Tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites a group of his closest friends and fellow “disrupters” to his private island for a murder mystery party. Mysteriously though, the world famous detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is also a recipient of an invite and finds himself in amongst a group of people who all have reason to hate Bron. The plot will thicken. 

Knives Out was a superb murder mystery and I happily included it in my films of 2019. So Glass Onion had a lot to live up to. Something that initially, with all of its meta referencing to puzzles and detectives I felt may have been a step too far. Fortunately though as it peels away the layers it just gets cleverer and cleverer and more enjoyable by the minute. The result is a film that leaves you supremely satisfied at the end. 

The set up feels very much like an Agatha Christie story. A group of individuals are invited to a remote island and the ties that bind them are plucked to breaking point. Edward Norton is the best he has been in a very long time as a tech billionaire clearly modelled on the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Pretentious and with an inflated ego the size of which you could see from space. His guests include a Twitch streamer who believes men are being emasculated by feminism (Dave Bautista), a model whose sweatpants empire is made in literal sweatshops (Kate Hudson in truly meta casting), a left leaning politician focused on renewable energy (Kathryn Hahn) and a scientist working for Bron (Leslie Odom Jr.). The elephant in the room though is Bron’s ex business partner Andi (Janelle Monae) whom he cut out of a business she believes she created.

The film has an incredibly fun second half that repositions the viewpoints of much of what has gone before and reveals the screenplay to be as ridiculously intricate as the original. But it is not just the mystery that will keep you occupied. The sheer volume of jokes and references throughout will offer a lot of value in repeat viewings. My particular favourite being the hilarious references to Kate Hudson’s character’s many faux pas’ and a particularly obscure reference to the film Magnolia.

Glorious. We can only hope writer/director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig have the capacity and originality to keep giving us Benoit Blanc murder mysteries.