The delightful inversion of Knives Out was, to me, the fact that the primary suspect became Watson to the film’s Sherlock. The requirements, in my mind, were simple: a mystery, a suspect, and an unlikely partnership with high stakes for everybody involved.
The genius of it is the way Rian Johnson adds social commentary. Once you start pulling strings at the probability of justice hurtling towards the wrong person, social commentary is almost inevitable.
Glass Onion widely missed the mark for me. It has too much of the latter without any of the former. The only mystery was: why is Blanc here? The murder wasn’t truly revealed until the film is almost over, but the murder should be scene setting.
Wake Up Dead Man feels like a proper sequel. It has what I liked from the first in spades, including social commentary and a stacked cast. Josh O’Connor is fantastic, but he’s been great in everything I’ve seen him in since Emma, so I am not surprised.
The real delight to me is that this is Capital‑F filmmaking. Johnson and cinematographer Steve Yedlin are making real choices here that they couldn’t just correct in post. The lighting is impeccable, its own character in the film, and no doubt required serious planning. And the script is tight as a drum, with smart plotting, intelligent characterization, and like any good mystery, moments that reward you for paying attention.
In a lot of ways, it’s ironic this is on Netflix, because it’s almost entirely antithetical to their values.
I’d love to sit through many more Blanc mysteries. Keep ’em coming, Rian.