Welcome to The Mundane Adventures of a Fangirl

I consider myself a Fangirl. What does that mean, you ask? A "fanboy" in the most common understanding is a hardcore fan of 'genre' based entertainment in particular. In my case - science-fiction and comic book based movies and television. Because I'm a chick - it's fangirl, not fanboy. There you have it! I am a big movie fan, however, not necessarily a 'film' fan. And now - I have the forum to present my opinions to the public! These will mainly be movie reviews -that will always be my opinion - repeat OPINION. Just what I think, and in no way do I present my opinion as fact. I hope you enjoy and maybe it will help you decide what to see at the movie theater this weekend!

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Movie review: Glass Onion (PG13 – 139 minutes)

 

In this follow up to 2019’s Knives Out, Rian Johnson brings us another murder mystery with his ambiguously Southern detective, Benoit Blanc. 

In this story, Blanc is invited to join billionaire Miles Bron and his collection of terrible friends on his Greek island during the pandemic for his annual weekend big-fun get together. This year, he has decided to throw a murder mystery party.  While on the island an actual murder occurs, and Blanc must weed out each of the guests to determine the guilty party. Hijinks ensue.


I did not enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Knives Out, but it is certainly entertaining and twisty.  Because the movie is set during the height of the pandemic, certain moments already feel a bit dated, but it does provide some interesting fun moments and character development.  The locations are amazingly beautiful and certainly make you think about a long weekend somewhere in the Greek islands. Johnson does a great job with a twisty story that appears one way the first time you watch it, then actually insists you go back and watch it again to see if you missed something or if a character is misleading you when recounting what just happened. The cast is all wonderful, but the characters are so terrible that it is hard to find someone to root for amongst the guests.  How are all these odd lunatics the very best of friends?  Sometimes, you do not need a reason!


Daniel Craig once again does an inexplicable accent. What I found interesting is that we get a small peek at Blanc’s home life at the beginning of the story. I wish in those moments, he had not been using the accent – just speaking normally. Then, once on the job, he puts on that horrible southern accent as a tool to appear less threatening to whoever he is investigating. 


Edward Norton feels like he is playing a version of several notable tech-billionaires and his smarmy arrogance fits this role perfectly. As all his friends/guests, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, and Madelyn Cline are all just over-the-top enough to keep the audience guessing as guilt shifts between them. They each have a plausible motive, and each are absolutely terrible, so it could be any of them!



The scene-stealer in this for me was Janelle Monaé. She had the most heavy lifting to do, the best story arc, and the most wide range of comedy and drama to cover. She was wonderful and definitely stood out from the others.



There were also piles and piles of cameos – so much so that it was nearly distracting. I didn’t need to know that Blanc is so famous he just zooms with other super famous people while in the bathtub.  Again, shot during the pandemic allowed that to play into the story and into the shooting, but I found it unnecessary.

Overall, the movie is smart and silly, fun and interesting, and while most of the characters are terrible, the cast was doing a great job of making them easy to dislike. I am happy I saw this on Netflix, I think I would have liked it less had I saw it in the theater.

6 out of 10