For movie night this week, we saw Wake Up Dead Man (2025), the third of the Knives Out mysteries starring Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, left), a posh Southern-accented detective who draws inspiration from classic murder writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh.
This one involves Father Jed (Josh O'Connor), a boxer who accidentally killed his opponent in the ring, and became a priest to expiate his guilt. When he loses control and punches an a*hole deacon, he is assigned to a struggling parish in upstate New York.
Left: Exteriors were filmed at the Anglican Church of the Holy Innocents, in Epping Forest, near London, built in 1873, praised as a masterpiece of Gothic Revival architecture.
It is struggling because of Monseigneur Wicks (Josh Brolin). Monseigneur is an honorary title bestowed by the Pope, but this Monseigneur has bestowed it upon himself. He has turned the congregation into an evangelical cult, preaching about the End Times and the War against Christianity, promising eternal damnation to anyone who challenges his authority, and screaming at visitors who he thinks are disobeying God's law: first a single mother, and then a gay couple.
The gay couple is played by HIV activist Hugh Wyld and Matthew Jacobs-Morgan, who runs Coven, a queer bar and art venue in Hackney.
Father Jed thinks that the Church should be about love and forgiveness, a place where "everyone is welcome," but the Monseigneur thinks that this is ridiculous: why would you open the Church to the enemies of God? This is War!
In fact, the Monseigneur has only seven True Believers left:
1. Lee Ross (gay actor Andrew Scott), a formerly best-selling author who has retreated into conspiracy theories, and is currently writing a 6,000 page biography of Monseigneur Wick.
2. Vera Draven, a lawyer who was suddenly told "you're going to raise this boy," with no further explanation.
3. The boy, now grown up, Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack). He tried to jump start a career in politics by blogging against everything the Orange Goblin hates from trans people to Portland, but he couldn't get any doors open. Being black won't help you win over MAGA, buddy.
4. Simone Vivane, a concert cellist who had to give up music due to chronic pain, and is handing over thousands of dollars in the hope that Wick will cure her. Faith healing is evangelical thing, not really Catholic.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit.
5. Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), the town physician, who is upset over his wife leaving him, moves into sexist and incel rhetoric, and has a bathtub full of acid in his basement.
6. Martha Delacroix (Glen Close), an elderly woman who acts as Wicks' secretary. She has been a disciple since he was a child, being raised by his priest-grandfather and "harlot whore" mother.
7. Samson Holt (Thomas Hadden Church), the groundskeeper, and Martha's boyfriend.
On Palm Sunday, Father Jud holds a prayer meeting (also evangelical, not Catholic). The parishioners think that he got the Monseigneur's permission first -- he didn't. The Monseigneur bursts in, calls them all traitors and Judases, and ejects Father Jud from the parsonage.
Father Jud seeks the advice of his friend Nicolai (Noah Segan), who runs a bar with a devil motif. What do you do when your superior priest has become an authoritarian cult leader? Call the bishop? He's so upset that he accidentally breaks off a devil's head from one of the lamps, but Nicolai says not to worry about it -- he doesn't even like the devil motif. Father Jud takes it back to the church and throws it at an imaginary Monseigneur.
Left: the Father's cock and butt.
During the Easter service, Wick goes into a little room off the nave where he recharges (and drinks), and is stabbed to death -- by the devil's head that Father Jud broke off!Except the room was locked from the inside, and no one could have gotten in and out without True Believers noticing.
So whodunit? Surely not Father Jud, the guy we've been rooting for, who's all about love and forgiveness, and would welcome that gay couple to the church. But why would one or more of the True Believers murder their Messiah? And how? There are ample plot twists and red herrings, plus secret messages, hidden rooms, a maguffin, a resurrection ,and some nice musings on faith and reason.
Beefcake: None, unless you count the Monseigneur's body on the autopsy table.
Heterosexism: Only the evil guys express any heterosexual interest.
Gay Characters: The gay couple turned away from the church. Benoit himself is gay (and had a partner in Glass Onion), but it is not mentioned here, unless you count criticizing the Church for its homophobia.
He has an affectionate, hand-on-shoulder, "are you all right?" relationship with Father Jud, but I think it's more paternal.
Father Jud doesn't mention any heterosexual relationships in his past, before he became a priest, so we can easily identify him as gay also.
Catholicism: Some of the trappings of the Roman Catholic Church, including a giant crucifix, but a lot of Evangelical practices and vocabulary.
My Grade: B+.
Bonus: a priest getting there. I think he's just a model in a priest outfit.
Jeremy Renner: A gay serial killer, some gay subtext roles, some homophobia, and a j/o video
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