Rian Johnson's WAKE UP DEAD MAN - A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (2025)
It is not all that common to get any American-made film, much less one that has relatively commercial aspirations - the relatively part largely due to this being a Netflix movie that is getting a cursory release (almost over by the time of this writing and on the service by Friday December 12th, but that is commercial nonetheless and given this cast) - to take religious faith and practice very seriously and maturely. You might think that another Benoit Blanc mystery might not be a place to explore how one wrestles and grapples with and can feel outright damned by not only one's faith but faith in humanit, but Rian Johnson takes the story of two Priests at odds at a contentious NY State church and the fallout after one of them is found murdered as seriously as, oh, Martin Scorsese with Silence. (No, really, don't get up and leave, I still have to prostheletize in Blog form!) That could sound like a stretch, but Wake Up, Dead Man is a classic sort of "Smuggler" pic...
