5 out of 5

Directed by: Rian Johnson

In my normal idiocy, I kind of fell out with Rian Johnson, somehow around the time of Looper. Looper, which starred one of my obsessions, Bruce Willis. Looper, a timey-wimey caper, after Johnson had floored and/or thoroughly entertained me through Brick and Brothers Bloom, and worked on shows I would come to dig and/or obsess over – Terriers and Breaking Bad.

What? Why?

It’s that idiocy thing. That thing where I’d professed dedication to this director, and then a very logical “you will certainly love this” entry comes along (Time travel! Bruce Willis!) and I casually nope out, and watch Turtles cartoons or something. Maybe I’m dodging expectations. …But that doesn’t necessarily account for why I’ll then try to unwrite my own history, and get rid of my DVDs, and etc. It’s surely just contrary idiot nonsense, that I was able to ‘prove’ to myself when the director helmed a Star Wars movie, and not because that movie was or wasn’t bad, but just because… it was Star Wars. Something something.

I dunno man. I’m trying to cure myself of this dumb disease. But Knives Out was a good “forced” cure, giving me easy streaming access and good timing to watch it with others. And it was thoroughly enjoyed. And I rebought my DVDs (now on Blu-ray – it was always the plan, so I could upgrade!), though maybe still felt a bit put out by Star Wars. …Though to be fair, who wouldn’t take their shot on something like that, if they felt like they could do some right by it.

Anyhow, we’ve arrived at the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion, which is really only a sequel in that it again features wily detective Benoit Blanc – one of the best named fictional characters of all time, with a whimsical, all-eyes-on-him amusing performance by Daniel Craig. And if Knives Out sometimes felt a bit forced with its themes, it was still, undeniably, Johnson: stylistically, tonally, all of it. Glass Onion is that even more, with its themes more properly molded into the story. It forms a straight line with all of Rian’s non-Star Wars films in every way, satisfying as a cinematic experience and with its narrative to a level I have not experienced with Rian’s work since Brick, making that straight line maybe a bit wavier through sophomore proving grounds and blockbuster recovery. And with Glass Onion, that line comes to a point of being able to wield his skills with a universally great cast, fantastic production, striking cinematography (Steve Yedlin), precise and never unmotivated editing (Bob Ducsay), and an excellent score, as always, by constant film companion and brother, Nathan.

The straight-forward read: this is another murder mystery. It’s all Agatha Christie up in this joint, but modernized in a way that works with that style in a way many Christie-inspired send ups cannot manage. Blanc, as a character, is what helps us straddles this classic / contemporary line, and Rian (and Craig) can flex this any which way so that the plot can swirl around high tech plot devices but not lose us in the nitty gritty of a whodunnit. Or a whodunnwhat, in this instance, as Glass Onion – befitting its title, which it lampshades along with every other plot device you’re expecting it to use (and happily does!) – keeps peeling back the crime we think we’re investigating for another, while still kind of swirling around the one at its core, involving billionaire genius Miles Bron (Edward Norton), and the death that takes place during his staged weekend mystery play for his “disruptors:” a group of influencers he calls friend but really just finances, played as various Clue archetypes of the genre (a dumb game, Benoit will remind us) by Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.

I’d tell you the movie tries to be to clever by half, but it only does that by not doing that. You’re buoyed along by this kind of entertaining swirl of “and then what” storytelling and hilarious little jabs – Bron’s constant references to other celebrities; the disruptors half-mentioned asides of things gone wrong in their careers, Blanc’s presented perplexment at being invited, accidentally, to this weekend game, then of detective-ing use when things start going wrong – but when the film hits its first big reversal of what you’ve been watching, about halfway through, it’s just a total level up, without disturbing the value of that first half. And you’ve already been guessing at clues along the way and the movie is playing along, and then it hits another reversal and another, but again, the charm here is twofold: that nothing you’ve previously seen is made pointless by this structure, and Blanc (and others) are discovering and solving things sort of at your same pace, so you can be just ahead of things, or be totally satisfied by being caught up right after the fact.

It is so much fun. It is fun alone, or with friends; it is fun to rewatch and appreciate how joyously it effects the cinematic art.

So until the next timey wimey Star Wars film that triggers my idiocy, I’m again all in on my Johnson fandom, and I’ll support him only making Benoit Blanc films with Craig from now on, with special shoutouts to Janelle Monáe and Edward Norton for each absolutely crushing their multi-faceted roles in this flick.