Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was one of the most highly-anticipated sequels of 2022 and it was definitely worth waiting for. World-class detective Benoit Blanc returns in high fashion in this rare sequel that lives up to its predecessor, offering both an amazing murder mystery and hilarious satire of billionaire brilliance.
Glass Onion takes us to a private Greek island, owned by the tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). He sends an invitation in the form of an elaborate puzzle to his inner circle, but their perfect holiday is disrupted by the arrival of Daniel Craig’s master detective Benoit Blanc. He quickly hijacks Bron’s make-believe murder mystery, making room for the real, much more compelling case to unfold.
Like with the first Knives Out film, one of Glass Onion’s strongest suits is its A-list cast. Janelle Monáe brings some gravitas to a rare comedic role, while Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, and Leslie Odom Jr. round up the cast as Bron’s “disruptor” best friends, each one proving as the perfect pick for their respective characters.
The group’s dynamic, informed by their complicated shared past is one of the film’s driving forces. From Hudson’s washed-up supermodel to Bautista’s men’s rights activist, they’re all dependent on Bron and clear reflection of real-life celebrities and powerful figures occupying modern headlines and social media.
Glass Onion is a perfect satire for the Elon Musk era and does a great job deconstructing the myth of billionaire “geniuses” without hitting us over the head with the metaphor. At the end of the day, it also gives us what we came here for—a great murder mystery that only Benoit Blanc could solve, making us look forward to more adventures in Rian Johnson’s ever-expending franchise.
Rating: 4.5/5
