Knives Out was one of my favourite films of 2019, with director Rian Johnson delivering a smart mystery with an all-star cast.
When I heard news that he would be returning to direct more films revolving around the eccentric detective Benoit Blanc, played magnificently by Daniel Craig, I was all for it.
Well, now the sequel Glass Onion has released widely on Netflix and I can say that it definitely lived up to expectations.
I do prefer the first film but Glass Onion is a more than worthy sequel with plenty of exciting twists and turns, along with great comedy to keep viewers entertained.
The film follows Blanc as he is invited to the private island of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) for a murder mystery game.
Joining him are all of Bron’s scummy friends, including scientists Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), governor Claire DeBella (Kathryn Hahn), men’s rights YouTuber Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), and dim-witted fashion designer Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson).
The one invited guest who is not scummy is Cassandra “Andy” Brand, Bron’s former business associate, who had a falling out with Bron and the rest of his so-called Destructor friends.
She is played excellently by Janelle Monáe and ends up being the most interesting character in the film, playing a similar role to that of Ana de Armas’ character in Knives Out.
Once all these characters, both scummy and not, arrive at the titular Glass Onion, the murder mystery begins but it is far from a game, delivering a fun, compelling mystery with plenty of interesting twists that make subsequent viewings more fun when you notice all the foreshadowing.
Even the commentary brought about by the story is interesting, given how much Miles Bron’s character resembles real tech billionaires, like Elon Musk with the whole Twitter fiasco (although this happened after the making of the film), making Glass Onion humorously relevant.
Speaking of the humor, Glass Onion has plenty of hilarious moments that made me pause the movie so I did not miss anything because I was laughing so hard.
Another thing that really stuck out to me about this film was the costuming, which says a lot because that is not usually something that catches my eye, yet the outfits were so fantastic in this film that I could not help but notice.
As for issues, I do think there are some minor plot holes holding the film back when it comes to the backstory of the Destructors.
This is only minor though and it hardly matters when Glass Onion builds to a highly satisfying conclusion.
So, despite not being as good as the original Knives Out, Glass Onion is still a worthy follow up with great twists and turns, plenty of fun comedy, and surprisingly relevant commentary about how we should stop worshipping dumb tech billionaires like Elon Mus-I mean Miles Bron.
I look forward to seeing more Knives Out films in the detective work of Benoit Blanc.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 