Netflix
Mysteries are predicated on surprises, so it’s no shock to discover that Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery boasts deceptions, twists, and head-spinning revelations galore. What qualifies as unexpected, however, is the fact that Rian Johnson’s follow-up to 2019’s Knives Out is a wholly superior whodunit contraption, at once more complex, cunning, and laugh-out-loud amusing. Those with a love of intricate brainteasers and bold, charismatic performances are in for a grand time when the film—currently premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival—arrives as a veritable Christmas present December 23 on Netflix.
Though it’s a standalone sequel that requires no familiarity with the first movie, Glass Onion remains of a piece with its predecessor, and not only because it features Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), the master detective with the Hercule Poirot deductive skills and the Foghorn Leghorn Southern accent. Johnson’s latest is, like his prior hit, a thriller that may not have a murdered victim, is populated by a diverse collection of well-off men and women indebted to a wealthy benefactor, and pivots around a female minority protagonist who could be the key to unravelling the entire affair. Those similarities effectively cast the writer/director’s franchise (a third entry for Netflix is on the way) as a mischievous genre critique of the greedy, self-interested and cutthroat upper crust, all of whom here find themselves playing a game that transforms into a crime that isn’t what it initially seems.
As befitting an Agatha Christie-style enterprise such as this, Glass Onion concerns a cluster of disparate characters: Claire (Kathryn Hahn), the pro-environment Connecticut governor running for senator; Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), the accomplished scientist; Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), the former fashion model who runs a successful clothing line while staying out of Twitter-related trouble thanks to her assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick); and Duke (Dave Bautista), the men’s-rights YouTuber who’s dating Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). All of them are friends with, and brought together by, tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), who requests their presence on his private island for their annual reunion by sending them a puzzle box that, once solved, informs them that their gathering will revolve around the (fictional) mystery of Miles’ slaying.