It’s always been odd to find myself in the minority on a film as revered as Knives Out, but here I am. Now, I may find myself on the other end of the spectrum finding Glass Onion to be the superior Benoit Blanc outing. Overhyped, bloated, and under-delivered, Knives Out was the boring and pretentious film I feared it would be, but writer/director Rian Johnson has proven that lightning can strike twice — even if I wasn’t struck the first time — with Glass Onion. Here we have the year’s best whodunnit, that has more than enough tricks up its sleeve to make you wish this had been the first time we were whisked away on a Blanc adventure.
Trading family for friends, we find ourselves on an island owned by the mysterious, and mischievous, Miles Bron (Edward Norton). He has gathered his friends — Birdie (Kate Hudson), Duke (Dave Bautista), Claire (Kathryn Hahn), Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), and estranged Andi (Janelle Monáe) — to take part in solving his murder. The difference here being that it’s all supposed to be just a big game of Clue, but just wouldn’t you know it, someone’s killed one of the guests. Lucky for them — but maybe not the culprit — that Blanc (Daniel Craig returning) is on the case in a spectacular game of cat-and-mouse.
Changing the focus to a group of spoiled rich snobs vs entitled rich brats raises the viewing stakes immediately. While the one upmanship still steers the proceedings, at least this time Johnson gives us characters we may actually want to root for, both in seeing them through to the end, or for the killer to strike next. Wildly unpredictable, hilarious at every turn, and ingenious in its plotting, Johnson gives us the film Knives Out only thought it was. Playing in theaters now, there’s no need to wait for it to drop on Netflix next month. Glass Onion is the most fun you can have in theaters right now.
