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.)

That's the sort of thing that could just as easily be good direction as actor choice. Regardless, I generally find Renner good or solid in most things, just his character is somewhat underwritten in this one.

It did feel like the first act was a bit too much telling instead of showing, with narration carrying the heavy load of introducing a massive cast of possible victims/murderers. And then after that it was like OK how many of these characters will actually have anything to do besides be jerks? Kerry Washington also didn’t get to say much.

But as soon as Blanc walked through the door it was a good time imo

My wife and stepdaughter were very much like “so when does the movie begin” after about 30 minutes, and I assured them that the table was being set, “just wait”.

Felt like it took at least that long to clear the table too.

It's your fault for not explaining the glory of Josh O'Connor. Xpost.

Thinking about it, I think as a fun movie it was great. Great acting, great visuals, great script.

As a twisty whodunit, I think it worked less well than the other films. It wasn't as though it was unobvious who the killer was pretty much throughout. The question was more how than who, and even the how wasn't much of a surprise.

So to have all these extra characters serving simply as dummy suspects, who weren't given much screentime at all and ultimately served to make this into an ensemble film, I'm not sure it worked on that front.

I know it doesn't matter, but in terms of plot machinations I kept wondering about Wicks' corpse getting from the coroner to Dr. Nat's house. Like, what actually happens between an autopsy and a funeral, and would they ever just turn the body over to the family?

I liked the slow start, personally. Making me wait for Blanc to turn up was a nice touch

The thing about this movie is it actually wrestles with stuff thematically - the conflict between the priest's faith and Blanc's atheism, neither of which are ridiculed - which the first two didn't, they were more wish fulfillment fantasies with obvious goodies and baddies. There's obvious baddies here too obv, but I like that it's got something going on like that. Didn't expect a pinch of Schrader in my cozy murder mystery.

Oh that's definitely its strongest point. And also the satire against Trumpian/far-right radicalisation

Also far-right grifters and opportunists.

Yes, that's always appreciated too, but we got that in the first two as well.

I liked that it didn't give us the big Blanc Uncovers Everything, Grifters Defeated catharsis that part of me was yearning for, and instead at the end ppl still believe whatever they want. It's the only believable way for it to play out in our era.

yeah that’s actually better

for a film, not real life

oh yeah 100. it had a cool, non-judgemental and forgiving tone to it that felt very refreshing

xp to Jordan: They took the body when they put Samson into the coffin, so it would have been released by the police for interment by that point. The real question is where they hid the body when Samson got in the coffin

fine with it as a film - rian needs to put this series aside for at least a good 10 years.

btw I loved this

DJP, that's what I was asking! Not a big deal to elide it but I would have appreciated a quick shot of them awkwardly transporting the body to the basement during the explanation.

Oh got it, I was confused

Feels like they also cut scenes with the author character snidely offering critique of the locked room novels. Also seemed like they were missing some setup for Kerry Washington taking up smoking being a thing?

I did not feel that way about either of those things

I absolutely loved that Mila Kunis was the chief of police

It’s not at all a role I would have imagined her in and she killed it

Her scenes also felt truncated. Like they'd shot her reading the novel and coming up with Eureka moment but remembered she tells everyone this so they cut it, but now you miss her slamming the book down or some dramatic gesture.

I absolutely loved that Mila Kunis was the chief of police

a lot of nice bits that end up in a boring movie

I wonder if some movies do indeed work better on the big screen. For sure I'm less prone to distractions - phones, snacks, pets, pausing, etc. - which forces me to just chill out and take it in. "One Battle After Another," for example, I was mixed on it, but maybe the stuff I liked most on the big screen I wouldn't have liked on the small screen? Dunno.

liked this a bit more than the last one, but also agreed with everyone who thought it was too long and overstuffed. Other than Close, the rest of the ensemble cast were wasted - it's hard to see e.g. what Cailee Spaeny or Andrew Scott's characters brought to the story other than decor.

anyway, making Blanc the POV character was one of the weaknesses of Glass Onion, so I'm also glad they course corrected here - Blanc is best when seen through the eyes of others.

in terms of the movie's depiction of religion, someone mentioned Mike Flanagan upthread - it does feel of a piece with Midnight Mass in that it treats religion seriously but also wary of its potential to corrupt. Midnight Mass is also more explicitly Catholic (although bonus points for having one of the best representations of Islam I've seen in a western TV show)

I enjoyed it on the big screen for the most part, whereas I got a different feeling about Glass Onion, which I watched at home. I strongly feel some films (e.g. Kubricks) really do have to be seen on a big screen to get the right impact.

Not sure about "overstuffed". WUDM is one of those films that manages to be quite long, but feels like key parts, and even whole characters, were brushed over very quickly with just the briefest of exposition.

Even the politician character, and his relationship to his adoptive mother etc, didn't feel much more developed than "He films everything and he's a prick". I did like the few times he got to actually say stuff though.

I went into the film 1) aware of the running lenght and 2) at any rate resigned to the fact that every mainstream release thinks it needs a Lawrence Of Arabia lenght these days anyway, so did not find it overlong at all.

Big screen aside it's much more about not being able to use my phone. Two hours in a dark room is praxis these days, just the slightest damage mitigation for my declining attention span.

Hear that

I think that one thing lacking in the second or third films is an opportunity for the suspects to interact, which really rounded them out in Knives Out - there's two book clubs in this but they're all nervous catching of each other's eyes rather than much interaction. I suppose all three have a situation with a central Bloke - he'a just a lot more absent in the first.

I have to say I'm not sure how it could have been more explicitly Catholic without paying someone to walk through cinemas with a censer - the face to face confessions were a power move, the "four Hail Marys" just the meaningless words that indicate submission - the confession booth is part of a big plot point after all.

On which note, the deployment of Jeffrey Wright as a sort of framing device amused me. It's very effective: when Bishop Monk tells you that someone is a dick, then the matter is settled. I thought it brought a slight Wes Anderson feel that Jud's review was in a gymnasium, a real parole hearing vibe. I get that it's a seminary, but because it's a seminary, it will absolutely have some purpose-built "the bishop will scare the shit out of you now" rooms.

I wonder if working on 1 hour show like poker face messed up sense of timing for feature length. I feel like having 2x the characters means you actually need 4x the time to flesh them out if you use TV show pacing.

I don’t think there was a problem fleshing out the characters. I greatly enjoyed this movie as-is and don’t see how making it 7 hours long would be an improvement

I am looking forward to movie 7 or 8, where halfway through the narrative perspective shifts and we find out that Charlie Cale's been working at the establishment for a week now.

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