By Jonah Naplan

November 23, 2022

Like the best murder mysteries, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”—or “Glass Onion,” as I’ll continue to call it throughout this review—has tiny little details carefully spread throughout the film’s runtime, each given a moment to shine in the third act, and are all the more satisfying should the viewer take the time to pay attention to the plot. This is director Rian Johnson’s sincere genius that made the first “Knives Out” so brilliant and endlessly compelling. A murder gets committed sometime in the first act, a group of people act as the suspects to the crime, and the detective comes in to solve it, sometimes finding and later revealing clues that have been hiding in plain sight the whole time.

In “Glass Onion” we can often feel Johnson’s creative touch as he weaves a narrative so loaded, with so many layers, into a plot so outlandish, that it may even top the first “Knives Out.” But not necessarily in terms of quality. “Glass Onion” is a very well-made movie, but “Knives Out” seemed like a bigger breath of fresh air. It was more charming, the characters were slightly more interesting, and the way the story tied itself together proved to be tighter in the third act. But to be fair, “Glass Onion” and its predecessor are two very, very different movies. The only real similarities between them are the detective (Daniel Craig returning as the always charming Benoit Blanc) and the idea that he’s investigating a group of people, each of them suspected for a murder.

We’ve seen the idea of murder many times in film this year. We saw it back in February with “Death on the Nile,” we saw it in September with “See How They Run,” and we saw it last month in the disappointingly bad “Amsterdam.” “Glass Onion” is by far the best murder mystery to come out this year, but it can still be equally as convoluted as those inferior films. The reason why “Glass Onion” still gets an exceedingly high rating though is because of everything except the plotting of the murder itself. Rian Johnson is a talented screenwriter, and his movie is filled with zippy, timely humor that never fails to make the audience laugh. There are some shocking and quite frankly bizarre cameos too, especially in the first fifteen minutes of the film.

“Glass Onion” is a stacked movie, with another great ensemble cast. And each actor is great once again. Edward Norton plays Miles Bron, the “Harlan Thrombey” of this film, and his mega mansion on a private Greek island is where the entire movie takes place, with some additional flashbacks here and there. He hosts a reunion for his old friend group at his home, and Benoit Blanc accidentally gets invited along too. Then someone gets killed. And oh so conveniently, Blanc is there to investigate. His suspects are as follows: Birdie (Kate Hudson), a famous model-turned-influencer, Claire (Kathryn Hahn), an up-and-coming politician running for the approaching November election, Andi (Janelle Monáe), Miles’ old partner, who hasn’t kept on the best terms with everyone, Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.) a trying scientist, Duke (Dave Baustista), a muscular, men’s rights activist on YouTube, and his girlfriend, Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). Oh, and Miles is a suspect too.

All of this is told to us in the movie’s first act, but then the film takes a curious path and almost becomes a different story entirely. But it’s a little difficult to get into specifics without spoiling anything. What I can tell you though, is that there’s a whole aspect of the movie’s plot that is not advertised in any of the marketing at all. And that makes it all the more effective. In fact, it provides the fundamental groundwork for the movie’s storyline. But it suddenly becomes confusing when you attempt to preemptively put the pieces together in your head, but then walk out of the movie thinking about all the things that would have lost you money if you’d bet on them. I don’t say this in the regard of who the killer was or wasn’t, but there are so many things inside of the movie that I thought would be important later on, and weren’t. For instance, (and this isn’t a spoiler—it’s actually the opposite) there is a random man named Derol (Noah Segan) who apparently lives on the island too, and he occasionally barges in at inconvenient times throughout the film. It’s good for a laugh or two, but he’s never a part of the puzzle like I thought he would be. He’s just kinda there.

There’s other details about a Mona Lisa painting, an hourly “DONG,” and another affair just like in the first “Knives Out.” Johnson may have intended for these things to be red herrings, things to distract the viewer from what’s really going on, but they only end up as random thrown-in pieces that don’t actually have anything to do with the anatomy of the murder. But all of that to say, “Glass Onion” is never once boring, and always has the snappy dialogue we now come to expect from movies like this one. It’s incredibly entertaining, if predictable at times, and it does have an effective trapped thriller feel to it. It sometimes provides commentary on pop culture nowadays, with random name drops, references, and jokes, that seemingly keep coming back. It always has something to say, and never once drags.

The “glass onion” metaphor is smart, as it references the layers and layers a good mystery requires. Miles’ mansion even has a massive glass onion sitting on top it. “Glass Onion” is also the name of a bar the reunited friends used to often go to as a group. There’s a lot to like about this sequel, even if it is inferior to its predecessor in almost every way. But I’m more than excited for “Knives Out 3,” and the prospect of a continuing franchise. I’ll bet they’ll get more and more layered as they go on.

Now playing in theaters for a one-week sneak preview and available on Netflix on December 23rd.