Writer-director Rian Johnson throws another movie party with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, in that the cast and crew seem to be having just as much fun as the audience likely will. Like 2019’s Knives Out, Glass Onion features a Clue-esque array of characters who have been assembled by famed detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he tries to solve a puzzling case. Here, the crime occurs on a private island, where tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has gathered a fellowship of “beautiful disruptors”—movers and shakers in the worlds of science, fashion, politics, and social media. With a proof-of-concept performance already in the can, Craig leans even more comically into the character of Blanc; this is especially true in the early scenes, where Blanc willingly plays the wowed rube in the face of everyone’s wealth and fame. As Bron, Norton emits a hilariously potent eau de Elon Musk, while Kate Hudson brings delightfully ditzy comic timing to the part of Birdie Jay, a fashion icon who can’t get out of her own social-media way. Rounding out the main cast are Janelle Monae, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, and Leslie Odom Jr. As funny as many of the performances are, none of these characters register as people in quite the same way that the ailing author and home nurse, played by Christopher Plummer and Ana de Armas, did in Knives Out. Nor does the mystery—which sprawls to encompass corporate betrayal and courtroom testimonies—have the intimate sting of a family turning in on itself. Yet, as with Knives Out, Johnson takes care to add a bit of political bite to the proceedings. This is a movie interested in unmasking killers, yes, but also emperors who wear no clothes.
(11/22/2022)