Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) * * *

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church, Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright, Mila Kunis, Daryl McCormack, Cailee Spaeny

Wake Up Dead Man isn't simply a murder mystery, which would be compelling enough, but delves into spirituality and morality in the wake of modern politics.  What's the Catholic Church's place in all of this?  Wake Up Dead Man, in the best Agatha Christie tradition, rounds up a stellar cast and has them all appear guilty and motivated in the murder of rabid Monsignor Wicks (Brolin), who is found stabbed to death in his church.  Detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) is on the case and is soon interrogating everyone while navigating the story's twists and turns, of which there are many as per usual in this genre.

Craig approaches Blanc with more of a playfulness than in the previous two Knives Out iterations.  O'Connor's Father Jud does more of the heavy lifting as he assists Blanc in the investigation.  There is no shortage of suspects among the church's dwindling parishioners including Wicks' lifelong, loyal secretary Martha (Close), a controversial town doctor (Renner), the quiet groundskeeper (Church), an author looking for inspiration for his next novel (Scott), another woman who believes Wicks can cure her constant pain (Spaeny), and the list goes on.  

Then about halfway through, Wake Up Dead Man throws a curveball which I won't reveal but makes a certain amount of sense considering Wicks is murdered on Good Friday.  This crime seems to be the most puzzling to Blanc and may contain spiritual or miraculous elements.   Is what happens a true miracle or another plot?  No matter what, Wake Up Dead Man, even with its length which could've been trimmed by about fifteen minutes, continues the Knives Out tradition faithfully. 

Ella McCay (2025) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  James L. Brooks

Starring:  Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Albert Brooks, Rebecca Hall, Jack Lowden, Spike Fearn, Ayo Edeberi

Ella McCay takes place in 2008 and feels like a throwback not just to a calmer (sort of) political environment but to feel-good romantic comedies from the 1980's.  James L. Brooks wrote and directed Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, all three films featured harried characters who can't find time for love because life is getting in the way.  

But Ella McCay lacks the life of Brooks' earlier comedies.  He tries to recreate the formula and stocks it full of accomplished actors and an upbeat score by Hans Zimmer, but it's only successful in spurts while creating a villain in Ella's husband out of nowhere.  With the exception of the husband and Ella's father (Harrelson), most of the people in this movie are kind and helpful.  Even in 2008, the political climate wasn't this tame.  

Ella (Mackey) is an idealistic woman whose family falls apart while she's in her teens.  Her father is a serial cheater while her mother (Hall) stands by him even though he hurts her.  Aunt Helen (Curtis) is in the picture as a loving, supportive guardian with whom Ella lives through high school and college.  Ella soon marries Ryan (Lowden), who at first lives to make Ella happy, but soon as Ella ascends in her political career (more on that in a moment), he feels left out and insecure while turning into a selfish jerk who threatens to derail her career.  It's a wonder Jack Lowden, who capably handles the extreme swings, doesn't get whiplash.  

Ella is the lieutenant governor of New York under "Governor Bill" (Brooks), who accepts a cabinet position and thus making Ella the governor while trying to ensure her troubled younger brother (Fearn) is okay as he navigates his own life.  Fearn's subplot trying to reconnect with a lost love (Edeberi) feels forced and dropped in from a nearby movie.  The rest of the movie feels like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington only Emma Mackey plays Mrs. Smith.  Or Albany.  

Rental Family (2025) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Hikari

Starring:  Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Akira Emoto

Phillip (Fraser) is a struggling American actor living in Japan.  He starred in a popular television commercial there seven years ago and has been working trying to recapture that level of fame ever since.  Rental Family isn't Lost in Translation, in which Bill Murray played a famous actor on the downside of his career visiting Japan.  Phillip isn't a has-been, he's a never-was.  

He's a kind, but lonely soul who lives alone and his only companionship is with a steady prostitute.  He also towers over anyone who stands next to him.  One day, Phillip's agent calls with a new job.  He is to attend a "funeral" in which the "deceased" lies in a casket, but isn't dead.  He holds the ceremony to see how many people would pay their respects.  The arranger of the funeral is Rental Family Inc., run by Shinji (Hira) who wants Phillip to work for him.  What does Rental Family Inc. do?  Their clients hire actors like Phillip for a variety of reasons.  In Phillip's case, he is hired by the daughter of a famed, but forgotten actor (Emoto) to portray a magazine writer doing a story on him.  The family wants the actor to feel better as he slips into dementia.  Phillip is also hired by a mother with a young daughter wanting to gain admission to a prestigious school.  The mom wants Phillip to pose as the child's long-lost father in hopes that it will make her happy enough to pass the tests for admission.  Then, Phillip is expected to walk away and never see the clients again.

This is a dicey business and the clients are lying to or playing tricks on their loved ones for temporary comfort, but it is natural for Phillip to develop a friendship with the old man or the young girl that makes them more difficult to walk away from.  That part is predictable, but Fraser makes it work with his sweetness and tenderness.  Because he's lonely himself, he finds these interactions help him as well. The other employees of Rental Family, Inc. take on tasks of their own, including a woman who poses as a man's mistress to take the heat when the wife ultimately finds out.  A company like Rental Family Inc. pushes the boundaries of legality and morality, not to mention taking an emotional toll on the actors.  

It's a shame that Rental Family isn't better than it is.  It takes a while to get going and it only covers the situations on a superficial level.  I enjoyed it in parts rather than as a whole.  I don't know if such a company exists.  In a sense, they are not much different than being prostitutes, except no sex is involved.  But for the right price, would that change?  

Fackham Hall (2025) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jim O'Hanlon

Starring:  Thomasin McKenzie, Tom Felton, Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston, Ben Radcliffe, Emma Laird

The rigid social etiquette of Downton Abbey and similar movies depicting the wealthy and powerful British society of the 1930's is skewered in Fackham Hall (get it? Sounds like Fuck 'Em All).  Like any movie with an Airplane! or Naked Gun style of comedy in which gags of all sorts are hurled at the viewer with varying degrees of success.  Fackham Hall has some jokes that land and others which cause the audience to groan, but there are worse things you can do with roughly ninety minutes of your time.

The Davenports live in Fackham Hall, but times are tough.  They may lose the property due to financial woes, but once their younger daughter Poppy (Laird) is married off to her first cousin Archibald (Felton), then all be right with the world...legalities be damned.  But Poppy chooses to abandon Archibald at the altar to marry a low-class manure salesman and now the family is pressuring Rose (McKenzie) to marry Archibald even though she doesn't love him.  She instead falls for a new servant (Radcliffe) who was sent there by his orphanage to deliver a letter for patriarch Humphrey Davenport (Lewis) but instead is hired mistakenly to be a member of the staff.

The plot is not as important in these types of spoofs as the jokes themselves.  The actors deliver the straight lines and the gags in the same manner.  It is better that they are not in on the joke or act as if they are.  They need to stay above the ridiculousness while being part of it at the same time.  Leslie Nielsen was a master at this, and these actors are all good enough to understand their assignment and make Fackham Hall operate as well as can be expected.  Movies like this are hit-and-miss anyway.  It's difficult to recreate Airplane! because that was groundbreaking in the world of movie comedy, but Fackham Hall does its best.  

Eternity (2025) * * *

 

Directed by:  David Freyne

Starring:  Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Olga Merediz, John Early

The afterlife of Eternity is depressing if you think about it, but Eternity exists in the emotion of the moment and as a romantic comedy of sorts.  Thank goodness the filmmakers decided to give Eternity a lighter tone because this stuff could get heavy.  In Eternity, a recently departed person arrives at a way station and has seven days to choose how he or she would like to spend eternity.  The place operates like a bazaar in which salespeople are pitching their eternity packages (Studio 54, suburbia, etc.)  Afterlife Coordinators are assigned to help them acclimate to the process and the people stay in a nice hotel room while deciding their fate.  

The catch is:  You can only choose one and you can't change your mind.  This becomes a bigger issue for Joan (Olsen) who arrives days after the death of her husband of 65 years, Larry (Teller), and finds her first husband Luke (who died in the Korean War) has been waiting for Joan to arrive so he could spend forever with her.  Does Joan choose Larry, with whom she had built a happy life and family, or Luke, who represents what could have been?  Not an easy decision, and the fact that Larry and Luke are both good people makes it harder for her.  She could always choose an afterlife without either person, but we know that isn't in the cards.

Joan's dilemma is the hook for Eternity, and it helps move it along.  Teller, Olsen, and Turner all play kind, likable people who understandably want what's best for themselves.  After all, we're talking forever and that's a mighty long time.  Luke and Larry know what they want.  Joan is more hesitant, and the pressure is unduly placed on the poor woman.  Even if one chooses with certainty, they are unable to opt out of their choice if they grow bored with the scenario after a few years.  They can try to escape their fate, but then they are tracked down by the afterlife police and tossed into "the void", which I guess is a version of hell.  Then again, having to choose only one eternity sounds like hell in and of itself.  I told you this stuff could get sad, but Eternity walks the tightrope between comedy and tearjerking very well.  Some people might have an issue with some of the romantic comedy aspects of Eternity, but to me it's better to laugh so you may not cry. 

Mr. Majestyk (1974) * * *

 

Directed by:  Richard Fleischer

Starring:  Charles Bronson, Al Lettieri, Lee Purcell, Paul Koslo, Linda Cristal

Vince Majestyk (Bronson) is a Colorado farmer who only wants to have his melons picked and make a living.  One morning, he finds himself in the middle of more controversy than he's used to.  Normally, he picks a group of hard-working Mexicans to pick his crop, but that morning he finds a troublemaker (Koslo) replaced his crew with an all-white crew.  Vince wants the group he picked and soon beats the hell out of the goon and is booked on assault charges.  He's a progressive kind of guy.  

That would be enough for one movie, but while Vince is being transported to jail, he runs afoul of a mobster (Lettieri) who is on the same bus.  The mobster's cronies shoot up the bus in an attempt to free him, but Vince takes him off the bus to safety.  The mobster strikes a deal with Vince to free him, which Vince reluctantly accepts because he doesn't trust him.  He instinctively believes the mobster will have him killed, so he makes a deal with the local DA to turn in the mobster.  Got that?  It'll all be on the quiz. 

Mr. Majestyk isn't about plot anyway.  It is a showcase for Charles Bronson's unique brand of violence and sly humor.  Mr. Majestyk maybe contain the most one-liners of Bronson's career.  He's having fun here and that makes a traditional action movie more entertaining.  Mr. Majestyk isn't intended to raise the genre to any new heights.  It's full of action and it works.  Sometimes that's all that is needed.