A review of Glass Onion: Knives Out Mystery
Death on the Nile, See How They Run, Amsterdam. I’ve no clue why, but the films of 2022 have had somewhat of a fetish for murder mysteries. You won’t see me complain though, as I’m a big fan of the genre.
The original Knives Out was a film that landed quite high on my ranking of 2019 releases. So I was excited to see what writer/director Rian Johnson had in store for the sequel. It pains me to say then that I found this film to be a step back from the first. So what’s the deal with Glass Onion?
The film follows detective Beniot Blonc who’s met with an anonymous invitation to attend a gathering of friends on a remote island. The island is owned by billionaire tech mogul Miles Bron who every year hosts a weekend getaway for his longtime group of friends dubbed, “The Disruptors.”
As the film progresses we learn more about this group and the hidden, and sometimes not so hidden, beefs between a couple of its members. Would any of them be bold enough to force one of their fellow ride or dies to partake in the latter?
I’ll refrain from answering that question as I’m not really looking to be the one responsible for ruining this movie for you. Instead, I’ll try my best to give my take without going into too much detail.
Simply put, I found this film to be an extremely fun time. Johnson strikes a beautiful balance between humor and tension and everything from the production design to the shot selection is top notch. And since this is a review for the sequel to Knives Out, I’m also legally obligated to talk about the cast.
It’s great! It’s filled with a variety of distinct characters and there’s no one performance I can single out as underwhelming. Special shoutouts to my guy Daniel Craig and his goofy ass accent as well as the greatest actor we’ve gotten from WWE; David Bautista. Funnily enough, I found the film to resemble the likes of an actual onion. Though, I’m sure that was completely intended.
The story seems like it’s one thing, but as you peel back the layers you realize there’s more to it than initially expected. Recontextualization is the name of the game and while I want to praise Johnson’s use of the concept, I’m not sure it completely works in this film’s favor. It’s really a tale of two halves in that regard. With the second containing most, if not all, of the film’s intrigue. It’s not a huge fault of the film, but when compared to its predecessor it really can’t match up to the original’s tight structure and ability to be great from beginning to end. The film still works very well and it’s almost impossible to not be satisfied upon completing it. It’s a fantastic theater going experience. It’s just too bad it’s never coming back to them. Shoutouts to ya Netflix.