It’s Awards Season and the studios are sending us critics lots of really good films that practically no one but us will see; Art House films, Foreign Language entries- you know, “classy films.” So it’s a wonderful surprise to see that we have here a very mainstream, easy-to-digest murder mystery that is smart and funny and a crowd-pleaser.
It’s technically a sequel, but you don’t have to have seen Knives Out to dive right into Glass Onion. Rian Johnson is setting up his franchise to be like Columbo: same detective from film to film, but a whole new story and cast. Our returning detective here is a wonderful Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a southern gentleman with a thick drawl and a sharp mind. He can solve mysteries almost as fast as you can make them.
Benoit Blanc joins a seemingly disparate group of eccentrics on a remote Greek island. The group includes a scientist, a washed up model, and an elected politician among them. What they have in common is the zillionaire, Myles Bron (Ed Norton at his “I’m the smartest guy in the room” best) who owns the fabulous crib on this island.
He has summoned them to solve a murder…his murder. They’ll have the weekend to do it, with great prizes to the victor.
And I’m going to stop right there – Murphy has made this a Chess game where he’s thinking three moves ahead of us in the audience, but in a fun way that doesn’t make us feel dumb. It’s just a very satisfying watch. You’ll chuckle and go with its flow, regardless of how realistic any of it may be because it has earned your good will.
My general quibble is that I don’t want movies to be over two hours unless they’re, like, Scorsese. This one gets away with it by having a 15 minute pre-title sequence that somehow makes it feel like the run time isn’t quite as long as it looks on paper.
I loved it. I also love those arty awards bait films when they’re good. But this is a guilty pleasure that isn’t guilty at all – it’s just a pleasure.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery has been in theaters and starts on Netflix December 23rd
