Recensione Glass Onion – Knives Out 2

Can a sequel live up to the first film? Today we at Movie Blog have the answer and the answer is yes, if that sequel is called Glass Onion – Knives out 2.

In fact, almost a month after its release on the Netflix platform, the film is internalized even more and if this happens it means that its goal has been achieved. Very often a franchise does not bring added value because we sit on our laurels for fear of displeasing the public, creating films like “Thor: Love and Thunder”. This not being a review of the last one “Thor” however, today we will talk about the new thriller starring a perfect Daniel Craig who once again makes us believe that we can enter the mind of the most famous detective in the world.

Glass Onion – Knives Out 2: Plot and characters

2020, shortly after the end of the first Lockdown. Self-absorbed billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites his small circle of friends to his private island, sending them a puzzle box to solve to discover the location of the usual annual meeting. He announces that they will have to solve a murder, his murder. It all starts quickly with the introduction of the protagonists, the governor Clair Debella (Kathryn Hahn), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), stylist Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) with his assistant and influencer men’s rights activist Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) con Whisky (Madelyn Cline) his girlfriend. All happy to momentarily escape from society, they immediately plunge into reality, leaving us with bated breath when they see Cassandra Brand arrive (Janelle Monriver) former partner of Miles, suggesting that soon everything could go wrong. But with them there is also Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig)the most famous detective in the world happy to participate in a murder mystery dinner after having spent the Lockdown figuring out, without success, how to play Among Us. Too bad it’s not wanted.

Glass Onion-Knives Out 2: Not the classic Cluedo

A dinner with murder inside a dinner with murder. A case that appears to be the most stupid in the world in the eyes of the Detective (which he solves effortlessly in 3 minutes), but which unfolds very slowly, as if we were the puppeteers moving the pieces on the board. He shows every piece of him by layering himself scene after scene, until he gets to the heart of the problem, without however prostrating himself to a mere and simple Cluedo Live Action. The case is simple, but when a victim is actually found it takes a different turn and expands out of Miles Island, to then return to its origins and find the solution through motives and opportunities. In words, Johnson presents us with the dumbest case in the world, evolves it into a thriller with his pawns that he makes known along the way to the plot, makes us believe that we have understood everything and then present us with another case by fishing outside the “walls” of the unique Greek island.

Glass Onion – Knives Out 2: when yellow meets criticism

“More or less biting criticism towards aspects or characters typical of contemporary life”. This is the definition that Google gives us of satire and that, we immediately understand, is the background to the film. In fact, Ryan Johnson brings modernity to the screen, the society in which we have become accustomed to living in these 3 years, paying scrupulous attention to detail that never comes to the fore.

Johnson, however, also idealizes the duality of those who experience the current health situation well. From the hand sanitizer gel on top of the restaurant tables and the masked waiter, he goes to Birdy Jay’s parties (Kate Hudson) in which “only the dearest loved ones” are present, then presenting a satirical solution to the pandemic. The protagonists are happy to see each other again and terrified to hug each other (apart from Birdy Jay who wears a chic hole mask); but for this there is a solution: that “somewhat” which Miles’s assistant sprays directly into the protagonists’ mouths.

“Don’t worry, you don’t need that now anymore”.

Here are the words in reference to the mask, after spraying the liquid in question. Here is the satire in question with subtle political relevance. What is it? We are not given to know. We only know that there is no Pineapple.

Glass Onion- Knives Out 2: modernity is the real protagonist

In addition to the reality in which we have been living for three years, Ryan Johnson presents us with our modern “HEROES” by ridiculing them one after the other and peeling them like layers of an onion. The macho influencer, who promotes “male rights” with a million followers on Twitch (to understand if he is more worrying or the million people who follow him). Birdy Jayformer model now stylist with her assistant Peg, (Jessica Henwick) daughter of superficiality and probably convinced that the pandemic does not exist; Whisky, Duke’s girlfriend presented as the classic feminist activist influencer, but engaged to Duke who thinks in a “slightly” different way. There is then Clare Debella, vying for the election of governor of her state that cannot be talked about for any reason in the world, especially in some terms. Each of them, including Lionel is related to Miles Bron (Edward Norton). It would be better to say that each of them has a reason not to send him to hell since he finances most of their investments. Difficult to detach from the umbilical cord, especially if it threatens to leave you broke. Becoming witnesses of a fact that didn’t happen therefore becomes very simple if you want to achieve a personal goal. And here the mechanism of the film comes back into vogue by presenting the entire inner circle as pawns in the hands of the puppeteer.

They are willing to do anything to keep receiving money from the eccentric billionaire, even lying in front of the evidence. Edward Norton as Miles Bron he is an egocentric convinced that he has the invention of the century in his hands, he is a selfish narcissist and willing to do anything to earn more and more. He would do anything not to let his secret leak out, metaphorically represented as black on white. Too bad the only fundamental thing is missing for an entrepreneur not to fail, intelligence.

An intricate case that achieves the goal

Per Benoit White the mystery is the bread of one’s teeth, especially after months and months of detention in which to understand how it works Among Us was the main purpose. This is exactly what Benoit does, he doesn’t understand the simple things of society, he doesn’t know how to play Cluedo but he shatters a seemingly immediate and stupid plot by evolving it into a complicated thriller and then destroying it again by presenting it in its banality.

A winning yellow comedy, which reaches its goal without too much effort and which has the courage to deviate from the first film. If we had them a real Live Action of Cluedo now we don’t have the specific “whodunit” which we expected.

We are not even talking about racism with the soft colors of “Knives out”, but about those who are willing to do anything to secure a place in the glass bell of capitalism (represented by Miles Bron), with the bright colors of the Greek summer combined with the sumptuous script that hardly fails to impress the viewer. Everything was so obvious from the start even to the audience itself. The problem is that everyone is so self-obsessed that they miss the point. Just like in a glass onion we see a distorted reality, at least until it strips off every layer to get to the heart.

Trailer Glass Onion