‘Glass Onion’ review: A brilliant addition to the detective genre, and a sarcastic commentary on 2022
- Daniel Craig stars as Detective Benoit Blanc in this hilarious, insightful film that reflects the political and social dynamics of the year
- There’s more than meets the eye when a group of friends is invited to a billionaire’s private island at the start of the coronavirus pandemic
Daniel Craig plays detective Benoit Blanc in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”. Photo: Netflix/TNSGlass Onion: a Knives Out Mystery is a brilliant, sarcastic elegy for corrupt billionaires and an artistic revival of the detective movie genre.
It’s March 2020, and Detective Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig), who we met in the first film, is invited to visit the private island of tech entrepreneur Miles Bron (Edward Norton) – even though he’s never met the man. Blanc joins Miles’ friends, a so-called group of “disrupters,” in a murder mystery game. However, there’s more to this casual weekend than meets the eye – especially after an unexpected guest, Bron’s former business partner Andi Brand (Janelle Monae), arrives.
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Like its predecessor Knives Out, Glass Onion brings artistic sarcasm in modern mystery films to a new level. It retains the same ultra-rich setting as its prequel, even bringing in a Baby Blue Porsche and taking place in an expensive glass house that is literally shaped like an onion. The Glass Onion represents many things throughout the movie, including how feeble Bron’s empire is, and becomes the centre of the mystery. While it’s multilayered, “its centre is in plain sight,” according to Blanc.
The film is the perfect embodiment of the political dynamics of 2022. As Meta’s scandals, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the recent arrest of cryptocurrency giant Sam Bankman-Fried continue to dominate headlines, the world has grown distrustful of billionaires, especially in the technology and finance sectors. As a result, both the film and society as a whole have begun questioning their influence on the world and the legitimacy of their work.
The development of Benoit Blanc’s character proves how far the “good detective” troupe has evolved. In the early Sherlock and Charlie Chan films of the 1930s and 1940s, the detective goes through a minimal and typically off-screen thought process to arrive at the truth. While the 1970s and 1980s saw a boom of films based on Agatha Christie’s classics, most featured Poirot as an invincible detective. Furthermore, BBC’s revival of the Sherlock Holmes series in the 2010s introduced mystery fans to an all-powerful detective with a brain as fast as a bullet train who can rise from the dead. Soon, detectives became a godlike presence in films.
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It wasn’t until the release of Knives Out and the 2017 remake of Murder on the Orient Express that detectives became more vulnerable and human. In particular, Blanc’s emotional investment in the happenings of Knives Out and Glass Onion is just as enjoyable to watch as his calculating logic.
In a world where judicial systems fail to actually deliver justice, Knives Out and Glass Onion show that justice doesn’t just exist in the courtroom; it can also be handled personally and poetically. The witty, enjoyable, and enigmatic Glass Onion brings closure to 2022 – a year of fraud and scepticism that made people rethink how they idolise the rich.