In 2019 writer/director Rian Johnson released his love letter to the classic mystery genre with his film Knives Out. A movie without a pre-existing fan base, no novel, no boomer television series, no classic film reboot, and the domestic box office still soared past 300 million dollars. Audiences fell in love with southern gentleman Detective Benoit Blanc. The success guaranteed a sequel and Netflix brought truckloads of money to Johnson for two more Benoit Blanc mysteries, the first of which, after a one-week theatrical run over Thanksgiving, drops onto the streaming service today.

Glass Onion, taking in May of 2020 as the world grapples with the Covid 19 pandemic, is set on a secluded Greek island as tech billionaire boy Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has invited his close group of friends, nicknamed the Disruptors and his estranged former partner, for a weekend of

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a murder mystery game. Blanc’s arrival is the first mystery as someone other than Bron dispatched to Blanc of the puzzle box invitations. Naturally the weekend does no go as planned and soon the participants find that the dangers are for more real than the party games that they had expected.

The next Benoit Blanc mystery is structured very much the pervious one.  The first act of the film establishes a collection of eccentric characters, this time drawn more broadly that the Thrombey clan, but when you are dealing with an internet billionaire and the surrounding sycophants broad is the order of the day.

The second act inverts everything you thought you understood had been established while playing fair with the information it had presented.

The third act swings into the actual mystery and revelations to land in an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

Glass Onion present more comedy and less mystery than the previous movie but retains all the essential elements that made Knives Out such a fun and entertaining experience. The cast is uniformly fantastic with golden cameos from a number of well know persons. Outstanding in this cast is Janelle Monae though it takes more than half to film to uncover what makes her performance so stellar.

It is a shame that Glass Onion has such a short theatrical run as this is the sort of movie that is best experienced with a crowd but even alone on the couch this is still a movie that should not be missed.

Glass Onion is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.