GLASS ONION : A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY - Tuesday 29th November 2022.

I saw the M rated 'GLASS ONION : A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY' on its final day of its very limited theatrical run earlier this week. This American murder mystery film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Rian Johnson whose previous film making credits take in his big screen debut with 'Brick' in 2005, then 'The Brothers Bloom' in 2008, 'Looper' in 2012, 'Star Wars : Episode VIII - The Last Jedi' in 2017 and 'Knives Out' in 2019, to which this film is a standalone sequel. This film had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September this year and is scheduled to have a one-week limited theatrical release from 23rd November before its streaming release on 23rd December by Netflix. The film saw the widest theatrical release ever for a Netflix film generating US$15M in Box Office receipts towards its production costs of US$40M and garnering universal critical acclaim. 

During the height of the 2020 COVID pandemic when the world is gripped by lockdowns, we are introduced to a group of individuals who all receive a large and strange looking wooden box, with no visible means of gaining entry to it. There is Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jnr.), the head scientist for global tech company Alpha Industries; Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), a former supermodel turned fashion designer; Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), the governor of Connecticut now running for the Senate; Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), a Twitch streamer and men's rights activist; and Cassandra 'Andi' Brand (Janelle Monae), Miles's ex-business partner. Lionel hooks up with the other recipients of the same identical box (for they are all close friends of one another) and together they are able to gain entry into the box revealing an elaborate number of puzzles and games contained therein, with the final reveal being an invitation from billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and owner of Alpha Industries to attend his very own murder mystery weekend at his private estate 'Glass Onion' which is housed on his own private Greek island. Tagging along are also Peg (Jessica Henwick) Birdie's Assistant, and Whiskey (Madelyn Cline) Duke's girlfriend and Twitch channel Assistant. 

World renowned Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired by Andi's identical twin sister, Helen, to investigate her sister's alleged suicide the previous week. Helen advises Blanc that Miles jettisoned Andi from her role as CEO of Alpha Industries after Andi categorically denied his request to release 'Klear', a  hydrogen-based alternative fuel that early tests have proven to be very dangerous under certain conditions. She lost a lawsuit against him due to her inability to prove that she conceived of the company and not Miles. Helen suspects that one of Miles's friends killed Andi after she found a cocktail napkin from the 'Glass Onion' bar that they all used to frequent back in the day, on which she scribbled Alpha's founding ideas, evidence that would discredit Miles. 

Blanc instructs Helen to take Andi's place for the weekend given that they were identical twins and news of Andi's death has still not hit the headlines. Arriving on the island to help him investigate undercover as though they are unknown to each other, Miles informs Blanc that he did not send him an invitation but allows him to stay, assuming that his presence was a joke arranged by one of the other guests. 

On the island, Helen sets about covertly searching for clues that could potentially lead to Andi's killer, but determines that Lionel, Claire, Birdie, and Duke are all suspects. Lionel and Claire had staked their professional reputations to support Klear, only to learn of its dangerous qualities afterward; Birdie was forced by Miles to take responsibility for hiring a sweatshop in Bangladesh to manufacture her clothing line; and Duke was attempting to coerce Miles into giving him a position at Alpha News by using Whiskey to seduce him. 

On the first evening with the weekend ahead of them, Miles lays out plans for his elaborate staged murder mystery in which he is the victim and his guests need to prove who the killer is. But Blanc, before the game has even started, solves the case much to Miles' frustration saying that he even had Gillian Flynn write his murder mystery game, and she doesn't come cheap! 

So the group parties with a number of guests considering returning home the next day. Duke suddenly collapses dead after inadvertently drinking from Miles's glass. The group begins to panic, suspecting the missing 'Andi' to be the killer and discovering that Duke's pistol (which he never goes anywhere without) is missing. Then at 10:00pm right on cue, all the lights across the island go out except for the lighthouse which intermittently illuminates the house and grounds. In the resulting chaos, the group splits up. Blanc bumps into Helen outside on the steps, who has been searching for Andi's cocktail napkin which she believes the killer stole. He instructs her to search Miles's office. An unknown assailant shoots Helen in the chest, but she survives unknown to anyone else but Blanc, due to Andi's diary in her jacket pocket having blocked the bullet. 

Blanc rounds up the remaining group in Miles's art room, where he deduces that Miles committed both murders. After Miles learned of the napkin's existence from Lionel, he had killed Andi to prevent her from revealing it to the public. Immediately following her murder, he was seen speeding away from her house by Duke who was nearly 'pancaked' on his motorcycle, and who deduced Miles's involvement with Andi's death during the party, when his newsfeed revealed her death, and as a consequence he attempted to blackmail Miles. This then prompted Miles to poison Duke with pineapple juice, which Duke was severly allergic to, before using Duke's pistol to shoot Helen. 

Helen finds the napkin in Miles's office and reveals her true identity to the group, but Miles burns the napkin with his cigar lighter as she is holding it. With no evidence against Miles and the group unwilling to side with her, Helen sets about smashing all of Miles's glass sculptures before triggering the Klear-powered mansion to explode. This destroys the Glass Onion and the Mona Lisa, which Miles had on loan from the Louvre, while it was shut due to the pandemic. With Miles's reputation now in tatters due to the worlds most famous painting's being destroyed and Klear being proven as dangerous, the group decides they will testify against him. Helen and Blanc sit on the beach as they watch the Police arrive by boat as the sun rises. 

'Glass Onion : A Knives Out Mystery' is very entertaining and I'm pleased to have seen it on the big screen at my local independent movie theatre (which was packed out I might add) rather than waiting for the small screen Netflix release at Christmas. The film shines in almost every aspect from the sun drenched Greek island setting, to all the trappings of a very wealthy tech billionaire, to the performances of the cast to the script, the humour and the direction laid on by Rian Johnson, it hardly misses a beat. This is more than a worthy follow-up to 2019's 'Knives Out' and with double the budget it is clear that no expense was spared in bringing together an ensemble cast lead by the returning Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, and the exotic location that undoubtedly contributed to the film being greater than the sum of its parts and a real crowd pleaser to boot. Also starring in cameo appearances Ethan Hawke, Angela Lansbury, Hugh Grant, Natasha Lyonne, Serena Williams and Stephen Sondheim, amongst a handful of others.

'Glass Onion : A Knives Out Mystery' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DEEPWATER HORIZON : Wednesday 5th October 2016.

I caught at an advance screening last week of 'DEEPWATER HORIZON', which for those who don't know, was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean. Built in 2001 in South Korea the rig was leased to the British Petroleum Company (BP) from 2001 until September 2013. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of 10,700m in the Tiber Oil Field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 400kms southeast of Houston, in 1,300m of water. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect, an uncontrollable blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed eleven crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 65kms away. The fire was inextinguishable and, two days later, on 22 April, the Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing oil at the seabed and causing the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. The oil spill that resulted continued until 15th July 2010 when it was finally capped off. Subsequently, BP have made it known that they have had to pay of US$55B in clean up costs and fines and that aside from themselves, Halliburton, the services contractor, and Transocean as the rig operator were also at fault.

This film charts that story as Directed by Peter Berg and made for US$156M that takes place in the Gulf of Mexico with the events leading up to that massive human, social, ecological and financial disaster. Starring Mark Wahlberg as chief electrician and oil rigger Mike Williams (whom Peter Berg has Directed previously in 'Lone Survivor' and the upcoming 'Patriots Day') who returning from some family time with his wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and ten year old daughter Sydney (Stella Allen) is looking at a three week shift on the Deepwater Horizon rig. He helicopter's in from the mainland, a journey that takes about 45 minutes, and upon arrival before he has even had time to get changed out of his civvies, he is thrust into an argument about rig safety tests and all the equipment malfunctions and maintenance requirements that need urgent attention. This sets the scene for the disaster that is to come a few short hours later!

Arriving with other shift starters there is Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) as the only female on the crew, Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) as the rig's chief supervisor and a couple of corporate type executives from BP Head Office arriving for a show & tell of the rigs operations and to determine why the drilling programme is 40+ days behind schedule at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. Soon afterwards we are introduced also to Caleb Holloway (Dylan O'Brien) as the rig's youngest crew member, and Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) as the BP engineer and rig supervisor, all joining the 120 or so crew members on board the rig.

Straight away it is clear that there are some hostilities between the guys on the rig employed to drill for oil and supervise the proceedings and ensure everything runs tightly and safely, and the suited and booted executives who are chasing their Profit & Loss statements, and asking questions of the financial kind. The executives don't like hearing the truth about safety concerns and inadequate testing regimes, when they have to answer to their superiors back in London. With drilling set to commence, Harrell seeks a test to check on the integrity of the cement casing of the seabed rig which the BP executives give the all clear for, but Harrell is adamant he wants the test. As so a 'negative pressure' test is conducted which initially causes concerns but Vidrine provides a scientific explanation for which Williams and Harrell find plausible. Still not satisfied that everything is as it should be, a second test is ordered which proves positive and so an order is given to commence drilling operations.

Williams and Harrell go about their business - Williams connects with his wife via a Skype call and Harrell freshens up in the shower, after being presented with a safety award and a bottle of Scotch for his exemplary safety record. By now the evening is wearing on. At 9:45pm during the last stages of drilling an exploratory well, a geyser of seawater erupted from the marine riser onto the rig, shooting over seventy metres into the air and up the rig. This was soon followed by the eruption of a slushy combination of drilling mud, methane gas, and water. The gaseous element of that slushy mixture quickly formed into a fully gaseous state and then ignited into a series of explosions that tore through the rig and its living quarters. The resultant firestorm quickly took hold ripping out vital technical, safety and communications infrastructure and killing several men in the process.

Whilst all hands seek to escape the firestorm and head for the lifeboats, Williams recovers from being blown backwards in the explosion but protected by a door that falls across him. Harrell, was showering when the explosion ripped through his quarters and he is semi-conscious, naked, covered in broken glass and shrapnel, and blinded. Williams searches him out, and together they make it to the Bridge amidst ongoing explosions all around the them and the collapse of the rigs infrastructure, where Fleytas is alerting the Coast Guard and Vidrine has just arrived looking the worse for wear too. With power fluctuating, Williams agrees to make an attempt to fire up the emergency generators with the help of a volunteering Holloway. After several attempts they succeed for long enough for Harrell to operate a kill switch so detaching the drill from the rig, and to reposition the rig itself. The final defence to prevent an oil spill, a device known as a blind shear ram, was also activated but failed to plug the well.

As moments tick away the majority make it to the life boats to be picked up by a nearby vessel that has been stationed close by to take on board all the mud sludge pumped up as a by product of the drilling process. In the end this leaves just Williams and Fleytas on the fiercely burning rig that is rapidly disintegrating all around them in balls of flame, big explosions and twisted metal. The surrounding sea is also ablaze, and so the two need to make it to the helipad to be sure of a clear jump into the sea below and so avoiding being engulfed by flame. After some hesitation on Fleytas part, Williams man handles her off the rig and into the boiling sea below - to be picked up moments later and taken to safety.

We then cut to the next day with the survivors from the rig all holed up in a hotel with a media frenzy going on around them. Williams, Harrell, Holloway, Vidrine, and Fleytas made it out alive luckily, thanks largely to the bravery of Williams, but eleven men were less fortunate. Williams breaks down emotionally in his hotel room and is comforted by Felicia and Sydney, before making his exit from the hotel. On his way out he meets Harrell, stitched and bandaged up and now visibility restored, and he exchanges knowing glances with Holloway too.

Here Wahlberg plays the grounded everyman thrust into extraordinary circumstances to help rescue some of his co-workers while his family and the world watch on as ultimately the Deepwater Horizon  disappears into the ocean into a deep fiery grave. Featuring a top cast who do not overplay the heroics, top notch effects and a story that is a believable, authentic telling of human courage in the face of adversity writ large. For a relatively short running time of under two hours, the action when it come is immersive, gripping and well executed. It takes you right into the centre of the action as though you, the viewer, are there back then on April 20th 2010. See it on the big screen - you won't be disappointed, and well worth the price of your ticket.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-