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Eccentric billionaire Miles Bron invites guests to an absurdist murder mystery party on an island, but things inevitably don’t go as planned. Director Rian Johnson continues his “Knives Out” series with “Glass Onion,” as Detective Benoit Blanc and a group of partygoers experience a shock of reality when their murder-mystery-party transforms into a live crime scene.
Starring Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Ethan Hawke, Daniel Craig and more, can a crew of off-kilter characters keep up their charade in a topsy-turvy murder whodunit? Here are the reviews’ quotes.
What It’s About
Director Ryan Johnson’s sequel sees the return of detective Benoit Blanc, who now has to deal with the absurdist fantasies of an eccentric billionaire.
Miles Bron, played by Edward Norton, is a tech princeling plucked straight from the headlines who receives much too much credit for his discoveries. He invites his small group of friends from before they became successful every year for a fun weekend. This time, he has prepared a fictitious murder mystery whereby one of the visitors is implicated in the victim’s death.
Why invite the world’s most famous detective to such an event? Isn’t that like bringing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to your pickup basketball game? How are dummies like Kate Hudson’s former supermodel Birdie (now a lifestyle entrepreneur whose business is financed by Bron) supposed to compete? Or dummies like Dave Bautista’s Duke Cody, a men’s-rights YouTuber so attached to his handgun that he goes swimming with it strapped to his Speedo?
The Hollywood Reporter
With “Glass Onion,” Johnson isn’t inventing the mystery film from scratch, but he is having a hell of a time reorienting it to fit his witty narrative and lead super sleuth. Perhaps the only whodunit in which the lead character will exclaim, “It’s all so dumb!” after discovering the primary mystery (and be both correct and wrong in that assertion), and it’s better for it.
Johnson doesn’t need to worry about a sophomore slump because “Glass Onion” is a zippily and zanily its own thrill ride, and Johnson can’t produce these babies fast enough. While “Glass Onion” shares some similarities with Johnson’s 2019 smash hit (“stacked casts, lavish locations, Daniel Craig having the time of his goddamn life”), Johnson needn’t worry about a sophomore slump.
IndieWire
The film loves doubling back on itself to show things from a slightly altered vantage point, along the way exposing fresh details that keep answers ever-so-slightly out of reach—the better to maintain a mood of tantalizing intrigue and suspense.
The Daily Beast
Craig’s shtick was too archly hammy by just a few degrees in Knives Out and here he seems to double down. Some of that extra “now let’s see here” chicanery actually does serve a narrative purpose in Glass Onion, so we can forgive him that. But a little of Benoit Blanc goes a long way, and we sure do have a lot of him in this film.
Vanity Fair
Without spoiling too much of the plot, the film builds up to a howl of despair at the state of present-day America: a capitalist system that protects the self-interested one-percent and their accomplices, as well as a justice system designed to insulate them from severe consequences for their misdeeds. The explosive climax has a certain primally cathartic power, but it doesn’t quite dispel the air of self-satisfaction that envelops Johnson’s screenplay.
Slant Magazine
Janelle Monáe steals the show as Andi, while Kate Hudson is a highlight of every scene she’s in.
IGN
And if there’s anything that watchmaker auteur Johnson can do better than anyone else, it’s fine-tuning for maximum effect from the most minute curlicues.
Inside Hook
Despite Johnson’s skill as a screenwriter, Knives Out isn’t really about subtlety. Succession with police tape is a winning blend of satire and detective work, making it the ideal high-calorie form of escape. Third up, please.
