There are two types of confession a person can make. There's the one you give to a priest in a confessional, and the one you give in a police station: in this separation of church and state, the former absolves you, while the latter incriminates you. Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in his whodunnit Knives Out series, is interested in both types – and it makes for the most thoughtful entry yet, without losing any of its trademark humor and buoyancy.
Johnson's follow-up to 2022's Glass Onion is a massive upgrade on its predecessor, swapping its limp takedown of tech billionaires for a meatier, more interesting analysis of morality, religion, and the harm we do to each other. This is mostly explored through Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), a young priest who's sent to the small town of Chimney Rock, New York to atone for breaking the jaw of "some asshole deacon [who] said something way out of line." Before he was a priest, Jud was a boxer who spent time on the street, and he's done his best to turn his anger into love for Jesus and others: his whole deal is healing the world, rather than fighting it.
