC and Don Johnson, a great sick-minded pairing) made the ending feel more exciting and genuinely up for grabs. This time I found myself thinking “well, it’s going to be pretty disappointing if it’s Olivia Pope…”

But the very last scene between O’Connor and Close, part-pushing, part-twisting the knife - to get her to talk about Wicks’s mother - amazing

I don't care about mysteries really, well I enjoy the "aha" moment of realisation when all is explained but I don't spend the time before that trying to figure shit out, I don't come to a movie for work.

I don't come to a movie for _work_.

that’s why I gave up reading Ulysses

Haha fair, but the things you learn from decrypting Ulysses are imo more interesting.

Interesting to see the Church exterior at least is in a location I was driven to a lot when I was in London. Next to a wooded area that family liked to walk in. I can't remember if I was ever inside it though. But the area around it is nice.