LogFAQs > #970851483

Glass Onion (2022)
Written and Directed by: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., Dave Bautista, Madelyn Cline, Jessica Henwick
Previous status: Never seen

"I think disruptors recognize each other."

While this is a worthy film on its own right, I found it weaker than its predecessor in several areas. One of the first issues was setting it during COVID - the attempts at humor in relation to the pandemic fall flat, because at this point everyone wants to move the fuck on and thus it's not funny. Rian Johnson had to know people would boo that shit come fall 2022, right? And this permeates throughout the movie - it lacks the same cleverness as Knives Out. What was subtly delicious in the first movie is more in-your-face here, like Jared Leto and Jeremy Renner making hard kombucha and hot sauce... which I don't find funny, I find forced. Though the best laugh I had was either Serena Williams breaking the fourth wall or that while I was watching the movie, the cats were watching me:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/7/AAR0ZFAAEFzb.jpg
That's Tread on the table and Luna at the top of the tree (you can't really see her but she's a Tortie). Luna made me laugh again later when she came in to remind me to feed her at the time I said I would. Smart kitty.

I also didn't like how Wikipedia says that Hugh Grant played Blanc's partner since that role had zero plot purpose. And since Grant calls him Blanc instead of Benny, it adds nothing to Blanc's character and makes one presume Grant is just a roommate. I'd be saying the same things for a woman partner - it felt like a needless cameo instead of good character development, since they never even really interact! There are other minor issues, like how ugly Claire's visors are (she goes from looking 40ish to pushing 60 just like that), but then we get to the second big issue I have: The lack of surprise.

Unlike the first time I watched Knives Out, I had almost everything figured out. While Knives Out (spoilers for only that herein) had the double blackmail, the torching of the crime lab, and both Fran twists (yes I figured that Ransom was the most likely killer and the medicine labels were switched, but there was much more to it), this one... was mostly predictable. Maybe it was since I paid attention to every detail, i.e. the smokeless garden alarm (Rian Johnson is a master of payoff, which that did have), but something's off. Firstly (Glass Onion spoilers), with all the buildup toward Edward Norton's character, Elon Musk... wait, no Miles Bron, sorry... being the likely victim, and how long that lasted, it became clear he wouldn't be the one killed. Once the other four - Lionel (Odom), Claire (Hahn), Birdie (Hudson), and Duke (Bautista) - were the focus, it was pretty obvious one of them would die (it was Duke) and the guilty party would be someone outside of that foursome. I ruled Claire out quickly given how plastered she was, since there was no way she could be subtle. But the idea of Miles Musk absolving himself by giving Duke his glass, then pointing it out, was almost too obvious.

Secondly, the twin twist was a surprise, sure, but it lacked any impact since we found it out at the same time we learned that Cassandra "Andi" Brand had a twin sister Helen (both played by Monae), along with that Andi had been murdered and staged to look like a suicide. It didn't really change anything. I also wrote down "Kevlar vest" on my notepad during the extended flashback sequence explaining everything - I'm gonna count that in the win column even though it was Andi's diary that ate the bullet, but that quickly dissipated the initial shock of the apparent double homicide. Musk torching the original napkin was so obvious. I was about to write it down before it happened because it was so predictable. Musk was clearly frustrated that his escape room murder game was ruined by a professional who figured it out thanks to a ridiculous passive perception score.

I KEEP SAYING ELON MUSK, DAMMIT. But that's really who Edward Norton's character is, a smarmy rich bastard complete with he modern Bond villain lair he built for himself on a private island (Musk is your typical modern Bond villain; Jeff Bezos is your "classic" Bond villain). And Norton is a star here, playing the Musk role perfectly. He's got trust issues with even his friends and his philosophy actually makes sense: Start disrupting something small, something people are tired of anyway, and grow from there. But though people like shocks to the system, they don't want the system itself to change, and that's what bonded this group together for so long... that and the world's richest man paying for everything they needed, whether that was to quash the covfefe about a comment regarding child labor sweatshops in BANGladesh, to finance a run for the Governor of Connecticut, or to study this "Klear" stuff that is the new nuclear power for Musk himself. Very interesting and complex villain.

Now, don't get me wrong, despite all these issues I still enjoyed the movie. I found the performances to be admirable - Norton's as I said above, but Janelle Monae was also one hell of a star. She portrayed both twins effectively, both the overachiever Andi and the normal "go with the flow" Helen... and Helen being thrust into her sister's shoes so only the killer was onto her. You could see the differences, and it was great. Madelyn Cline is also great as Whiskey, with the rollercoaster of emotions that she experiences and her trying to build a brand despite associating with a thug. Bautista is par for the course with him, and Leslie Odom is channeling his Aaron Burr very well here, with a modern science-y twist.

The climax, while more contrived than Knives Out, was still fun. Helen's destruction of the place was simply smashing, and the symbolism of the exploding glass onion was not lost on me. This was her breaking the system, challenging the system the disruptors created for themselves. They instead had the same thing perpetrated upon them. And they deserved it, because as Helen said, they're shitheads. All five of shitheads are awful, though only Musk is on the Trombeys' level. Both Whiskey and Peg are bystanders dragged into this, and Whiskey recognizes her objectification though she's fine with it... for now. That storyline was great, as was the backstory with them all committing perjury since Musk had dirt on them. They just changed their mind when he was ruined, and then it just ended without much closure. No arrest, just lacking in the same satisfaction. It was just the three remaining shitheads, Whiskey, and Peg finally growing the balls to challenge the megalomaniac. Even though it certainly meant Claire not only lost her Senate bid, but reelection for Governor two years later. Whiskey could become a celebrity at a trial though, if it went the way Depp v. Turd did.

Other things I loved included that marvelous puzzle box (I want one), the way this was criticizing how rich jerks behave, the music, the de-aging of the actors back to 2005, and the set design. On the overall, I still liked this movie, but I wanted to like it more than I did. I am gonna have to go with 3.5/5.