Glass OnionA little known secret about comedy: it's always funnier when someone does something unintentionally absurd in all seriousness rather than doing something silly in an obvious way. That's the basic idea behind (and, ironically, problem with) the satirical murder mystery, Glass Onion, a sequel to writer/director Rian Johnson's earlier Knives Out. Again featuring Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as the ascot-wearing detective with a Southern drawl, the action takes place on a remote island in the Aegean Sea owned by arrogant billionaire, Miles Bron (Edward Norton). Blanc, along with the usual slew of eccentrics, is invited by Bron to a murder...his own. (Yes, I liked it when they did it in Murder by Death, as well.)
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Despite presenting itself as a murder mystery, Glass Onion is content to spend an excruciatingly long time in the first act establishing just how horrible Bron and his cronies really are. Bron himself is a thinly-veiled jab at provocative billionaire industrialist, Elon Musk, and his fortunes have allowed him to finance a clique of elitist and arrogant "disruptors"...public figures in various avenues of media and politics who are indebted to him for their respective successes. (I mean "Bron" here, but interpret that how you will.) Each of these "influencers" are caricatures of both murder mystery archetypes as well as the kind of nonsense that passes for celebrities these days. Not content to merely spill the tea on influencers, Johnson also sets his farce very obviously during May of 2020, at the height of Covid-19. Of course this leads to an overindulgence of "remember that" moments for viewers, like facemasks, zoom meetings, and all that jazz. It's an altogether bizarre choice given that at the moment that Blanc and the other guests arrive on Bron's island, all of this is completely irrelevant. There's an uncomfortable sense in the first act of Glass Onion that the movie is trying too hard to placate an audience that it believes isn't patient enough to let the movie build to the gleefully labyrinthine mystery waiting pass all of this superficial dreck. It's perhaps a litmus test for viewers; if you can put up with the first thirty minutes of Glass Onion, you'll be rewarded with a compelling murder mystery...just hang in there, folks.
Once Glass Onion calms down on all of its cringeworthy pop culture references, there's an actual murder. Of course, we all knew this was coming, and it's only fair to deliver unto its audience. I'm determined to avoid spoiling as much as possible about Glass Onion, precisely because its strength is found here. The film does wonders to upend your expectations midway through the film. Most viewers will guess at most of the twists and turns, and that's rewarding, true. But the greatest enjoyment in a murder mystery comes from when something that you didn't expect comes to pass. Suffice to say, there are plenty of these moments that forced me to reevaluate Glass Onion in the midst of my viewing. What at first comes across as a nigh-insufferable collection of "remember when" moments for the TikTok generation instead actually evolves into a complex commentary on the way that people are afraid to stand up for what is right because of the call of creature comforts and our obsession with image. People tend to look back on eras like "The Eighties" as the "Me Generation", where slogans like "greed is good" made it appear that this was the time that most exemplified excess. But in truth, that has never been more true than today. More than ever, we live in a world overridden with media icons becoming politicians becoming icons of industry, or vice versa, mix and match. There are moments in Glass Onion which feel overly preachy and two-dimensional. Bron's collective of stars, scientists, politicians, and the like are all, uniformly, detestable. They are both rich and stupid, and Bron seems to be their exemplar. Yes, Rian, we get it. We live in a wacky world with celebrities rolling in wealth (sometimes literally) for whom the rules do not apply. But there's a kind of hypocrisy here as well. And without spoiling anything, even the odd character who comes from a less privileged background is far from wanting. In fact, save for Blanc, nearly everyone in Glass Onion is motivated by something that feels fundamentally flawed, from revenge to greed. And how is pressure exerted by one of these elite over another? Almost uniformly, it is by the threat of tarnishing their reputation. For the majority of the characters in Glass Onion, good and evil are nothing more than representations of public image. It's a terrifying thought that in a world where one's image determines one's character, that there isn't a subversion of this in the film.
Murder mysteries will always be popular fare. Everybody loves a good "whodunit". There are many scenes in Glass Onion which almost come out of the blue to make you take notice, that successfully build tension. There are lots of visual cues that subconsciously invite the audience to apply meaning to them, and sometimes we're even right in our own amateur sleuthing. Some are pretty obvious, like how of course Bron didn't invite a bunch of people who secretly hate him to a remote island to solve his own "murder" for real. And yet audiences will immediately begin to suspect that that irony is lurking just around the corner to have a go at the arrogant host. There's a massive amount of bourgeois tastelessness and name dropping in Bron and his ilk that should amount to a lot of eye-rolling in the audience. But, to be fair, doesn't it feel a lot these days like you can't just watch TV or read the news and not be afflicted with this kind of aggressive elitist grandstanding at every turn? Like most satires, Glass Onion relies on its audience's awareness of the absurdity of pop culture events and icons; but since the kinds of things which the movie makes fun of are already the acme of stupidity, it feels somewhat like it's grabbing low hanging fruit.
Recommended for: Fans of a comedic murder mystery that borrows heavily for its formula from the likes of Agatha Christie movie adaptations; I can't help but think of it as something like "National Lampoon's Death on the Nile" or something. Glass Onion is too often grating because of all of its awkward and unsubtle nods to pop culture. But despite this, there are moments of genius and clever reveals and direction contained within. Too bad you have to wade through the muck of cheap yuks just to get to them.
Once Glass Onion calms down on all of its cringeworthy pop culture references, there's an actual murder. Of course, we all knew this was coming, and it's only fair to deliver unto its audience. I'm determined to avoid spoiling as much as possible about Glass Onion, precisely because its strength is found here. The film does wonders to upend your expectations midway through the film. Most viewers will guess at most of the twists and turns, and that's rewarding, true. But the greatest enjoyment in a murder mystery comes from when something that you didn't expect comes to pass. Suffice to say, there are plenty of these moments that forced me to reevaluate Glass Onion in the midst of my viewing. What at first comes across as a nigh-insufferable collection of "remember when" moments for the TikTok generation instead actually evolves into a complex commentary on the way that people are afraid to stand up for what is right because of the call of creature comforts and our obsession with image. People tend to look back on eras like "The Eighties" as the "Me Generation", where slogans like "greed is good" made it appear that this was the time that most exemplified excess. But in truth, that has never been more true than today. More than ever, we live in a world overridden with media icons becoming politicians becoming icons of industry, or vice versa, mix and match. There are moments in Glass Onion which feel overly preachy and two-dimensional. Bron's collective of stars, scientists, politicians, and the like are all, uniformly, detestable. They are both rich and stupid, and Bron seems to be their exemplar. Yes, Rian, we get it. We live in a wacky world with celebrities rolling in wealth (sometimes literally) for whom the rules do not apply. But there's a kind of hypocrisy here as well. And without spoiling anything, even the odd character who comes from a less privileged background is far from wanting. In fact, save for Blanc, nearly everyone in Glass Onion is motivated by something that feels fundamentally flawed, from revenge to greed. And how is pressure exerted by one of these elite over another? Almost uniformly, it is by the threat of tarnishing their reputation. For the majority of the characters in Glass Onion, good and evil are nothing more than representations of public image. It's a terrifying thought that in a world where one's image determines one's character, that there isn't a subversion of this in the film.
Murder mysteries will always be popular fare. Everybody loves a good "whodunit". There are many scenes in Glass Onion which almost come out of the blue to make you take notice, that successfully build tension. There are lots of visual cues that subconsciously invite the audience to apply meaning to them, and sometimes we're even right in our own amateur sleuthing. Some are pretty obvious, like how of course Bron didn't invite a bunch of people who secretly hate him to a remote island to solve his own "murder" for real. And yet audiences will immediately begin to suspect that that irony is lurking just around the corner to have a go at the arrogant host. There's a massive amount of bourgeois tastelessness and name dropping in Bron and his ilk that should amount to a lot of eye-rolling in the audience. But, to be fair, doesn't it feel a lot these days like you can't just watch TV or read the news and not be afflicted with this kind of aggressive elitist grandstanding at every turn? Like most satires, Glass Onion relies on its audience's awareness of the absurdity of pop culture events and icons; but since the kinds of things which the movie makes fun of are already the acme of stupidity, it feels somewhat like it's grabbing low hanging fruit.
Recommended for: Fans of a comedic murder mystery that borrows heavily for its formula from the likes of Agatha Christie movie adaptations; I can't help but think of it as something like "National Lampoon's Death on the Nile" or something. Glass Onion is too often grating because of all of its awkward and unsubtle nods to pop culture. But despite this, there are moments of genius and clever reveals and direction contained within. Too bad you have to wade through the muck of cheap yuks just to get to them.