It is difficult, today, to see something genuinely original, that does not drink from a thousand references and don’t remind us of forty other movies and series. Luckily, Rian Johnson categorically refuses that his new ‘Daggers in the back’ be a festival of winks without much grace and focuses on everything what happens, from start to finish, is as novel as it is original, as fun as it is uniqueso cartoon that we manage to forget that it parodies reality itself.
What a week, huh?
With only two movies, Benoit Blanc has already become an icon in the history of modern cinema. If in ‘Puñales por el espalda’ he was an investigator who managed to spin an almost impossible mystery, in his sequel he is more an observer capable of uniting and revealing the clumsiness of a group of nouveau riche who have managed to succeed in life in rather morally questionable ways.
In ‘Knives in the Back: The Mystery of the Glass Onion’, Johnson has decided not to leave hostages: his satire is as accurate as it is poignant, with a perfect irony that hits like an arrow in the center of that target that is 2022. This shaker fits everything, from macho streamers to millionaires who have stolen all their ideas from more competent people. And this parody of the less empathetic sectors of society, of course, it’s going to create all the blisters that your first part didn’t.
Compared to ‘Puñales por el espalda’, this sequel is much more fun, with moments of absolute laughter, although, in return, it gets a bit lost in the mystery, which is less convoluted and somewhat easier to guess. Of course, the resolution and the hilarious moral more than compensate for any possible complaint: seeing Benoit Blanc recounting the case is an absolute joy and discovering the truths hidden in plain sight seems like the art of hocus pocus and birbibirloque. This sequel makes something even more difficult easy: if the first part was already magnificent, this one is even better.
The glass onion
‘Daggers by the Sword: The Mystery of the Glass Onion’ is so sophisticated that uses resources that in other films we would see as derisory or cheats and get us to applaud them openly. She is hopelessly playful and at the same time she lives so devoted to the puzzle that the different parts of her make up that it is inevitable to want to participate in the continuous collective fun that He does not rest for a moment throughout the footage.
The movie defies any expectation from the first minute, forcing the viewer to believe that he is going to a place only to dribble him ten minutes later with constant surprises (and, be careful, always consistent within his universe). Johnson manages to get gold from where others would get dirt thanks to his audacity to always give another necessary twist. Surprisingly, each new layer of the onion always reveals something unprecedented, juicy and vital to understanding the plot, which never feels heavy or excessive, but neither feels excessively light. The director has worked magic finding the exact point of the balance without sacrificing complexity along the way.
This utter triumph of creativity wouldn’t be so much to celebrate if it weren’t for a group of actors who enter with everything from start to finishcommanded by a Daniel Craig who has caught the detective’s perfect point, knowing that he is facing one of the most legendary roles of his life, the ultimate chance to shake off the James Bond stigma in the most charming way possible.
His name is White. Benoit Blanc.
There has not been a funnier parody in recent years than this sequel, which It could not have been released at a more stubborn moment. The jokes about the pandemic, already seen as a historical phenomenon and not as an element to be parodyed in a hurry (remember by-products such as ‘Stories of confinement’) work perfectly, and are just the tip of an iceberg in which we will be able to laugh at ease at a ridiculous Elon Musk who has never used anything original in his life (watch out for the suit taken from ‘Magnolia’, proof that he always lives by imitating others).
rian johnson has not tried to sweeten or make up the character, who only lacks a name to be, as is, the new CEO of Twitter, whom he treats as badly as the rest of the savage new rich with whom it is impossible to have even a little empathy. In a cinematic year in which the rich have ceased to be an aspiration and have become the enemy (for example, in the fabulous ‘The Triangle of Sadness’), ‘Stabs in the Back: The Mystery of the Glass Onion’ Gives Them the Ultimate Shot to the Chest, showing the miseries of an amoral and absurd lifestyle. And all this without lessons or morals, but with murders, mysteries, beautiful views, humor and elegance.
There’s no way to know how ‘Knives in the Back’ will evolve, but if the machinery is still as well oiled as here, with a pair of directors and cast in tune and a staging so powerful and different from anything that is released, it will be an absolute joy to see as many stab wounds as necessary. Benoit Blanc, the Hercule Poirot we deserved in the 21st centurydeserves to continue solving cases for many more years.