Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson

Stars: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Han, Leslie Odom Jr, Madelyn Cline, Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista

To complete the trilogy of lambasting the affluent people of the world, there is this movie. I enjoyed Knives Out, but I had some problems with the politics discussed in it. I was looking forward to this movie, because I loved a good whodunit.

Benoit Blanc (Craig) is invited to an exclusive weekend in Greece, thrown by the powerful mogul, Miles Brom (Norton). Brom gathered a governor; Claire (Hahn), a Twitch personality; Duke (Bautista), an scientist; Lionel (Odom Jr), fashion desinger; Birdie (Hudson) and an unexpected guest; Andi (Monáe). A murder mystery weekend that turns into an actual murder.

Seeing the previous movie would let you mind go rapid fire with theories. Nothing will be as it seems. Knowing that Blanc is gay is clearly apparent in the movie with neckerchief and choice of swimming attire. Was Phillip (Hugh Grant) his partner? Unclear.

I heard rumblings about Janelle Monáe's performance. Holy shit. She went in. Her facial expressions. The way she carried herself. It was a treat to see.

I want more of these. Give me more. I will gobble them up.

Rating: 10/10

Looper

Looper (2012)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Pierce Gagnon, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo and Garret Dillahunt

Today is a bittersweet day for me, this is the end of the blog-a-thon and it is my 32nd birthday. It's weird. The blog-a-thon overall has been a good experience. I crossed off a couple of movies that I should have seen. I wanted to end this blog-a-thon by watching the latest film from Rian Johnson, Looper. The movie asks some interesting questions, but it feels like a cheap shot.

In 2034, the whole is different place even thought it looks same as 2012. Time travel has been banned so underground crime families used the technology from 2074 to send victims back to the past to be wiped out of existence by Loopers. Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is one of the best Loopers out there until his best friend, Seth (Dano) tells him that the latest victim was supposed to be him from the future. He tells Joe that a person called The Rainmaker are killing all of the Loopers from the future. It was not until Joe comes face to face with himself from future (Willis) that they need to stop The Rainmaker in the present.

I was eagerly anticipating this movie, because the trailers looked so cool. I was following this movie when Rian Johnson did an episode of the /Filmcast about preparing to write this movie. He sought inspirations from another time traveling movie, Primer. I got that vibe from this movie. I enjoyed the movie overall, but I thought the themes were thrown by the wayside at the end of the film.

I understand that Johnson wanted to have a movie that ask the question to the viewer, "If you could go back a change something from the past to affect the future, would you?" I get that. People ask themselves that question since time began. It feels that Johnson made the message overly complicated when it didn't need to be.

There are some questions that I have with the movie that I hope the ten of you reading this will help with. Why were the Loopers paid in silver bricks? What was up with those eye drops? I didn't understand the telekinesis angle. Somebody help me here.

My Rating