Knives Out: Wake up, Dead Man

[Max Magee]

The third installment of the Rian Johnson series of detective films (Knives Out, Glass Onion) is apparently only in theaters for the next week, before it will only be available on Netflix.

Well, during the discussion of The Irregulars tonight, we made a plan to see the film before it leaves theaters...and so, Monday night (tomorrow) at 7pm at Flix Brewpub at East Town is the favored date/time.

All are welcome to join us. I've heard good things and was planning to see it later (over the holidays), but I don't think it'll be in theaters then!

For those who haven't been, Flix is a really fun spot for dinner and a movie. They have a full bar and you can order from your seat.

Max
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Max "Magic Jezail Bullet" Magee (he/him)
Notorious Canary-Trainer of Madison Wisconsin
Torist International of Chicago Illinois
Norwegian Explorer of Minnesota

On Thu, Oct 10, 2024, 2:29 PM Max Magee <maxp...@gmail.com> wrote:

Long ago and not too far away, we met to be social, watch movies, to play games, we called this group the Comrades of the Order.

Then a pandemic hit and we went virtual and that group morphed into a virtual reading group called the Diogenes Club.

Well I'm reaching out to both groups, particularly locals but also semi-remote folks, who may be in the area in the next month and a half to suggest that we get an in-person group to attend an upcoming play that looks fun and topical: Murder Girl, playing November 7-24th. Tickets range from about $15-30, at the Overture Center (one of the smaller theaters).
https://forwardtheater.com/show/murder-girl/

I haven't read much about it, but I've been wanting to support local theatre even more since the pandemic restrictions have been lifted and this seems like a fun way to do that. I'm casting a wide net, yet again, in case anyone who doesn't traditionally join these group exercises has a change of heart or is new to the group email list.

Respond affirmatively to me directly and I'll add you to a group email chain as we plan dates, details, and tickets—I won't bug you again about this if you don't reply. (And no, I don't expect folks to fly in from across the country for this, but sometimes it's nice to be invited, even if you can't make it.)

Max

[Max Magee]

I should've mentioned it here, but I've already got RSVP-Yes from Dave and Johanna, but if anyone else would like to attend (and want to go in on a group purchase so we can grab a bunch of seats together) let me know before about noon today, when I'll be making the purchase.

For those of you who have expressed regrets already, I'm sorry the time doesn't work for you—if it worked better, there's also a 3pm showing today and the theatre is EMPTY.

Max

[Max Magee]

The post-mortem, so to speak, of the film:

The movie itself was very good. There were a lot of amusing scenes, a lot of call-backs to golden age mysteries (one particular John Dickson Carr was a heavy inspiration for the murder in the film). The pre-film snippets from both Ustinov and Branagh Poirot films were fun. Flix is one of those fun theaters that if you haven't been, you should make a sojourn just to check it out. They often have theme nights (last night they had a "secret" Christmas film that has some tangential relationship to the holidays, but the title isn't announced—it was Catch me if you Can, and I think I remember Gilbert Grape's dad, Christopher Walken, had a pathetic synthetic Christmas tree in his tiny apartment).

Anyhow, they offer $5.55 films every Wednesday (but they're closed today for a employee appreciation party, which is a neat idea), and they often show movies you won't be able to see on the big screen anywhere else. 

Speaking of which, I feel like there were at least two scenes that were better in the big screen (and surround sound) but if you have a decent sound system at home, I think you'll experience similar results. One was really disorienting and (a bit later) everyone in the theater was cracking up. It was a really fun crowd experience.

I definitely think it was worth the price of admission/hassle of leaving the house to go, and we had a nice time. Johanna wasn't feeling well, so it ended up being a double-date with Dave, me and our wives (I will leave it to your imagination who was dating whom). I ordered their Kobe bacon muenster (I think) burger that was $20 including fries, and I definitely would've preferred their $8 cheeseburger. Oh well, it could've been my favorite, and the server was SO complementary of it (he said he ate one for dinner the last three days), I had to try it.

That film is a long one, though (2h 24m but it only felt like 2h 12m), and it kept me up past my bedtime, for sure. I did nod through the final dramatic reveal scenes, so I too, will likely watch at least some of it on Netflix! Both my wife and I were reminded of Midnight Mass, the 2021 Netflix miniseries—if you want something to watch before Wake Up Dead Man is out on the small screen, give that a watch. It's horror, but more than that, it's a very atmospheric, psychological thriller, which, in part is what reminded us of it in WUDM.

About the specifics of the film, it was a fun ensemble cast, but I would say not as much fun as Glass Onion. The atmosphere was moody and pretty depressing (although the scene were Benoit Blanc is introduced to our protagonist was lit so beautifully, it was almost worth the price of admission to see it projected in full-scale). The mystery wasn't much of one, but there were enough clever little bobs and weaves to keep it interesting—I really liked a lot of the main ensemble actors (Glenn Close played a really creepy character pretty well, and I REALLY loved Thomas Haden Church in this—my second favorite of his appearances after Sideways, I think).

Recommendation: watch it, (but maybe not if it keeps you up past your bedtime).

Max