HE WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.

Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) investigates the murder of a monsignor (Josh Brolin) in an upstate New York church; one of the suspects is Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), a newly-arrived priest who had reason to hate the monsignor.

The third Knives Out film is less glamorous than the second one, even if it does have a wonderful cast of stars. They’re all terrific, not least Glenn Close as a Cloris Leachman-like church lady and O’Connor as the priest who gets caught up in the mystery but remains loyal to his calling.

Riveting, in spite of its length, with a portrait of Wicks’s cult following that looks like a clever comment on Trump and MAGA.

2025-U.S. 144 min. Color. Written and directed by Rian Johnson. Cast: Daniel Craig (Benoit Blanc), Josh O’Connor (Jud Duplenticy), Glenn Close (Martha Delacroix), Josh Brolin (Jefferson Wicks), Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church, Jeffrey Wright. Voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 

Trivia: Alternative title: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Co-produced by Johnson. 

Last word: “You show up with these pieces of paper with words written on them and then when the actors start performing them, suddenly you see the scene in a whole different way. Or you have a revelation of ‘oh wait, not this, but this.’ And the scales fall from your eyes. I think the act of making these things is a constant road to Damascus. That’s what’s addictive about it.” (Johnson, RogerEbert.com)