Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Directed by Rian Johnson
★★★★½
Description
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (L-R) Edward Norton, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monae, and Daniel Craig. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2022.
Production Still Image
Just three years ago, Rian Johnson delivered a phenomenally reinventive entry to the whodunit genre with Knives Out. For many, it was such a high-quality movie that it even made up for his contribution to the newest Star Wars Trilogy. Now in 2022, Rian Johnson has brought a new entry to his “Knives Out” series titled Glass Onion, a fun return to this fictional world, featuring the charming cajun drawl of Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc.
In Glass Onion, everything that made the first such an amazing experience can be found here once again. It features a star-studded cast with many great performances (including a few stand-outs which we’ll get to later), inspirations from the great Agathe Christie, an absolutely absurd set piece for the murder-mystery to take place in, plot twists that could only be guessed by a prophetic sage, and lots of genuinely funny moments that make the film enjoyable from start to finish. In addition to all these great returning qualities, in Glass Onion you’ll find a few brief cameos thrown in just for the sake of having some fun.
If you were worried about the Knives Out series becoming too familiar and predictable, Glass Onion proved that Rian Johnson wants each entry in this series to be just as strong as the others and to maintain their own identity. This is a movie that once again has all the answers to the mystery hiding in plain sight, but through ingenious subversions and misdirects, Rian Johnson keeps the audience looking for answers the whole ride. Many of these subversions involve the nature of the characters of which Daniel Craig and Janelle Monáe are absolute standouts in this film.
In the first half of the film, Janelle Monáe’s character is the source of a lot of anxiety for everyone else on the island, and she remains a pretty elusive character for the first half of the film until we come to learn everything about her. The range Janelle Monáe was able to bring to this role was so incredibly well done that one could be forgiven for forgetting this is the same actress throughout the whole film. Once again, to no one’s surprise Daniel Craig is an absolute joy to watch in Glass Onion, with his absurdly funny expressions being delivered in his, as Chris Evans’ character had put so beautifully, “Kentucky Fried Foghorn Leghorn drawl.” His monologue that brings the title of the film into play is an absolute joy, although admittedly not as strong as his “donut hole” monologue in Knives Out.
The return of an entry to this series has been an absolute delight; we all have Netflix to thank for that. They were a bit hesitant to show this film in theaters for only a week, as this movie is a must-watch on the big screen. Regardless, anyone that watches the film once will want to watch it again for the strong character performances, clues hiding in plain sight, and to just spend a little more time watching Daniel Craig saying the wildest “Hooey”. If every entry in the Knives Out series continues to be as strong as these first two have been, we can only hope there are many more to come.