I saw the first Knives Out film 3 times in the cinema. That's a pretty rare occurrence that's
usually saved for Creed movies or Top Gun: Maverick, but I adored that first film. The
memorable characters, the comedy, the style that made it feel like you were reading a detective
noir by the fireplace but with a modern twist, Daniel Craig with his fantastic Kentucky-fried
Foghorn Leghorn drawl, all of it being a clever subversion of a genre without constantly trying to
draw attention to the fact that it’s a subversion of a genre. For me it’s a pretty perfect movie,
and a lot of people felt similarly, which is why it was successful and of course, a sequel was
greenlit. Now a sequel to an original film that I loved these days has me both excited and nervous,
excited because of course I wanna see more of this world and what this writer-director can offer,
but nervous because I don’t want this special film for me to be slightly dragged down by
what came after. All of this is to say I went into Knives Out 2 cautiously excited,
and I left having gotten something honestly better than I was expecting. So spoilers ahead,
big old spoilers, today I’m talking about what makes Glass Onion a perfect sequel.
An ideal sequel should give the audience more of what they enjoyed in the first film while
building on it organically, not a total departure that leaves the audience confused but also not a
safe retread that leaves you feeling like you could’ve just rewatched the first movie. And
Glass Onion does that perfectly, if you look at a loose overall summary it’s pretty much
the same movie. A group of unlikable characters gather, there’s a murder mystery that Benoit
Blanc has to solve but ultimately the film is more about this other character. But it’s the
subtle changes in the details of that story that make it stand out so much, just aesthetically we
go from the dark fall-time manor environment to a summertime Greek island, Rian Johnson’s unique
style keeps everything feeling fresh, and the jokes, while a lot of them are still political,
poke at different areas of politics which we’ll get to. Benoit as a character doesn't feel like
a tired impression of what he was in the first film which happens with some franchises with
iconic characters, he still feels like a fully fleshed out fun character. The only times at the
start where he can start to feel a bit like a bumbling parody of himself, it’s revealed
later that he was doing that intentionally as part of a plan. Sidenote, I did like that in
this movie they do show more of how great of a detective he actually is, because the first film
a lot of the mystery sort of falls into his lap until he figures out at the end, in small ways
like ruining Miles’ murder mystery and in bigger ways like the actual murder, I enjoyed seeing him
actually being a very competent detective here. The best example of this film following the first
film without redoing it is the way it subverts the detective mystery genre. The first film had such
an interesting way of presenting a murder mystery, showing you the actual death at the start and us
thinking we’re following the “murderer” the whole time, but slowly unraveling that there is actually
more to the story than initially presented, as you would in a typical murder mystery. Here,
Rian Johnson finds a unique subversion that is unique to not just typical mystery story
but to the first film’s own unique story, with the fake out murder mystery party,
then the death of Duke and the fake out death of Helen before revealing that the actual
murder happened much earlier and that Benoit and Helen have been carrying out their own separate
investigation this whole time. It’s brilliant, it again keeps the viewer on their toes and makes
a type of story where you feel like you’ve seen everything they could with it feel fresh again.
Quick reminder here if you’re enjoying this video as much as Benoit Blanc hates Clue,
drop a like, subscribe, hit the bell button,
and comment your thoughts on the film down below! Also after the vid check
out my podcast The Poorly Planned Podcast, fun movie TV talk, alright back to the vid.
In my video about The Boys last year, I talked about how political satire
has become so oversaturated over the past few years that even if you agree with the message,
it’s hard to not roll your eyes sometimes when it's lazily done. And this and the first Knives
Out film are great examples of how to do it well, like The Boys. It’s a lot more overt in this one,
in the first film obviously there was satire about the wealthy, there were the occasional
political jokes, and the idea of immigration was pretty central to the main character. Here,
the rich people satire is turned up to 11, with a specific focus on the Elon Musk 21st century
type of tech entrepreneur who thinks he’s a genius but is really just extremely shallow and an idiot.
And there’s a lot more about corporations, cancellation, social media. But all of this,
trying to relate to modern culture could be a very cringey and immediately dated feeling,
hell even the pandemic stuff I might normally hate, we just got out of the pandemic can we
please not be reminded of it already. But Rian Johnson weaves it into the story so well that
it isn’t annoying, the story isn’t only political satire and so it gets boring and stale, but the
film also doesn't just stop at random points to start giving us an awkwardly forced in lecture
about why these kinds of people are pathetic and have no spine. It’s a fun mystery film first,
but it also wouldn't work without these integral character traits that lead to the decisions that
fuel the mystery. It isn’t just comedy, or great quotes from Benoit, the parts of this film that
are meant to be satirical also allow for the main character’s arc and the mystery story to develop
in as interesting and satisfying ways as possible. Also besides being really funny, the Miles Bron
Elon type character being revealed to be the killer and it baffling Benoit that it isn’t some
amazingly thought out scheme, he’s actually just that stupid, is not only a hilarious scene but
another great way to subvert the mystery genre. Also I realize this doesn't count as social
satire but the Among Us moment, I just can’t not mention that that's here.
I’m certainly not the first to make this observation, but there are so many films
that come out these days that just feel like assembly line products, like the filmmakers had
a pre-set timeline in an editing software and just filled in the various boxes that needed
filling in. This goes not only for stories, but also for visual flair, there are so few
mainstream films now that have distinctive style, and this film has it in droves. Part of why Edgar
Wright is my favorite director is the creativity and the time and care that is clearly put into
making the films as aesthetically interesting as they are narratively, not in a way that distracts
but that compliments the narrative, and this film does that perfectly. The slick editing in
that opening scene that introduces us to what we need to know about these characters, even Miles
Bron with his over-the-top self-congratulatory puzzle boxes, but also tells us what we need to
know about the film’s tone. Little moments like the way the gunshot moment is shot, pun, the
building of tension with the use of the Google Alerts and the Mona Lisa glass during this scene,
the film just has this captivating vibe to it that makes it so much more entertaining to watch.
Alright so I’ve stroked this movie’s ego a lot in this video, is it absolutely perfect?
I’m gonna say no, it has one or two problems. There is the aforementioned Among Us reference.
But the film could maybe have 10 minutes shaved off of it, at a certain point during the twist
flashback section of the film it can start to feel maybe just a tad repetitive and clumsy,
some of those revelations and eavesdropping moments and revisiting scenes we’d seen before
but from a new perspective now could’ve possibly been tightened up a bit. But honestly that's all
I can really think of that I didn't link, as Schmidt once said, every beautiful thing has
one flaw. Although again depending on where we land on the Among Us thing that could change.
All in all, Glass Onion: A
Knives Out Mystery is the perfect sequel, in that it perfectly navigates the pitfalls of
making a sequel: it gives the audience more of what they enjoyed from the first film,
the style, the satirical humor, the subversion of the mystery story, while adding new spice
to all of those so the film doesn't just play as a cheap knockoff re-run of the first film.
It feels like it was made because Rian Johnosn genuinely wanted to make it, not because he was
forced to, at gunpoint, by a studio exec. And for that reason I’m more than down to see what
he does next, which seemingly might be more Knives Out movies. Having these movies pile
up in a series of cozy mystery thrillers, like a modern Hardy Boys or Hercule Poirot or Nancy
Drew or Johnny Gossamer, that sounds pretty great to me. I’ll give Glass Onion a 9.5/10.
But what did you think of Glass Onion? Let me know all your thoughts down below in the
comments. While you’re at it, be sure to like this video, and subscribe for more videos like the one
you just watched. Check out this podcast that I do with a friend of mine where we talk about movies,
TV shows, a bunch of nonsense, it’s called The Poorly Planned Podcast,
check out my Instagram and Twitter @bhl_hudson, my TikTok @bhlhudson,
my Letterboxd @realbhlhudson. Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next time.