Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

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⭐8.5/10

I'm a big fan of these and will watch anything Rian Johnson wants to make. It's kinda the quintessential Netflix movie: sharp writing, entertaining, a little modern moralizing, looks good not great, and you'll love your time watching it but forget about it in a week. Nothing wrong with that! 

Like Tim mentioned, this one has faith at the center, and I do like that this topic is being tackled my modern voices in interesting ways. This is the second movie I've watched this year with a good-hearted priest as the protagonist, and it's a trend I can get behind. It beats the assumption that priests are pedophiles or homophobes, though this movie makes clear that there is certainly plenty of those too. All of this is to say that I liked the non-mystery elements of this movie. There were lots of great and interesting characters, led by Josh O'Connor, and some genuinely touching moments. 

The mystery wasn't bad either. I think Rian Johnson is about as talented a writer/director as we have, but I do think that you can't think too hard about his scripts. I'm not sure if there were huge plot holes, but I do think there were tons of silly coincidences, or contrived moments created in an attempt to make everything click. I get that it's a tall task as this movie has a million moving parts, all intertwining and intersecting, but the more I think about this movie, the less it makes sense. 

I also thought it has some sillier, campier moments, but in retrospect I think that's actually a good thing. This movie shouldn't be too grounded. It's not some hard-boiled detective movie, it's a bit of Christie-inspired sleuthing - it should be a bit whacky! Definitely a few laughs to be had, it just takes a bit of punch out of the mystery. 

So anyways, this is a super easy recommendation because it's impossible to not love. I don't think it's perfect, but it sure is entertaining with some nice messaging.

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