Wake Up Dead Man takes on the ‘Southern Gothic mystery’ genre with thematic and thrilling aplomb.
Very minor spoilers because it’s difficult to write about a ‘whodunnit’ without revealing a few details but I’ll do my best to keep things as vague as possible.
If Knives Out was a commentary on class warfare wrapped in a sleepy upstate murder-mystery and Glass Onion was a deconstructed skewering of tech billionaires and mystery movies, Wake Up Dead Man is director/writer Rian Johnson’s critical look at religion and faith through the lens of a Southern Gothic-inspired ‘locked room’ whodunnit.
The first hour or so of this latest mystery focuses on Reverend Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a former boxer seeking redemption through Christianity after accidentally killing a man in the ring. Assigned to Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a church run by the rage-bait coded Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), Jud realises this is a small yet very tight-knit flock filled with damaged people seeking salvation but never managing to grasp it.
When Wicks turns up dead with no reasonable explanation as to how or why, Jud becomes a suspect, along with the aforementioned flock: longtime church employee Martha (Glenn Close), her partner and church handyman Samson (Thomas Haden Church), trodden upon lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington), her wannabe politician-turned-GOP-influencer adopted son Cy (Daryl McCormack), MAGA-tinged author Lee (Andrew Scott), drunken sad sack and local doctor Nat (Jeremy Renner), and the desperate former cellist Simone (Cailee Spaeny).
Enter Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to solve this seemingly impossible murder case.
Wake Up Dead Man reaffirms why Johnson is a master of tone and genre storytelling. This is such a bloody (pun intended) fun and entertaining ‘whodunnit’ from start to finish. Johnson’s writing is as sharp as it’s ever been and he understands the hook of a good whodunnit isn’t the ‘who’ of it all but the ‘why’. And boy does he go deep on the ‘why’.
This is a movie that’s unafraid to hold a critical – if unsubtle – mirror to ‘Murica’s so-ridiculous-it-can-no-longer-be-satirised political and Christianity-coated landscape circa 2025. Wicks is a blatant Trump/MAGA leader figure while the tight-knit church community represents the various ‘Murican archetypes who have been suckered into the MAGAsphere. Johnson doesn’t shy away from pointing out the layers of hypocrisy from all parties, but he also acknowledges the powerful role religion can play in people’s lives.
It’s also clear he’s working through some serious stuff in Wake Up Dead Man that stems from his complicated relationship with Christianity and this is reflected in how Blanc himself is woven into the thematic fabric. Being a queer man who grew up in the southern parts of ‘Murica where the gene pool is closer to a puddle, it’s perhaps no surprise that Blanc is a staunch atheist who plants his (rainbow) flag in the land of science and rationality. The clash between belief and atheism is a fascinating dynamic, and it’s super fun watching Blanc navigate it.
Johnson ultimately lands in the surprisingly positive region of “Christianity is messed up and filled with bad people, but if you find comfort in it then that’s totally okay too.” One could argue Johnson might’ve squeezed too much into his script as a couple of digs – like Cy hilariously recounting how he covered every hot button topic, from trans rights to vaccines, on his failed political campaign – don’t land as hard as they should, but these function as funny jokes nonetheless, so you can wave it off as just a throwaway and not think too hard about it.
What makes all this commentary and enjoyment land is having an absolute murderer’s row (pun intended, again) of top-tier talent filling out the cast.
Josh O’Connor is perfect as Jud as he has an innate charisma where he can command the screen and make you believe he’s a skeptic who’s genuinely trying to find a path to Jesus amidst a sea of dishonesty. Jud functions as both a secondary protagonist, an audience surrogate, and a pseudo-Watson to Blanc, and he absolutely nails each role he’s asked to play.
The rest of the supporting cast is fantastic, especially Brolin and Close. With Weapons, The Running Man, and now Wake Up Dead Man under his belt, Brolin has had a hell of a 2025 and Wicks shows how just perfect he is as a supporting scene-stealer (and dick joke teller). Close really hams it up in all the best ways as a crazy devout church lady with her own axe to grind in the wider story.
And of course, Craig’s Blanc is once again just so much fun to watch. He fills more of the connective tissue role in this movie, but he still manages to bring new elements to Blanc’s character that surprise and delight in equal measure. Plus, his detective-sidekick dynamic with Jud is just *chef’s kiss*.
The only slight downside to having such a large cast is that not everyone gets as many moments to shine as they should. I would’ve loved to see more of how Lee fell down the MAGA-hole or a deeper look into how Simone’s desperation drove her to religion. But there’s unfortunately only so much screentime they can realistically have in a movie with so many characters.
It’s been a packed year for movies satirising ‘Murica and its numerous shortcomings, and Rian Johnson has managed to surprise us once again with a fantastic murder mystery that’s as heady and smart as it is entertaining. He has sharpened his knife to a fine edge with Wake Up Dead Man and having wondered how he’d top himself after Knives Out and Glass Onion, it’s time that I stop doubting and just have faith in the man.