GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (2022)

Critic No. 302
Director: Rian Johnson

Written by: Rian Johnson

Produced by: T_Street

Casts: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista

Music: Nathan Johnson

Language: English

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama


SYNOPSIS: 

World-famous detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) heads to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery surrounding a tech billionaire and his eclectic crew of friends.


REVIEW:

While 2019’s Knives Out was darker and leaner, its sequel Glass Onion shakes off some of its internal hypocrisy and takes a lighter, brighter, and far more straightforwardly comic approach, trading its predecessor’s shadowy, creaky Massachusetts mansion for the Mamma Mia splendour of a private Greek island.


Bron Miles (Edward Nortan playing an Elon Mask kind of figure) is obsessed with that empty entrepreneurial phrase “disruption”. He invites his friends activist YouTuber Duke (Dave Bautista) and his on-camera girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline), the compromised governor of Connecticut (Kathryn Hahn), a model-turned-walking-PR-disaster (Kate Hudson), and a corporate-minded-scientist (Leslie Odom Jr) to play a murder mystery game over the weekend. But, when Bron’s ostracised former business partner Cassandra Brand (Janelle Monáe) makes a surprise appearance at the party, the secrets start to spill and the stakes rise high.


While Daniel Craig carries the film with his immeasurable charm and this time, excellent comic timings, the film has remarkable A-list show stealers as the friends of the main character Miles. Also, the film has many cameos from celebrities that evoke a meta feel.To pick one solid performer, Monae gives a likable comic performance as the woman with more than one secret to reveal that is laced with an absolute showstopper of a flashback, half-hour into the action which supports the final mystery unveil, giving us all manner of cheeky POV-shift.


As much as the lighter tones and twisty screenplay keeps us engaged, Steve Yedlin’s camera and Josh Gold’s sound design turn a rotating lighthouse beam and the pings of phone notifications into beats and set pieces supporting this thoroughly entertaining suspense galore. 



VERDICT:

Rian Johnson’s ‘Glass Onion’ is a brighter version of his Knives Out film series with knockout performances of some A-list celebrity actors, resulting in a highly satisfying murder mystery. 


CELLULOID METER- 4/5: 


Watch the full film on Netflix:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81458416

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