Director: Rian Johnson

Writer: Rian Johnson

Starring: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista

Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back for the second Knives Out Mystery, Glass Onion, which takes its name from a Beatles song. Like the first film it’s written and directed by Rian Johnson and features a great ensemble cast, as well as a blend of comedy and suspense as Blanc solves his next great case.

An eccentric billionaire, Miles Bron (Edward Norton) sends out puzzle boxes to his closest friends, and once they solve them, they’re invited to his mansion, the Glass Onion, on his private island to participate in a murder mystery night. Somehow Benoit Blanc also receives an invite, despite Miles not having invited him. Once they’re all on the island they find there’s a greater mystery than Miles’s game.

There are so many twists throughout the film, to the point that even the actual mystery Blanc is solving isn’t really fully revealed until late in the game. Everyone has a secret, and once the pieces start to fall into place it works really well. It does hold most of major clues until a lengthy flashback sequence, so it’s not quite satisfying to find the solution, since it seems to obvious once the clues are there. You spend more time trying to figure out what Blanc is actually investigating, rather than getting to the bottom of it. Even so, it’s still very funny and entertaining to watch and it does feel like you’d get more out of rewatching the film.

Everyone in the cast is absolutely brilliant, as you’d expect. It’s great to see Daniel Craig back as Blanc, who’s introduced sitting in a bath while playing Among Us with friends while in lockdown. Without any challenges or cases to solve, he’s resorted to practically living in the bath. The film is set during the pandemic, which is strange to see so present in the film. Especially seeing all of the characters in masks as they arrive on the boat to the private island.

Glass Onion is a good sequel to Knives Out but it doesn’t top the brilliant of the original. It’s still a fun murder mystery and is more evidence that Benoit Blanc deserves his place alongside the likes of Poirot and Sherlock Holmes as one of the best fictional detectives ever created. Hopefully the third film is just as good.

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