Dear Daniel @spiralblue - Tumblr Blog

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nitefise-art

i rewatched glass onion

(also did a knives out doodle)

zevampirex

Be gay, resolve crime, be a fashionista

meanoldmustard

L'Eveil Appel

olyphant-tim

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (2025) dir. Rian Johnson

danielcraigupd

Daniel Craig for Dior

📸 by Thomas Chene

judblanc

benoit blanc's unruly little hair strand you are so cherished by me

corvidcorgi

With three movies to compare between, I really appreciate how each Knives Out movie explores justice from a different thematic angle, not based on the murder that was committed but based on the cruelty that led to that murder.

In Knives Out, a compassionate, ethical young woman treats everyone around her with generosity, and the people around her repeatedly try to take advantage of her kindness to force her into losing the fortune that was gifted to her by a dear friend. There, justice means that she keeps the fortune and decides that actually, she doesn't have to be kind and giving to people who've proven themselves assholes.

In Glass Onion, a woman loses her sister to a gang of wealthy, successful people who've sacrificed their principles for the sake of ambition and ego. There, justice means that everyone involved will be made notorious: whatever their other accomplishments, they will forever be known for being complicit in the burning of the most famous painting in history.

In Wake Up Dead Man, the church takes advantage of a young girl's loyalty and faith to place her under a lifelong burden and fill her with guilt, shame, and hatred. Justice means helping her understand what was done to her and the women around her, and giving her compassion so she can find peace.

This is cool because it means the movies contradict each other! The compassionate justice of Wake Up Dead Man would be totally misplaced in Knives Out, and so would the toppling-monuments justice of Glass Onion. And because each movie has something different to say, they all stand on their own and feel fresh.

This is also why Benoit Blanc is the uniting figure but never the protagonist of these movies. He's an agent of legal justice in that he's the detective and it's his job to figure out whodunnit, but the protagonist -- Marta, Helen, and now Jud -- is always the character who delivers thematic justice.

agentmilayawithshield

"Wake Up Dead Man", and the thankless labor of women

One of the things that stayed with me the most, was reflecting on traditional gender roles in the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude congregation and how it relates to religion in general.

Vera halts her life to raise a child she has no moral obligations towards. Simone is the church's biggest donor, keeping it operable basically by herself. Martha is the only employee handling administrative work in the church, keeping the treasure a secret her whole life. They are all endlessly devoted. They are all meant to be contrasts of Grace, the real "women of God," and in the end, it's thankless labor from all of them.

Vera's adopted brother is a selfish jackass who appreciates nothing about what she did for him. He saw her as just a free nanny to be "dumped" once his real father showed up.

Simone is being prayed on at her weakest and used as a cash cow, only to be told she can't be healed because she's a faithless woman.

And Martha only realises at the tail end of her life that her selfless devotion to a man and his teachings meant nothing to him. That he betrayed her the first chance he gets.

Wicks sees himself as blameless, has no standard for his own behavior. He's a disgusting, horrible man, who deserves none of their devotion.

When Vera and Martha realize that their whole life they trusted the story of the "harlot whore", only to experience the exact same treatment even after doing everything in their power not to be like her, that's the first time they can reflect on her, and when they finally realize:

"That poor girl."

ssopimir

my biological fathers

sochilll

What I love about Benoit Blanc is his unwavering faith in people. Even when he has no evidence for it yet. His ability to see something in them that deserves that faith. In Knives Out he sees the blood on Marta's shoes the second he meets her but says nothing because while he doesn't know what happened exactly, he doesn't believe she just murdered Harlan in cold blood. He lets her wander through the crime scene, handle evidence, and hear their theories. He risks her meddling with the investigation because he believes she is not a murderer.

In Glass Onion he believes Helen that one of these rich and powerful people murdered her sister and he believes she found the proof even though he never saw it. He invites himself to a secluded island with a killer on it so he can help her solve this. And in the end he was never even able to see at the napkin but he trusts Helen's anger, her love for her sister, so he removes himself and lets her destroy everything in vengeance for Andi. And I think he also believes that once she does that, the others will turn on Miles.

In Wake Up Dead Man he believes that if he lets Martha walk out those doors, she will come back again of her own free will. He risks letting her "escape." He, as Martha points out, makes a fool of himself saying he can't solve this case, to give her the chance to confess in a way that means something to her in a religion he doesn't follow or agree with. He knows, from Jud, that she has to confess voluntarily or it won't mean anything. He knows she's going to die. It would be easy for her to just go home and die never having told anyone. But Benoit believes that she will confess, and he wants it to be in a way that allows her let go of the guilt.

He believes people are worth trusting. He believes people will prove him right and again and again they do.

mobius-m-mobius

he's really having the time of his life 🥺 (insp)

georgiemelroseart

I really enjoyed Wake Up Dead Man, here’s like uhhhh a super stylized screen shot

this-is-a-podcast-fanblog

the benoit blanc movies show really beautifully how to write a queer character whose story is not centered around their queerness. it's shown that benoit blanc is gay married (to hugh grant!) it's shown that he participates in queer mediums like musical theater and fashion, but none of those things are ever explicitly remarked on. he doesn't have a big coming out scene because he doesn't need one; and the subtle details about him not speaking to his mother, the way he associates a church with homophobia, allows us to draw conclusions about how his family felt about his queerness without making that the sole conflict in his story. the conflict in benoit blanc's story is not that he exists in the world as a gay person, it's that he's always trying to wrangle a bunch of 30 somethings into not confessing to crimes they didn't commit

somepomegranatetea

what really gets me about father jud in wake up dead man is that every person he meets, he immediately tries to understand. when he meets blanc, he asks questions about his faith, his childhood, etc. and really listens. he asks vera about her motivations as a lawyer, tries to engage with cy, talks about nat’s relationship with his wife and subsequent struggles, notices martha putting in all of the work around the church, even listens to samson talk about his addiction. this is in part due to the structure of the mystery, but i think it really works to advance the themes of the movie. jud treats everyone like a complex human being and not a one-dimensional caricature—not a “wolf”.