Glass Onion

Tech billionaire Miles Bron (Norton) invites his close-knit group of longtime friends out to his private Greek island for a weekend getaway, but when one of them turns up dead, Detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) is put on the case.

I’ve been a big fan of Rian Johnson ever since I was the only person in the theatre for the opening Friday showing of his “Dashiell Hammett, but set in a high school” noir film Brick. Afterwards, I said that I couldn’t wait to see what else he does next, and since then, no other “new/emerging” filmmaker has surprised, excited, and impressed me as consistently. Spielberg is still Spielberg, obviously, but to me, Rian Johnson is the heir apparent, consistently making good, smart, and ridiculously entertaining films for the masses.

The Glass Onion is no different.

Set in the early days of COVID-19, with the full range of wealthy and privileged irresponsibilities on display, The Glass Onion takes place over one weekend on the private island retreat of the world famous billionaire entrepreneur Miles Bron. It’s a yearly celebration held for him and his four closest friends, a group he refers to as The Disruptors. Lionel, the inventor (Odom). Claire, the politician (Hahn). Duke, the Alpha Male Influencer (Bautista), and his girlfriend, Whiskey (Cline). And also Birdie Jay, the fashionista (Hudson), along with her assistant Peg (Henwick). Derol (Noah Segan) is also there, but he’s not part of the group, he’s just staying at Miles’ place while he’s going through some stuff. Ignore him.

But this year, the gathering has an additional wrinkle…

Unexpectedly joining the party is Cassandra Brand (the lovely and illustrious Janelle Monáe), Miles’ ex-business partner and a former close friend of the Disruptors, as well as a former member, now excommunicated as she has recently lost her company, not to mention a lawsuit, to Miles.

Finally, of course, apparently invited anonymously, and possibly the biggest monkeywrench in the works… there’s Benoit Blanc, the world’s greatest detective.

Luckily…

Because over the course of this weekend, during this gathering of friends and rivals with their oh-so entangled lives… there’s a murder.

Obviously, you can’t get into this too much without spoiling the ending, but rest assured, much like Knives Out, this is a well-done and completely solvable little murder mystery, as long as you’re paying attention…

Also much like Knives Out, The Glass Onion is funny, witty, clever, throughly enjoyable, and packed with talent from front to back. It’s a twisty-turning whodunnit mystery wrapped in wickedly barbed and very, very relevant social commentary about unearned privilege, the toxicity of entitlement, and the way some mediocre people are allowed to fail upwards for the simple reason of the luck of birth. Best part of all, the answer to this riddle truly was out there in plain sight all along…

Big thumbs up. Absolutely loved it.