Reviewed on 27-NOV-25
Continuing to be inspired by song, this latest Knives Out instalment takes its name from the closing song of U2’s 1997 rather rushed and maligned Pop album. For a collection of electronic-tinged and attempts at playful tunes, it’s actually a haunting, sober prayer to Jesus about a “fucked-up world” from Bono over a sparse, bluesy Edge guitar riff.
This film is meticulously written, exquisitely filmed, and tremendously performed under the supervision of the consistently impressive Rian Johnson. This new cast of fresh (in particular, Challengers’ Josh O’Connor as a struggling young priest sent to work with a stodgy old potential heretic) and familiar talent (the always dependable Josh Brolin and Glenn Close, plus recovering sexy priest Andrew Scott), all congregating around Daniel Craig as the series’ voice of rationality, Benoit Blanc. Taking its cues from classic mysteries (in particular, John Dickson Carr’s 1935 locked-room novel The Hollow Man a.k.a. The Three Coffins) it also contains modern flourishes like a right-wing influencer, motion-sensor cameras, and talk of a knife-wielding robot.
This is a religious movie in the same, if not better, way U2 is a Christian rock band. Sure, there’s a church and priests and a congregation, but it’s really about community, leadership, empathy, and forgiveness. Less about the historical facts and fictions, rigid and condemning beliefs, or the bureaucracy and institution of it all. While the artifice of Christianity is all there on the surface, out in the open, deep down it’s simply a very human story, full of realistic struggles, and wrestling with all our fallible perceptions and messy faults but packaged in a murder mystery. It’ll take you on a journey from fortitude to grace, with some genuine laughs and potential tears. I have faith that more of these meta mysteries would continue to be a revelation. 💀
Continuing to be inspired by song, this latest Knives Out instalment takes its name from the closing song of U2’s 1997 rather rushed and maligned Pop album. For a collection of electronic-tinged and attempts at playful tunes, it’s actually a haunting, sober prayer to Jesus about a “fucked-up world” from Bono over a sparse, bluesy Edge guitar riff.
This film is meticulously written, exquisitely filmed, and tremendously performed under the supervision of the consistently impressive Rian Johnson. This new cast of fresh (in particular, Challengers’ Josh O’Connor as a struggling young priest sent to work with a stodgy old potential heretic) and familiar talent (the always dependable Josh Brolin and Glenn Close, plus recovering sexy priest Andrew Scott), all congregating around Daniel Craig as the series’ voice of rationality, Benoit Blanc. Taking its cues from classic mysteries (in particular, John Dickson Carr’s 1935 locked-room novel The Hollow Man a.k.a. The Three Coffins) it also contains modern flourishes like a right-wing influencer, motion-sensor cameras, and talk of a knife-wielding robot.
This is a religious movie in the same, if not better, way U2 is a Christian rock band. Sure, there’s a church and priests and a congregation, but it’s really about community, leadership, empathy, and forgiveness. Less about the historical facts and fictions, rigid and condemning beliefs, or the bureaucracy and institution of it all. While the artifice of Christianity is all there on the surface, out in the open, deep down it’s simply a very human story, full of realistic struggles, and wrestling with all our fallible perceptions and messy faults but packaged in a murder mystery. It’ll take you on a journey from fortitude to grace, with some genuine laughs and potential tears. I have faith that more of these meta mysteries would continue to be a revelation. 💀