Review of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) by Byucatch22 — 01 Dec 2022

Rian Johnson is on a mission. He needs to tell all the world that White Men are complete idiots and the source of all problems in this oppressor vs oppressed world, and the richer they are, the dumber and more ridiculous they are. Considering Rian Johnson is a Rich White Dude, I can only imagine he's largely driven by feelings of guilt...or whatever.

The truth is, he makes entertaining movies. I really enjoyed Knives Out and Glass Onion (and yes I even enjoyed his version of Star Wars). But I wear a helmet to the theater knowing I'm going to be hit over the head with his ideology. In Knives Out, the Rich White Dude and everyone around him (the system) are total selfish jerks and the 'hide-away' immigrant is the virtuous victim.

In Glass Onion, the Rich White Dude and everyone around him (the system) are complete idiots, jerks, and even dumb, and the african american woman is the virtuous victim.

At one point in Glass Onion, the (white) super detective exclaims to the virtuous victim "wow you're so good at this!" referring to her detective skills and basically turns the reigns over to her to solve everything. Oh boy...it's Rian's way of apologizing for making his protagonist white and wishing he could do it over.

Even in Star Wars, he turned the White Dude Hero-type (Luke Skywalker) into a bumbling idiot and took the oppressed woman (albeit white...she would never have been white had it been made this year) who was originally planned to be the heir of great Jedi heritage and made her 'just anyone' because the idea of heritage is exclusionary and the idea of oppressors.

Okay Rian, we get where you're coming from! Your messaging is loud and clear. It's also reaching a point where it's starting to drown out the fun of your movies. But if I never saw another one of yours, you'd probably consider your job well done.

C'est la vie.

I give it 5 stars but have taken off 2 stars for all the preaching.