Each is thrilled by the box, all part of the outsized joy of being pals with billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton doing his own spin on Elon Musk), who loves games and twists and turns and also dragging his very weird friend group along on annual vacations of his own design. We soon meet their recipients, a decidedly odd collection of seemingly great pals, including striving governor Claire (Hahn), semi-cancelled influencer Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson, iconic as ever), scattered scientist Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), and musclehead YouTube star Duke (Dave Bautista). “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” - Credit: NetflixĪround the country, a variety of flashy personalities are receiving massive wooden boxes which, only after some clever prompting, reveal themselves to be a stack of puzzling games that also contain a banger of an invitation in their secret center. What he really needs is a great case to wake his brain back up, and it just so happens, one is taking shape even as he lolls in the tub. Lockdown has been hard on Benoit, who has taken to spending whole days in the bathtub, not even stirred by well-meaning Zooms with a cadre of famous pals (the film is rife with cameos, none of which will be spoiled here). But that’s not obvious when we begin, as the bourbon-mouthed detective arrives in a state of major disarray.
The entire time, Craig’s Benoit Blanc observes it all. We know someone (maybe even multiple someones) will kick the bucket before the film ends, but Johnson makes us wait for all that for quite some time, stretching out the film’s first half with one sticky little mystery before slingshotting back and reassessing the whole kit and caboodle. It’s clear Johnson is putting up his new perimeters this time around, entering the scene long before anyone is murdered (nearly half the film goes by before anyone actually dies), slowly introducing his large cast (though holding back on just how exactly they’re all so bonded), and misdirecting everyone and everything toward another (sort of?) crime before the real bloodbath begins.Īnyone who has seen not just “Knives Out” but any other whodunit mystery should be wary of accepting the easy clues and codes that appear in its first act, but Johnson is giddily laying out key information right for the start. One of the real tricks of the genre: making necessary exposition - who knows who and why and how and what it all means - feel plucky and fun and breezy, which Johnson does with aplomb. Set in May of 2020 - and very much an “early pandemic” movie, and not just because Johnson folds in COVID-era living when it comes to introducing his characters, from a Zoom-addled Kathryn Hahn to a properly masked Daniel Craig, but because the film offers the kind of nutty charms we all needed so badly both back then and right now - “Glass Onion” sets itself apart from it predecessor right out the gate.
Johnson needn’t worry about a sophomore slump, because while “Glass Onion” holds some resemblance to his 2019 smash hit (stacked casts, lavish locations, Daniel Craig having the time of his goddamn life), Tilda Swinton Wants to Invade Theaters Around the Country with Her Own Surprise Program 'Devotion' Review: Jonathan Majors Soars as Navy's First Black Fighter Pilot Perhaps the only whodunit in which its main character will, upon solving the film’s central crime, proclaim it’s all “ so dumb!” (and be both right and wrong in that declaration), and all the better for it.
LARGE CABOODLE MOVIE
Rest assured: Johnson isn’t reinventing the mystery movie with “Glass Onion,” but he is having a hell of a time lightly deconstructing it and reorienting it to suit his whipsmart script and central super detective. It’s a fitting title for Johnson’s “ Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which delights in unspooling theories, the bread and butter of the genre, and then poking right through them to find something even more witty and amusing. Before you worry too much about dissecting the meaning of “ Glass Onion,” both the main title of Rian Johnson’s second “Knives Out” feature (and just as delightful and inspired as the first film) and the name of a Beatles song from their White Album, we’ll just go ahead and direct you to the (likely?) key lyric from the 1968 jam: “Well here’s another clue for you all / The walrus was Paul.” Talk about an a-ha moment, right? Alas, John and Paul were having a bit of fun with that particular ditty, as most of their “Glass Onion” is less about unraveling fan theories than straight up poking holes in them.
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