Glass Onion (2022) dir. Rian Johnson

Glass Onion is a mystery film about a tech billionaire whose murder mystery party takes a deadly turn when the game results in an act of violent revenge. It is a standalone sequel to Johnson’s hit 2019 movie, Knives Out, with Daniel Craig returning as detective Benoit Blanc. Lionsgate greenlit a sequel in 2020, but the following year Netflix acquired the rights to all Knives Out sequels. Johnson was inspired by Agatha Christie’s “vacation mysteries” taking place in exotic locales. Filming began in Greece in May 2021. 

Rian Johnson was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Academy Awards. 

Set during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Miles Bron, co-founder of technology company Alpha, invites his closest friends to join him for a murder mystery game at the Glass Onion, his mansion on a private Greek island. His colleagues include Alpha’s head scientist Lionel Toussaint, Connecticut governor Claire Debella, men’s rights streamer Duke Cody, his girlfriend Whiskey, cancelled model-influencer Birdie Jay, and her assistant Peg. The last guest to arrive is the recently ousted Alpha co-founder, Cassandra “Andi” Brand. 

Miles is surprised when world famous detective Benoit Blanc gets off the boat, assuring him that a guest must have invited Benoit as a joke. Miles lets Benoit stay anyway and introduces him to “Klear,” a hydrogen-based alternative fuel that he believes will be the power of the future. Later, the murder mystery game begins and Benoit solves it immediately to Miles’ supreme disappointment. An argument breaks out amongst the guests and Duke suddenly chokes to death. Before any fingers are pointed, the lights go out. With a killer on the loose, Benoit must get to the truth before another guest winds up dead. 

As much as I love a mystery element or surprise reveal in horror or thrillers, murder mystery as a genre is not really my thing. I think what it comes down to is my frustration with how these stories tend to wrap up. Always a bit contrived and convoluted in execution and explanation or worse tied up a little too neatly in an unsatisfying way. 

I knew Knives Out was wildly popular so I got around to it last year as a double feature with Sidney Lumet’s own adaptation of Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. While I wasn’t blown away by it, at the very least I enjoyed Lumet’s expert direction and the work of the ensemble cast. But Knives Out? Probably the most fun I’ve ever had trying to solve a mystery movie. So I went into Glass Onion with higher expectations. I also prefer Johnson’s The Last Jedi over any of the Disney Star Wars sequels, which is controversial to say online. 

So you can imagine my shock and horror when I’m a full hour into a two and half hour murder mystery and no one is dead yet. Half, if not more, of this movie is just exposition. Tons of useless details thrown at the viewer, I suppose as an attempt at misdirection but it is relentless and unbearable at times. My main theory is that since this script was explicitly written with Netflix in mind, the extra details and repetition of basic facts exists solely because most audience members will be half watching or glancing at their phones throughout. They needed to make sure the important bits are emphasized so that viewers aren’t confused by the reveals. 

My other sense is that maybe this wouldn’t be so grating if the characters we were getting to know weren’t two dimensional idiots who feel like internet personalities brought to real life. I mean this is the worst way possible, you can tell Johnson wrote this early in the pandemic, basing everyone off of horrible people he saw on Twitter. 

Film characters, especially in genre movies, are under no obligation to be “real people.” But all of the characters are written and performed with so much judgment that they come off as shallow sketches with nothing under the surface. It’s part of this “eat the rich” trend in 2020s filmmaking, chasing some kind of populist catharsis from seeing fictional, spoiled, bigoted, and stupid elites get what’s coming to them. An impulse I certainly empathize with, but in execution it is usually shallow and trite. Maybe Johnson is onto something about how dumb are time is and I’m asking too much here.

The only saving grace of the entire movie is Janelle Monáe who pulls double duty as two different characters, giving a performance that puts everyone else to shame. It’s not that her characters or even her acting is exceptional, she’s just the only one with any depth. It was a huge relief when at the halfway mark they step up as the protagonist. I don’t know if I would’ve been as keen to continue on without them. Monáe made this bearable and occasionally entertaining. 

Mean-spirited in the way that a nasty comment is. Irritating, but doesn’t leave a lasting impact. 

How do you cast Kathryn Hahn and not give her a single joke?