A Cut Above the Rest

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a rare bigticket sequel that hits all the right notes

- Aditya Mani Jha

Last year, when Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections released, the initial reaction from fans and critics was mixed the film eschewed the franchise's signature blend of eye-popping action, VFX and world-building for a more intimate, character-driven meta-fable.

Just over a year later, the critical tide has turned and more people are waking up to the film's worth. Something similar will happen, I feel, with Rian Johnson's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, released this month on Netflix.

The sequel to the director's 2019 whodunit Knives Out, Glass Onion is a dazzling, tonally assured deconstruction of much the same detective tropes it depicted in the earlier film-the 'closed room mystery, the red herrings, deus ex machina and so on. Because this is a story that takes visible delight in subverting viewer expectations, it stands to reason that some of those viewers may feel hard done by. Over time, however, Glass Onion will be recognized as a rare big-ticket sequel that dares to interrogate the original's thematic preoccupations, and does so in style.