My Review of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

 

Written And Directed by Rian Johnson 

Benoit (to Miles): "You dimwitted... brainless... JACKASS! Your one murder with any panache at all, and you stole the whole idea from me!"

It's interesting that in spite of the first movie being an actual hit in theatres, the decision for this sequel (and the upcoming one) would be to give it a limited theatrical release in favour of Netflix having dibs on it.

Once again, we're thrown into the world of private investigator, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). Only this time, it's in the era of COVID and Benoit was barely amused by online chatter with famous faces. The man needed a case. Luckily for him, he got one in the form of a puzzle.

Heading off to a Greek island, to a place owned by technology company owner and billionaire, Miles Bron (Edward Norton), Benoit had to solve the mystery of Miles's death. Except he wasn't dead and it was more of an extraordinary game of Clue that Benoit disliked.

Of course for this game to have the desired effect, we needed a bigger cast. This included Miles's friends - Connecticut governor, Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr), fashion designer Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) and her assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick) alongside men's rights activist, Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) and younger girlfriend, Whiskey (Madelyn Cline).

Yet again, a group of mostly shallow and self serving people but the arrival of Miles's former Alpha partner, Andi Brand (Janelle Monae) certainly complicated matters. Andi wasn't happy with the way Miles ousted her from their company and she was less happy that their so called friends abandoned her. She was also wasn't Andi Brand.

Halfway through the movie and the around the same time that Duke died from consuming pineapple juice, it was revealed that Andi's twin sister Helen had hired Benoit in order to expose Miles's many misdeeds. Needless to say one of them being the fact that he killed Andi.

The third act's brilliant. It gave a wonderful deconstruction into the absolute absurdity of Duke's death and demonstrated to Miles that money won't always buy someone out of trouble. Oh and the destruction of the Mona Lisa, giving Miles the type of infamy he wasn't looking for.

- Hugh Grant was revealed to be Benoit's domestic partner, Phillip while cameos included the likes of Angela Lansbury, Stephen Sondheim, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jake Tapper, Yo-Yo Mama, Serena Williams, Ethan Hawke , Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jake Tapper.

- Natasha Lyonne who also had a cameo would later go on to star in Rian Johnson's Poker Face. There's references to Jeremy Renner and Jared Leto.

- Standout music: Nat King Cole's The Mona Lisa, David Bowie's Starman and The Beatles Glass Onion.

- Chronology: May 2020, mostly on a Greek island.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery had a lot of pressure to prove that Benoit Blanc wasn't a flash in the pan and it did so with panache. It's so dumb that it's brilliant in spite of Benoit himself would say. Actually, it's really clever and I had a lot of fun with it.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Knives Out (2019)

 

Written And Directed by Rian Johnson 

Marta: "You're not much of a detective, are you?"

Benoit: "Well, to be fair, you make a pretty lousy murderer."

It's amazing that for a director, one franchise can make you a villain within it's fandom and the other can make you a hero of sorts. Star Wars fans might not have appreciated Rian Johnson but everyone else took to him.

Mainly because Johnson clearly revealed himself to be more suited to the murder mystery genre than anything involving the force. This movie in question could've been fine as a one and done murder mystery but instead it introduced audiences to a Columbo/Poirot for the 21st Century.

Excellently cast as Inspector Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig bagged himself a role different to James Bond and equally as interesting to boot. For his first onscreen case, Blanc found himself amongst the wealthy and they're not a nice bunch to be around.

Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) was a mystery writer celebrating his 85th birthday with his children and grandchildren alike. He also was found the next morning dead by unfortunate housekeeper, Fran (Edi Patterson). This automatically put Harlan's family in the frame but also his nurse, Marta Cabrera (Ana De Amas).

With Marta, the movie really teased the possibility of her being the killer for the longest time. She had blood on her shoes,Blanc did suspect and it was revealed that she had inadvertently given Harlan a morphine dose that she shouldn't have. All of that alone would then rule her out, along with Harlan's grandson Hugo (Chris Evans) attempting to blackmail Marta. 

Harlan's children - Lynda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Walt (Michael Shannon), their spouses, Richard (Don Johnson), Donna (Riki Lindhome) and Joni (Toni Collette) along with their own children, Hugh, Meg (Katherine Langford) and Jacob (Jaeden Martell). What can I say? All strong actors all give great performances and mostly all of them are horrible people with little concern for Harlan's passing and more for his inheritance.

The killer reveal was actually done pretty well and even I was surprised by the culprit a little. As for the end with Marta, there's something delightful in that outcome, considering that she's one of the few people who seemed to care about Harlan. Basically, everyone somewhat got what they deserved here.

- Other standout performances included LaKeith Stanfield as Detective Lieutenant Elliott and K. Callan as Wanetta "Great Nana" Thrombey. The latter being Harlan's mother.

- Daniel Craig and Ana De Amas would later reunite for No Time To Die. 

- Standout music: Roxy Music's More Than This, The Rolling Stones Sweet Virginia and Follies by Stephen Sondheim – Daniel Craig's Losing My Mind.

- Chronology: The film was made in Boston and Maynard, Massachusetts.

Knives Out served as the perfect revival for the murder mystery genre in a time where Agatha Christie adaptations have fared less well on both the small and big screen. The story was great, the cast were chosen wisely and Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc has cemented himself as one of the best modern detectives.

Rating: 8 out of 10