‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Review: Rian Johnson’s Latest Puzzlebox Takes Benoit Blanc to Church on an Unholy Whodunit [A-] TIFF
The latest whodunit from writer-director Rian Johnson, Wake Up Dead Man, starts with a confession; not one of guilt or sin, but of absolute truth. Written and told from his perspective, we are introduced to Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a new priest to the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude in the tiny town of Chimney Rock, after being reassigned by a senior member of the clergy (Jeffery Wright, in a delightful cameo) for punching another priest. Rev. Jud was a former boxer and, in a story he tells a couple of times throughout the runtime of the film, he killed a man in the ring during a fight. His rage sent him looking for inner peace and forgiveness for himself for doing such a violent act that tested his very soul, and when he found God, Jud realized his purpose for wanting to heal the world of the evils that make up our everyday lives. His rocky start to the clergy has been well documented, and Chimney Rock is his last chance at redemption and being a valued member of this holy establishment. In setting out for his new church, Jud ends up going on a wild, twisty ride that slowly unravels into the best entry in the Knives Out franchise to date, as Johnson uses the darker influences of the genre, like Edgar Allen Poe and John Dickson Carr, to weave together this richly entertaining mystery.
When Jud arrives, he’s met by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), a towering figure of religious stature in the community of Chimney Rock, who rules over his flock of regular churchgoers with an iron fist. In leaning into Brolin’s usual “normal guy look, bad guy underneath” persona we’ve seen him play in many films (look no further than his excellent work in Weapons from earlier this year), we understand right away that Wicks is not a man that can be trusted. In giving his confession to Jud, Wicks engages in mind games with the young priest, a power grab to tap into the anger that festers not just within the entire town, but within the two men. Jud has his past, which Wicks clearly knows of, but Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), Wick’s most devout follower and record keeper at the church, tells the young priest a story about Wick’s lineage, where a lost family fortune cost the Monsignor not only his grandfather, but his mother as well, from the madness that can come from greed. This event of the past has shaped Wicks into the villain he is today, striking fear into all who cross him, no different than most modern men with a form of power. Johnson has no shied away from tapping into using his franchise to speak about the ongoing political, social issues facing our time, but with Wake Up, he’s elevated himself past the previous entries’ lessons to something more vital: that the fabric of our most sacred institutions are being run by insecure, manipulative men who use their station as a weapon rather than as a tool to help out the wicked world. Jud sees this as Wicks fights him on every turn to try and engage with the members of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, leading the young priest to dabble down the road of his most dangerous thoughts yet, involving a world where Wicks doesn’t exist.
Within this time, we’ve also learned about the rest of the flock of Wick’s regulars: Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), a town doctor whose wife left him, Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), a lawyer who has spent most of her life in Chimney Rock taking care of her half-brother Cy (Daryl McCormack), who’s grown into a failed, GOP politician, Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), an once best-selling author writing a book about Wicks, and Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), a talented concert cellist who suffers from a nerve condition in her legs and is looking for Wicks to give her a miracle so she can play again. They are all wounded sheep needing a shepherd to guide them in the right direction, but instead, they serve at the altar of Wicks, a wolf who uses his sermons as a test of endurance, provoking all who are new, destroying them with pointed insults that leave newcomers running for the exits but fueling his collection of lost souls. Brolin’s performance is nothing short of terrifying, invoking not just the demonizing found from radical mega church leaders, but also a version of an orange-faced political figure who throws gasoline onto a fire every time he opens his mouth. After putting up with it far too long and being thrown out of a secret meeting he walks into involving Wicks and his devotees, Jud confronts the Monsignor, telling him he will bring an end to the madness Wicks is causing to this community once and for all. It’s a timely thing to say (as well as recorded by Cy, who is recording all of Wicks’ life and putting it on YouTube) as the next morning, at the Good Friday morning mass, when he’s done lecturing and steps aside to a small room to collect his breath, Wicks falls down to the ground, stabbed with a sharp object hanging out from his back, killing him instantly. As Jud rushes to his aid, the Monsignor is confirmed dead, and his followers, especially Martha, are convinced that the young Reverend was responsible for the death of their fearless leader.
O’Connor is brilliant throughout the film, but particularly in this first third of the film, as Jud is a man stuck between a (Chimney) rock and a hard place, who seems to be torn apart by his faith, the torment of Wicks, and the discarding of him by a community he’s tried to serve through the eyes of the lord. When he’s considered by Police Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to be the prime suspect, he goes back to the church, praying to god that an answer reveals itself to him so he can clear his innocence from not just the town but also clear his soul. This is when the church doors open and a figure comes walking out of the light, as a hilarious, on-the-nose entrance for Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), the world’s greatest detective, occurs, as he was paged by Chief Scott to come and help with the case, considering its peculiarity. When we last saw Blanc, he was solving the case of a tech billionaire and his closest friends (Glass Onion), with short hair, and the beach as his backdrop to solve that out of this world case. This time, however, he’s grown his hair out, much like how we first saw him on the big screen, with a grizzled look, looking like he hasn’t shaved in a little while. But no matter the change in appearance, Craig is back playing the character he was really born to play, as that thick Southern accent comes in strong as he introduces himself to the troubled priest. In this moment, Johnson uses his known protagonist to open up the film from its dark setup and to poke a stick at the idea of faith, religion, and truth, as Blanc says he’s a “proud heretic” who “kneels at the altar of the rational.” As we see the rest of the film play out and Blanc works alongside Jud to clear his name and catch the killer, we see Johnson brilliantly connect the struggles his characters are facing with the idea of truth and faith.
Fear not to anyone reading this who doesn’t want the second half of inventive mystery revealed, as there will not be any spoilers for the back half of the film in this review, but in watching everything unfold, Rian Johnson does firmly cement not only the legacy of this series as one of the best franchises we have today, but he also ranks as one of the most charming, witty, thoughtful, creative minds we have working in film today. With Wake Up, he expands the scope of what these films are by making it a deeply personal examination of the role faith, religion, facts, fear, anxiety, legacy, service, allegiance has on someone, and how deeply those issues tie into the fabric of a person, leaving them searching for answers, hoping they do the right thing before it’s all too late. Jud and Blanc don’t need to overwhelmingly change one’s viewpoint of the world to emphasize their idea of what the world is, but the clash of personal and religious identity between the two makes for the best on-screen partnership we’ve seen Blanc have yet. O’Connor and Craig have electric, insanely believable chemistry, and with that, the audience can buy into their journey down the rabbit hole with every fun zig and zag along the way. In the thick of the hunt for the killer, we slowly learn a few more things about Blanc, ranging from his take on religion to taste in music, throughout his time in Chimney Rock, as Johnson and Craig continue one of the best parts of this franchise; give us more Blanc backstory. By slowly revealing just enough details about their hero in each film to understand how silly and intelligent his mind and personality are, they give the audience just enough insight into who he is outside of what we see, leaving us intrigued like the characters in the film to know more about this genius man of mystery.
As for the rest of the ensemble, Close is perfectly cast as Martha, who grieves the loss of the Monsignor, the last member of a family she’s sworn to protect as they reign over the church. McCormack and Brolin are a great one-two punch as well as two men who are deeply evil, right-leaning men obsessed with the idea of power, fame, and adoration by those who listen to the noise that comes from their speeches; excellent, eerie work. If there is one complaint with the film, outside of the names mentioned above, it is that Spaeny, Scott, Washington, Renner, and even Thomas Haden Church, who plays Samson, the church groundskeeper, are really given just a single moment to shine and then vanish as the mystery unfolds. A sad feature of an otherwise engaging story is that these talented actors don’t have as much to do as opposed to the previous collections of actors in the first two films.
But even with that minor nitpick, Wake Up Dead Man is the best Knives Out film we’ve seen yet, as Johnson and company pull out all the stops to create a dark, tense, comical, sharply-written mystery that sticks the landing, making Johnson and company three for three with these tricky adventures of Benoit Blanc. What makes this one stand out amongst the others is Johnson, whose films have always tackled personal issues for him before, exploring the idea of faith and what it’s like to wrestle with that as someone who’s struggled with it for most of their adult life. Who do we put our faith and trust in when our world becomes more wicked, unholy, and unrecognizable? It’s a tough question to ask, let alone answer. Yet, Johnson does so by making it clear that the only faith and trust one can have must be in those who see the world as a place of good, as an opportunity to evolve and change in the light of whatever being or dogma we choose to accept. With his franchise, he’s doing that, poking the bear at the political unrest and distrust within our world and making it into a tolerable exercise of how to overcome those demons. Alongside Craig, cinematographer Steve Yedlin, composer Nathan Johnson, and editor Bob Ducsay, Johnson has built the trust with audiences that know how special these films can be and how, if you dig into them, they speak to our times better than most satires or commentaries have. He’s no god himself, but Johnson is someone we can deeply trust right now to provoke and engage the right way in the modern landscape of entertainment, blockbuster filmmaking, and avoiding the sludge that gets turned out every year. So, when the next Benoit Blanc mystery arrives, I’ve got no doubt, all faith in his ability to deliver yet again.
Grade: A-
This review is from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival where Wake Up Dead Man had its world premiere. The film will have a limited theatrical release beginning November 26 before streaming on Netflix December 12.
- Ethan Hawke on How It Was the Right Time To Make ‘Blue Moon’ with Director Richard Linklater [VIDEO INTERVIEW] - December 2, 2025
- Jeremy Allen White on the Responsibility and Hard Work Needed to Transform into The Boss in ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ [VIDEO INTERVIEW] - December 1, 2025
- AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 317 – Oscars Retrospective of the 68th Academy Awards - December 1, 2025
‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Pluribus,’ ‘Task’ and More on AFI’s Top 10 Films and Television of 2025 Lists 
‘Frankenstein’ to Receive Visionary Honor from Palm Springs International Film Awards 
Robert Yeoman to be Honored with American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award 
National Board of Review: ‘One Battle After Another’ Tops in Film, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor; Netflix Lands Four in Top 10