The Glass Onion Mystery’ (2022) [Netflix]

Backstabs: The Glass Onion Mystery is an equally brilliant sequel, but even more fun and entertaining than its predecessor.

Backstabs: The Glass Onion Mystery is the sequel to the highly acclaimed ‘Daggers in the Back’. When it premiered three years ago, the general consensus of audiences and critics was pretty much unanimous that it was a very good film that reinvented elements of the murder mystery, while respecting the core established by Agatha Christie. In addition, it must be remembered that this film was the trigger for the career of Ana de Armas. It served as a showcase for her to show her great talent and from there, ‘No Time to Die’, ‘The Invisible Agent’ and especially ‘Blonde’, where I think she is currently the favorite for win the Oscar for best performance this year. ‘Daggers in the back’ has also allowed Daniel Craig to follow a new path with the character of detective Benoit Blanc, where he moves at a thousand wonders, after the rapid descent from the throne of Bond. Well, this film that you’ve been wearing for a long time and that caught your attention so much, now it has a sequel, even a third part confirmed, and it’s all the fault of Rian Johnson, director and screenwriter – of the most acclaimed in Hollywood – of both. The success of the first film allowed Rian to sell the rights to Netflix for two more sequels for a whopping $469 million. And here we are now, Backstabs: The Glass Onion Mystery opens today, November 23rd in theaters until its quick arrival on Netflix on December 23rd.

Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) receives a mysterious invitation for a weekend getaway to a private island organized by billionaire tech tycoon Miles Bron (Edward Norton), where guests can help solve his murder. Upon arrival, Blanc observes Miles’ strange and colorful group of friends consisting of politician Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), streamer Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) and his model-turned-influencer girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) and her assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Miles’ ex-partner Andi (Janelle Monáe). At first, Blanc realizes that Miles has set up an elaborate mystery for his friends to solve their own hypothetical murder, and that he has brought Blanc in as a wild card to help them. But as soon as the mystery begins, the group stumbles upon a real murder, where Blanc will step forward and try to solve it..

See BACK DAGGERS: THE GLASS ONION MYSTERY (from December 23)

The comedy is fantastic

Having turned ‘Stabs in the Back’ into a franchise as suchwhere each film houses a different mystery with a different cast of characters, keeping the main character of the detective, Benoit Blanc, a common thread between stories such as detective Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie’s novels, there could very well be another 20 variations of this formula with Johnson at the helm. Because they are fully encapsulated stories, this allows them all to be in front of and behind the cameras carte blanche to do whatever they want with characters, situations, motivations, etc. Add this layer of unpredictability gives each mystery a different dimension which, while it never follows an extremely elaborate scheme, there is enough hint why Johnson takes us cyclically in all different directions and takes full advantage of the script to make something so completely convoluted that you’ll feel like anyone could be the killer.

This sequel is, at least in scale, bigger and better than the first film. What would stand out, above all, in front of the first installment is the humor. Backstabs: The Glass Onion Mystery it adds to the broad caricatures of the characters, the silly but witty one-liners and the society-critical gags, all of which are wonderfully funny and they are rescued on a multitude of occasions to extend their effect. There isn’t a bad joke, a silly exaggeration, or a funny gag that Blanc doesn’t revisit in detail later for even more laughs. This, combined with Johnson’s ability to significantly expose the characters’ social problems in order to find the audience to identify with, leaves us again with a highly recommended tape. The cast, as expected, is excellent in all areasexcelling in his silly caricatures, however both Janelle Monáe and Kate Hudson shine above the rest. In Monáe’s case, she stands out even more than Craig’s main character, where her mysterious energy leaps off the screen. And Hudson, straight up steals the comedic show in almost every scene he appears in.

Review of PUNYALS PER L’ESQUENA, a tribute to Agatha Christie

I’m inside

There was something different about ‘Puñales per l’esquena’ that stood out from the start. It was an original story, written and directed by a big name in film, with a massive all-star cast, that was produced on a mid-level budget and grossed hundreds of millions of dollars through word of mouth. Backstabs: The Glass Onion Mysterywhile technically bigger and better in almost every way, it loses some of that initial unpredictability that characterized its predecessor, simply because the formula is now established, but manages to improve and refine it further. It’s a fun, entertaining, entertaining film with a cast of ten. Now that Johnson has proven he has material for multiple installments in this franchise, I personally am in for a third part, and those that will arrive after that, which will undoubtedly arrive.

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