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Rian Johnson’s Knives Out was a surprise hit when it came out in 2019. It felt like an Agatha Christie murder mystery with an endearing cast that all had incredible performances. Following the breakout success, both with fans and financially, Netflix signed a deal to make more of these movies, the first of which is Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The sequel is just as good as the first, with a new cast and similar themes, and is the strongest murder mystery to come out this year.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery follows the continued adventures of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he is invited to the island of a multi-billionaire tech tycoon (Edward Norton) for a murder mystery game with his inner circle of friends including two influencers (Dave Bautista and Kate Hudson), the governor of Connecticut (Kathryn Hahn), his former business partner (Janelle Monae), and one of the leading scientists at his company (Leslie Odom Jr.). After one of the guests dies under mysterious circumstances, Benoit Blanc has to find out who committed the murder before any of the other guests end up dead.
The most interesting thing about this entry is not simply the murder mystery that is at the core of the story, but the way the characters interact with each other. Despite all coming from varying backgrounds and varying parts of the political spectrum, all the characters have the same class solidarity that was present in the original movie. While the first movie had the family all turn on Marta after Harlan leaves her his fortune, there is a similar moment here where the power of money causes everyone to fall in line in a certain way, until things happen that money can’t fix.
As with the last movie, both the cinematography and production design are among the strengths of the movie that set it apart from other movies in the genre. The actors all have great chemistry and there are jokes that land across the entire movie that make the viewing experience enjoyable. It may be nitpicky, however there is one slight narrative hiccup that could have been fixed with editing. In this case, there is a big reveal and lengthy flashback that happens at a certain point in the movie that could have been better executed if it happened about 15 minutes later chronologically. It still works; however the impact would have been better if another plot point hit before the flashback happened. In an effort to not spoil, no further details will be given, however once one watches the movie it may be fairly obvious.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is the strongest mystery movie of the year, providing a better experience than See How They Run and Death on the Nile. It is entertaining enough to watch in a theater (should it return to theaters) however it is definitely worth viewing on Netflix when it arrives later this month.
Final Rating: 9/10
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery releases on Netflix on December 23rd.
