Grade: A-
The opening sequence of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery makes it clear that writer/director Rian Johnson is back to bring the infectious fun of 2019’s Knives Out. That was such a runaway hit that it has sparked an open-ended series. A third film is already in development. Glass Onion, which just ended its week-long engagement in theaters, is almost as good as the first. On December 23, it drops on Netflix, which is the perfect home for it. This is the kind of labyrinthine plot with dizzying narrative acrobatics that will make people rewind and rewatch. I can imagine it having a very long life on Netflix.
The game’s afoot, again. Daniel Craig, now permanently released from his Bondage, is back as Detective Benoit Blanc. His deep South’n drawl is a fusion of Lewis Grizzard, Foghorn Leghorn, and Kevin Spacey’s character in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Knives Out had crisp, foggy, rustic, wintry locations. Glass Onion has us in the hot late spring, with sunglasses, cocktails, and swimwear. May 2020, to be exact. A billionaire (Edward Norton, relishing the exact kind of performance you’d expect from him) has invited a handful of his filthy rich friends (Blanc turns up too) for a weekend at his mansion on his private island in Greece. I’ll spoil just one of the many jokes, sight gags, and references to how ridiculously wealthy he is. Before they board the yacht that takes them to the island, the driver pumps each passenger in the back of the throat with some kind of spray, then informs them “You don’t need those masks anymore. You’re good.” “Was that some kind of disinfectant,” somebody asks. “Let’s just say you’re good,” he replies.
The Norton character’s original intention is a murder mystery party, where he is “killed,” and then they spend the whole weekend figuring out which one of them dunit and why. Detective Blanc, however, has it solved before anything happens, and blows the whole surprise in front of everyone on the first night. But then, a real-life body count starts to materialize. The web has been weaved, and it’s more tangled than the first film. It reminded me of Wild Things, the film from 1998 with Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, and Bill Murray. That movie and this one have double-crosses, triple-crosses, and revelations on top of revelations, until it gets so twisty that I think the ultimate intent is to fool the audience. Glass Onion will often return to a scene we saw before, with additional lines we didn’t hear the first time. A flashback in the interim has provided us with new information, and now this same dialogue has a different context and meaning. This is where home viewing on Netflix will come in handy.
The cast is enjoyable. Kate Hudson has the same charm and comedic spunk as her mother, Goldie Hawn. There’s not a thing I can say about Janelle Monáe without spoiling, except that she is a multifaceted tour-de-force here. You’ll know what I mean. We also have Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Dave Bautista, and a few celebrity cameos – some no longer with us – playing themselves.
Knives Out (2019) had Christopher Plummer’s warm caring aging patriarch, Ana de Armas’s forthright honest nurse who always wanted to do the right thing, and a few other characters I could really feel something for. I missed that here. At best, I felt apathetic towards anyone in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. But still, there’s enough cleverness and forward momentum to make it a satisfying if exhausting journey. I hope the series lasts for many movies to come, if it can maintain the spirit these first two have set.
Oh, and no points for guessing what song plays over the closing credits.
Grade: A-
Film Reviews by Mark 
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