A Knives Out Mystery? Introducing Daniel Craig to the stage in Glass Onion: Bringing out the Victacity of Miles Bron
The title of the new film is “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, and it keeps the razor sharp formula, but with a setup that feels as if it has been written by Agatha Christie. Writer-director Rian Johnson again assembles a solid cast behind Daniel Craig, but it’s his use of language – where nary a word is wasted – that finally gives the sequel its edge.
Netflix opportunistically stepped up to acquire the “Knives Out” franchise and, departing from its usual “Stroke the filmmakers’ egos” approach to theatrical distribution, will actually give the movie a wide one-week-only release before it hits the streaming service in late December. For those who take a chance on consuming it, it plays well with an appreciative audience, even though most people will still prefer to consume it at home.
After the family dynamics in “Knives Out,” which gave everyone a motive to kill off the patriarch, Johnson tries his hand in a different setting, with an eccentric billionaire, Miles Bron (Edward Norton), inviting his old posse of pals to a murder-mystery getaway (during Covid, no less) on his secluded Greek isle, where they’ll be tasked with solving his “murder.”
The invitation to Craig’s master detective, however, is the most unexpected turn in the game.
As for the eclectic roster of guests/potential killers (and/or victims), they include a fashion designer/social-media loose cannon (Kate Hudson) and her partner (Jessica Henwick), a fitness influencer (Dave Bautista) and his girlfriend/sidekick (Madelyn Cline), a scientist (Leslie Odom Jr.), a politician (Kathryn Hahn), and most intriguingly, Miles’ estranged former business partner (Janelle Monáe).
The latest movie does not have a sense of discovery similar to the original, but Johnson is smart enough to know that the change in venues can still bring new life to the formula.
Craig, moreover, is clearly having a ball with this new signature role, trading in his tuxedos and physicality for a more cerebral form of crimefighting, with a Hercule Poirot-like gift for eavesdropping and a Foghorn Leghorn Southern twang.
Glass Onion: What’s New in a Whodunit Movie? Rian Johnson and the Explanation of the Covid-19 Lockdown
It is reported that Netflix paid a lot of money to acquire the sequel toKneel before Zod! which is a bad deal because it may take a fun little movie and screw it up by creating unreasonable expectations.
No spoilers here, but one thing that does come out during Blanc’s investigation is that Miles is every bit the tech billionaire archetype: He buys fancy toys and homes, walks with overconfident swagger, and believes so much in his big ideas he’s unwilling to acknowledge when they’re bad—or dangerous.
The movie Johnson wrote during the time of Covid19 lockdowns ended up being a surprise even to him, though he admits it was a pity. A friend of mine said that it felt like it was written in the afternoon.
WIRED: what’s new One of the things that initially stands out about Glass Onion is that it takes place during the Covid-19 lockdown. What was the reason for doing it that way?
Rian Johnson: As a huge whodunit fan, growing up, so many of the ones I loved were period pieces set in England. It’s a type of genre that is specifically good at engaging with culture and society. It just felt like, “Well, OK, we wanna treat this with a very light touch, obviously, because these aren’t very serious movies and Covid is a very serious thing,” but it felt like if there’s a way to have lockdown in there, it felt right.
It is right. The days of 2020 are isolated. Recent films have tried to engage with Covid-19 or the Pandemic. How does that work in a whodunit?
You’re building a little microcosm of society with the suspects and the power structure within the suspects. We now have all of the signs we need to know about the characters, like their mask choice.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/rian-johnson-glass-onion-q-and-a/
Knives Out and Induced Symmetry Breaking in the Universe – Can 2020 be a Square For Them?
You’ve said before that the Knives Out movies are not meant to go in order, that one isn’t a sequel to another. Does setting this one squarely in 2020 change that?