Wake Up Dead Man Review – 'Gothic, engrossing, and very funny'

Agatha Christie wrote dozens of Hercule Poirot mysteries. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote over 60 Sherlock Holmes adventures. Rian Johnson, meanwhile, is on only his third Benoit Blanc whodunnit. But give it time. On the strength of Wake Up Dead Man , it feels like he and Daniel Craig’s Blanc could be solving murders for years to come.

Completing an unofficial trilogy, the filmmaker and star have pulled off one of the most consistent and rewarding cinematic triptychs in recent memory, each entry arriving at a singular mood, while maintaining, at its centre, its loquacious recurring hero, the “mere passive obser-vuh of the truth”.

Where the first film, Knives Out , was a crisp autumnal mystery, and follow-up Glass Onion a glamorous summer-island jaunt, Wake Up Dead Man feels wi