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

Amy picked this for our annual Christmas day movie and all three of us liked a lot the yarn with Josh O'Connor and Josh Brolin as upstate New York priests and Daniel Craig returning to the franchise as the Southern detective assigned to solve the crime. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis (both wonderfully unglamorous), Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, and Jeffrey Wright.

Rian Johnson writes and directs and his brother Nathan Johnson is the composer, just as they did for the last two Knives Out mysteries. I'm streaming the soundtrack on Apple Music as I write.

We're not bible scholars, so we looked up the meaning of the the road to Damascus, referenced in the movie. Apparently it indicates a flash of insight and includes a blinding light. That tidbit is not included in imdb's list of 35 interesting trivia items. Cinematographer Steve Yedlin  occasionally incorporates blinding light into his work here.

"A Knives Out Mystery" is not in the official title, but was very useful for marketing this third installment. Amy, Jack, and I saw the previous one on Christmas day in 2022 as part of our holiday tradition of a Christmas day movie, every year since 2006 (except 2020).

O'Connor was last blogged for Challengers, Brolin for Dune, Craig, both Johnsons, and Yedlin for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Close for Swan Song, Kunis for The Spy Who Dumped Me, Renner for Arrival, Washington for The Prom, Scott for All of Us Strangers, McCormack for Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Church for Acidman, and Wright for Highest 2 Lowest.

Rotten Tomatoes are reanimated with averages of 92 and 93%. Amy, Jack, and I streamed it on Netflix on, as promised, December 25.

My Mother's Wedding (2023)

Amy and I enjoyed this sweet drama with a few laughs about three adult daughters at the wedding of their mother. Kristin Scott Thomas makes her directorial debut and stars as the mother of Emily Beecham, Scarlett Johansson, and Sienna Miller.

Thomas co-wrote the script with her husband John Mickelthwait and the original score, which I can't find online, is by Rolfe Kent. Yves Bélanger provides pretty pictures of gorgeous English locations. And I found Scar-jo's English accent pretty believable.

Thomas was last blogged for acting in The Party, Johansson for Fly Me to the Moon, Miller for Burnt, Kent for Stan & Ollie, and Bélanger for Brooklyn. Beecham, with dozens of other credits, and Mickelthwait, a first-time screenwriter, are not known to me.

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences want a divorce, averaging 41 and 50%, respectively. We rented it on December 28.

Sirāt (2025)

Amy and I had mixed feelings about this intense story of a Spanish man, accompanied by his young son, searching for his daughter at a rave in Morocco. It's beautifully photographed, with a gripping plot and trippy music but, no spoilers, s**t happens that's hard to take.

Sergi López stars as the father Luis and Bruno Núñez Arjona as his son Esteban. The actors playing the main ravers Steff, Josh, Bigui, Tonin, and Jade were hired off the street and are using their own names or, in the case of Bigui, nickname.

Oliver Laxe directs from the screenplay he co-wrote with Santiago Fillol. Seminal Spanish director/producer Pedro Almodóvar and his brother Agustín Almodóvar are among the production team.

Kangding Ray's score is available on Apple Music

Here's a bit of trivia cribbed directly from imdb: The Sirat Bridge, in Islamic belief, is a narrow and perilous bridge that every person must cross on the Day of Judgment to enter Paradise (Jannah). It is described as being thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword, with the faithful crossing it swiftly, while sinners may fall into Hell below.

Amy has traveled extensively in Spain (and elsewhere) and she commented on the risky behavior of the Spanish kids, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to do drugs and dance. 

I would suggest reading this article after watching the movie if you want to avoid spoilers.

López was last blogged for Perfumes. All the other actors listed above are making their feature debuts. Laxe has directed three other features, two of which were co-written by Fillol, who co-wrote one other without Laxe. This is Ray's second score.

Nominated for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, it has twenty wins, including the Jury Prize, Soundtrack Award, Palme Dog, and Art House Award at Cannes, and 96 other nominations. Yes, there are two dogs in it but we assume no animals were harmed.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are dancing with a 92% average, while its audiences, like us, are watching from the sidelines at 62. As a paid member of the Independent Feature Project (open to anyone!) I could stream it since it is nominated for The Best International Film of the Independent Spirit Awards. It's not currently streaming anywhere nor playing in my neck of the woods. We saw it on December 31.

Jay Kelly (2025)

We liked this comedy-drama a lot in which mega movie star George Clooney plays the titular mega movie star trying to connect with his daughter, much to the frustration of his beleaguered manager Ron, played by Adam Sandler, and the rest of the star's team. The terrific and enormous supporting cast includes Riley Keough and Grace Edwards as Jay's daughters, Laura Dern as his publicist, Billy Crudup as his friend Timothy, Stacy Keach as his father, Jim Broadbent as his mentor, Eve Hewson as an actress in one of his movies, Emily Mortimer as his hairdresser, Greta Gerwig as Ron's wife, Sadie Sandler as his daughter, and Patrick Wilson as his other client.

Director Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script with Mortimer and the beautiful cinematography by Linus Sandgren and production design by Mark Tildesley contribute to the glossy look of the picture.

I'm streaming Nicholas Britell's lively score on Apple Music as I write. And this fun list of trivia points includes that clips from a number of Clooney's own work appear in this movie.

Clooney was last blogged for Ticket to Paradise, both Sandlers for You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah, Keough for Zola, Edwards for Call Jane, Dern for JT LeRoy, Crudup for Jackie, Keach for Nebraska, Broadbent for The Duke, Hewson for Flora and Son, Mortimer for acting in Mary Poppins Returns and she co-wrote and created the series Doll & Em, in which she plays a famous actress who hires her best friend as her assistant. Gerwig was most recently in these pages (for acting) for White Noise, Wilson for Millers in Marriage, Baumbach for directing White Noise and for co-writing his life partner Gerwig's Barbie, Sandgren for shooting Saltburn, Tildesley for production designing Empire of Light, and Britell for scoring She Said.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 76%, are less star-struck than its audiences at 87. So far the movie has eight wins, including being one of the top ten movies of the year for both American Film Institute and National Board of Review, as well as 38 other nominations.

Jack and I streamed it on Netflix on December 17.

Oh. What. Fun. (2025)

Jack and I had some laughs with this light and fluffy Christmas movie which we chose partly because of Denis Leary and partly because we wanted a comedy. Michelle Pfeiffer's Claire is a boomer #tradwife of Leary's Nick who arranges every Christmas detail for her family, but they all take her for granted. Untrue to form, Leary plays a character who is not snarky. The cast includes Felicity Jones as their grown daughter Channing, Jason Schwartzman as Channing's husband Doug, Chloe Grace Moretz as Channing's sister Taylor, and Eva Longoria as Claire's TV idol Zazzy. Danielle Brooks and Devery Jacobs make solid cameos.

Director Michael Showalter co-wrote the script with Chandler Baker. The soundtrack is by Siddhartha Khosla but, although he's a prolific composer, his score is not available for streaming. The songs in the movie are, however.

Leary was last blogged for Draft Day, Pfeiffer for French Exit, Jones for The Brutalist, Schwartzman for The Last Showgirl, Moretz for The Addams Family, Brooks for The Color Purple, and Showalter and Khosla for The Idea of You.

Longoria is best known for 180 episodes for Desperate Housewives from 2004-2012, but has dozens of other credits and I gave her short shrift for her cameo in In a World... We both loved Jacobs in all 25 episodes of Reservation Dogs and lawyer/novelist Baker makes her screenwriting debut.

I'm glad we enjoyed this movie before checking it on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics and audiences scrooged it (yeah, I know it's not a word) with averages of 35 and 27% respectively. We streamed it on December 10 on Prime.