Glass Onion came out last year on Nov. 23, in theaters, then was added to Netflix on Dec. 23. The sequel follows Detective Benoit Blanc on a Greek island with a technology billionaire and his friends. The movie was directed by Rian Johnson who plans on making another movie following the “Knives Out” themes.
Although the movie keeps Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, the movie adds an exciting cast.
Miles Bron the billionaire, is played by Edward Norton. Cassandra “Andi” Brand, the former business partner to Miles, is played by Janelle Monae. Kathryn Hahn plays Claire Debella the Governor of Connecticut who is running for senator and Miles is funding her campaign. Leslie Odom Jr as Lionel Toussaint, a scientist who owes Bron his career. Birdie Jay, a problematic model/celebrity is played by Kate Hudson, and Bron is the main investor in her sweatpants company. Peg, played by Jessica Henwick, is Birdie’s assistant and tries to keep her uncanceled. Dave Bautista plays Duke Cody, and he is a men’s rights activist. Bron’s media center set up Duke’s youtube channel. Duke’s girlfriend, Whiskey, played by Madelyn Cline, has a secret with Bron.
The guests of this billionaire and Blanc are set to partake in a murder mystery game. But things go haywire after Blanc ruins the game and a guest is killed. Fingers are pointed, tensions rise, and another guest is killed and just like in the last movie, the audience is left guessing.
John Penola said the one way this movie could be improved is by “making more movies.” Penola goes on to sing Rian Johnson’s praises regarding the characters and their development. “You got ‘Andi’ just smashing the box, that says everything about the characters! All these people figuring it out, figuring out, how can we do it, and she just breaks it.”
On the other side, junior, Keira Fischbeck criticized one character’s main trait. “I personally do not like a character who is dumb when they are supposed to be the smart villain character.”
This movie is very different than “Knives Out”, as it takes place in an isolated environment with fewer people, and those people are held together with only one thread: Miles Bron. “Glass Onion” also steps away from its predecessor with its sales, it disproportionally went down from $400 million to only 15 million dollars. This drastic change most likely came from its release dates. The movie only had one month on the big screen before being put on Netflix. And as we know Netflix doesn’t charge extra for newer releases like Disney.
Another way “Glass Onion” breaks away from “Knives Out” is its storyline follows a former popular online game, “Among Us”. Blanc is introduced at the film’s beginning as playing “Among Us” and losing against his friends. Some of the music in the movie is also from “Among Us”, this becomes evident after the second character is murdered.
The movie also is what we are now seeing as a COVID film. These films serve as a capsule of sorts to the time when COVID was at its peak and everyone was under quarantine in the U.S. Fischbeck also explained her thoughts on covid being a tool in character development. “I thought this movie came out like a year and a half after the world decided that covid was over. I felt like it wasn’t necessary, but I think it was a good tool for character development
