Daniel Craig leads a top-notch cast for another baffling but brilliant Knives Out mystery
Daniel Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc returns — eventually — to crack another mind-bending case in the third instalment of the Knives Out film franchise.
With a welcome return of a beloved whodunit, Russell Crowe’s chilling portrayal of a Nazi leader and a doco about a Swinging Sixties supermodel, there’s plenty on offer at the movies this week.
WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (M)
Director: Rian Johnson (Knives Out)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis.
****
To fully picture a killer, it’s best to start with a Blanc canvas
With the arrival of Wake Up Dead Man, the Knives Out series continues to explore the far reaches of the whodunit universe in search of twists and turns that genuinely bamboozle the mind.
This gripping, intriguing and highly entertaining third instalment effortlessly maintains the same lofty standards set by its predecessors, which will be recommendation enough for the vast legion of followers who have fallen under the Knives Out spell.
As before, our inscrutable guide through the next minefield of invisible clues, covered tracks and obscure motives is the great Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig).
This slow-drawling, quick-thinking super-sleuth of a Southern gentleman elects not to show up in his own movie until the 45-minute mark.
This turns out to be a blessing, as the bizarre case Blanc will later be tasked with cracking needs a lot of pinpoint backgrounding to be properly understood by even the most decorated amateur detectives among us.
In fact, that opening Blanc-free section of Wake Up Dead Man is so riveting (and amusingly inspired) that the real star of the show is barely missed.
Without giving too much away, the case unfolds within a small Catholic Church dominated by a surly, burly priest named Monsignor Jefferson (Josh Brolin).
A hellfire-and-brimstone orator of the old school, Jefferson (who has promoted himself to the exalted rank of Monsignor without the rubber stamp of his overseers) has not taken kindly to the recent arrival of young trainee priest Father Jud (Josh O’Connor).
Where Jefferson bullies and berates his congregation into submission, Jud would rather go with the conventional combo of kindness and compassion.
The war of wills between the pair culminates in the dramatically sudden and gruesomely bloody death of Jefferson during a regular Sunday mass. Jud appears to be the only possible suspect, even though he was nowhere near the deceased as he met his brutal end.
Once a bewildered local police chief (Mila Kunis) gets around to sending out an SOS to Benoit Blanc, the real fun and games truly begin.
As Blanc begins nosing around looking for a secret doorway into the unknown killer’s mind, the meek and mild Jud is joined by a colourful collection of parishioners (led by Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny and a fantastic Glenn Close) in the Logical Suspects Department.
As always with a Knives Out affair, the expert construction of Wake Up Dead Man’s baffling murder teases performances of great wit, treachery and skill from a top-notch cast.
For some who will find themselves questioning Blanc’s unconventional handling of the case, a repeat viewing or two will definitely be required.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is now showing in general release, and premieres exclusively on Netflix on December 12.
NUREMBERG (M)
****
General release.
The Nuremberg trials in the wake of World War II remain a significant flashpoint in the history of law. This was an unprecedented attempt by victorious Allied forces to bestow some base level of humane justice upon individuals who had committed the most inhumane crimes mankind has ever seen. Rather than immediately send all surviving architects of Germany’s vicious fallen regime to the hangman, a US-led coalition of prosecutors brought them to the courtroom to interrogate, chronicle and somehow make sense of the Nazi Party’s collective unspeakable evil. While a subject as complex and wide-reaching as this might better be addressed on screen these days as a multi-part series, this production finds the right ways to tell the Nuremberg story without oversimplifying what truly counts. Anchoring proceedings with impressive gravity is a brilliant performance by Russell Crowe as Hitler’s chillingly charismatic second-in-command, the notorious Hermann Goring. Co-stars Rami Malek, Michael Shannon.
TWIGGY (M)
***1/2
Selected cinemas.
An irrepressibly upbeat, yet quietly insightful doco about the first of the single-name supermodels, the one and only Twiggy. At the age of 16, the everyday teenager once known as Lesley Hornby went from complete unknown to omnipresent face of the Swinging Sixties. With her innocent looks and waiflike figure, Twiggy became the go-to model of choice for every magazine and photographer that mattered. This well-researched production conjures the day-glow spirit of London’s Carnaby Street scene in vivid detail, and those that have lived to tell the tale from those hard-partying times pay tribute to the Twigster’s pioneering career (much more short-lived than many would recall) with just the right mix of warmth and awe. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Twiggy (now known as Dame Lesley Lawson) is still very much with us, and has her own take on past events that is well worth hearing here. A fun, but in no way frivolous experience directed in lively fashion by Sadie Frost (Quant).
Originally published as Daniel Craig leads a top-notch cast for another baffling but brilliant Knives Out mystery
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