For those of you needing a classically clever whodunnit to add to your cinematic plate this holiday session, look no further than Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion. The next installment in Benoit Blanc mystery series is whip smart, hilarious, exquisite and layered…you know, like an onion.
Herein, Johnson and company outdo everything in their last detective yarn. Bigger stakes, bigger laughs, bigger onions – it’s an exceptional outing! Every element just sings, and again Rian enlists his cousin Nathan Johnson to write a fitting score to accompany the masterful story.
While subsequent yarns in the series are meant to be stand-alone events, the further adventures of the Kentucky-fried character required Johnson (NJ) to call back to the main theme of Knives Out. But he was also tasked to create a whole new landscape for this follow up.
While everything is enhanced in Glass Onion (characters, set pieces, plot complexity, etc. all feel very Bond-ian), the score gets to play in the sweeping acoustic sandbox that recalls Maurice Jarre and John Barry. However, by leaning heavy into key instruments (like the harpsichord and using circular bowing on violins) this also feels much smaller in scale, especially juxtaposed to the lush setting.
From garage bands to wine glasses to full-on symphonies, Nathan loves his work and is very comfortable creating music not using traditional instruments. Finding sounds and melodies in every day items excites him. He also likes the idea of restrictions as part of his creative path to finding the right sound for every project.
NJ is a composer we’ve interviewed multiple times over the years and we’ve fallen in love with his style, his sound and his melodic piano work is some of the finest to ever grace the silver screen. And we mean it. So we were thrilled to loop back and catch up with such a good friend of the site.
Funny story though: this interview is about as long in the making as Glass Onion itself (Nathan has been steadily working since the last time we spoke about the Mondo release of Knives Out). But that’s only because NJ had so much to work on including Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, the AppleTV+ series Mr. Corman. So let’s just say it was worth the wait.
Enjoy this episode of the GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience as we talk sleuthing, symphonies, mixed drink recipes, Monty Python, and much, much more with Nathan Johnson!
One final note. When the Mondo team loves a composer (Giacchino, Shapiro, et al), they pull out all the stops to create a one-of-a-kind vinyl release. We’ve never seen the type of creative heft and conviction that went into Looper and the canvas bag that held the gold brick embossed slip case, and Knives Out was so on-the-nose with its vintage look.
As expected, they have been hard at work on Glass Onion. While nothing official has been released, Nathan teased his Twitter fans by unboxing the “white label” release Mondo sent to him. While not the edition that fans and consumers can take home, it’s still stunningly crafty and leans heavy into the glass part of the title – clear vinyl, clear sleeve – which is very on the news for a movie about characters who claim they have nothing to hide. Have a look at Nathan’s post below…and check out Glass Onion where/however you can!
It was amazing to see on the big screen in its short theatrical run, but it is coming to Netflix on December 23.
