"Glass Onion" - Review

During the great lockdown of 2020, a selection of puzzle boxes arrive on the doorsteps of various members of high society: men's rights Twitch streamer Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), current Governor and environmental candidate for the Senate Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Junior), fashion icon and socialite Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), and mysterious business mogul Andi Brand (Janelle Monae). When solved, they reveal invitations to the private island reunion of laid-back billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), who meets with his "disruptors" every year for the last 10 years for fun, thrills and games. This year he has prepared an intricate, weekend long murder mystery for them to solve! But things are not as they appear: in addition to the tensions and awkwardness amongst the group, they are joined by another guest: the debonair and dashing detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). And when something goes very much awry on the island, his services may be required...

To say that I was excited for this is an understatement of unmeasurable proportions. "Knives Out" is a slippery, playful, fun, endless delight of a film which holds up to many a repeat viewing, and may be the best thing Rian Johnson will ever make. This is not quite that, but gives us so, so, so much more of what that movie had to offer. It's so MUCH more, it's the "bigger and better" kind of sequel, another excellent murder mystery to boot. The characters are an utterly delight to follow: watching a bunch of high-society shitheads bicker and bond and pull apart and keep secrets, all under the gaze of the biggest shithead of all: Bron. The characters are a delight to follow, and the actors relish in their parts: chewing on dialogue and scenery alike, just like in the first mystery. The grander scale allows for slightly more eccentric folks, but in the context of obnoxious success and the ultra rich on a desert island, they don't come across as charicatures, rather the same examinations of upper-middle-class arrogance from the first film but filtered through EVEN MORE money and just escalated. Dave Bautista as a men's rights activist (living in his mother's basement) gets a lot of laughs (especially in the beginning), but for me the highlights were Kate Hudson as a constantly cancelled, posting racial slurs, airheaded fashion designer; and her put-upon straight-woman assistant Peg (an excellent Jessica Henwick, who gets a flat "what" at one of Benoit Blanc's lines, which absolutely kills me) - consistently getting laughs and stealing the show. The rate of humour and jokes and witty asides, observations, callbacks and planting-payoff is awe-inspiring, and this is some magnificent scripting work across the board.
It remembers that it is a murder mystery, and it's a damn good one. I was happy to call it, remembering that the "Glass Onion" in question is something with many layers, but the core is visible at all times...
Yet despite the FREQUENTLY funny moments, at its core (hah!) there is still a story about how we idolise billionaires for absolutely no reason, and when you peel back that layer of idiocy, you see the stupidity was always there. In its explosive, bombastic conclusion, where the murderer is revealed, we are happy to have been hoodwinked by the film, yes, but there's also a righteous anger to it all.
100% recommend