LWLies 96: The Glass Onion issue – Out now!

It’s hard to actu­al­ly con­firm this, but it seems as if Elon Musk’s lat­est mad­cap for­ay into social media own­er­ship is in fact a mas­sive piece of stealth mar­ket­ing for the new film by Rian John­son – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mys­tery. This fab­u­lous new brain-teas­er, which her­alds the return of South­ern sleuth and sar­to­r­i­al sen­sa­tion, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), employs the struc­ture of the time­worn who­dunit to explore the very con­tem­po­rary ques­tion of the polit­i­cal influ­ence of the super rich.

Are they just plun­der­ing their reams of cash into day-dreamy schemes and self-affirm­ing fol­lies? Does pow­er and mon­ey stoke the desire to have more pow­er and mon­ey? Or is there any trace of pos­i­tiv­i­ty to their dom­i­neer­ing schemes? The film, which drops into cin­e­mas on 23 Novem­ber, and onto Net­flix on 23 Decem­ber, pos­es these ques­tions as we gala­vant through a mur­der mys­tery on a sun-bleached island in the Mediter­ranean, in the com­pa­ny of Ed Nor­ton, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hud­son, Leslie Odom Jr, Dave Bautista and more.

There’s even Johnson’s ol pal and totem, Noah Segan, pop­ping up in the back­ground a few times – an actor who has appeared in all of the director’s films. We here at LWLies feel a par­tic­u­lar affin­i­ty for Rian John­son, as his fea­ture debut, Brick, was released in the same year as issue one of the mag­a­zine. So it feels a lit­tle like we’ve grown up togeth­er, albeit in dif­fer­ent class­es. Yet due to the stuff and non­sense of release dates and print sched­ules, the stars have nev­er aligned to allow us to put one of Johnson’s films on the cov­er. So it gives us par­tic­u­lar­ly great plea­sure to wel­come you to Lit­tle White Lies 96, the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mys­tery issue, which is both a cel­e­bra­tion of the film, and also a shrine to Johnson’s immac­u­late craft as both direc­tor and writer.

On the cover

We’ve long been a fan of Essex-based illus­tra­tor Jor­dan Andrew Carter, whose work com­bines intri­cate por­traits with colour­ful, pop­py embell­ish­ments. To cap­ture both the fine crafts­man­ship and sense of whim­sy in Glass Onion, Jor­dan pro­duced an eye-pop­ping cov­er with Benoit Blanc him­self, dressed to the nines and eye­ing up his new set of sub­jects. Else­where in the issue we have new illus­tra­tions from Stéphanie Sergeant, Meli­na Ghadi­mi, Nick Tay­lor and Thomas Rouzière.

In this issue

Lead Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

David Jenk­ins has the ride of a life­time on Rian Johnson’s polit­i­cal­ly tren­chant who­dunit marvel.

Back in the Game

Adam Wood­word has a long and wind­ing chat with writer/​director Rian John­son on his inspi­ra­tions behind the con­tin­u­ing saga of Benoit Blanc.

Blanc Check

The world need­ed an icon­ic super sleuth, and Daniel Craig deliv­ered in Benoit Blanc. Han­nah Strong meets him to talk fits, par­ties and his piv­ot to comedy.

The Arti­sans

Four below-the-line artists delve into the secrets of work­ing with Rian John­son and the craft behind Glass Onion.

The LWLies Short Film Detec­tive Agency

A team of cine-sleuths look back at the first flir­ta­tions with moviemak­ing of a host of direc­to­r­i­al legends.

A Page Ripped From the LWLies Gazette

Clas­si­fied ads. Movie detec­tives A‑Z.

In Search of Simenon

Jeff Billing­ton embarked on a Georges Simenon odyssey and lived to tell the tale.

To Kill for Love is Such a Thrill

Kyle Turn­er on the inter­sec­tions between musi­cal-the­atre god­head Stephen Sond­heim, and the time-hon­oured mur­der mystery.

Across the Universe

Michael Leader explores how the Bea­t­les have influ­enced movies beyond their music.

In the back section

Don Chea­dle

Leila Latif meets the Hol­ly­wood leg­end to comb over his career as actor and activist, and his strange and bril­liant new role in Noah Baumbach’s White Noise.

James Gray

The Queens-born direc­tor of Armaged­don Time wax­es philo­soph­i­cal on time and mem­o­ry with Han­nah Strong.

Luca Guadagni­no

The beloved Bones and All direc­tor on how he jumped at the chance to work with his old muse Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met again.

Char­lotte Wells

The After­sun direc­tor chats to Rafa Sales Ross about per­son­al cin­e­ma and the melan­choly aspects of nostalgia.

Ruben Östlund

The dou­ble Palme d’Or-winner on Tri­an­gle of Sad­ness and his provoca­tive take on the #MeToo movement.

Vicky Krieps

The star of Cor­sage speaks to Mari­na Ash­i­oti about play­ing an Aus­tri­an queen and work­ing along­side many cute dogs.

In review

Noah Baumbach’s White Noise
Lau­re de Clermont-Tonerre’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Li Ruijun’s Return to Dust
James Gray’s Armaged­don Time
Alexan­dre Koberidze’s What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
Oliv­er Her­manus’ Liv­ing
Guiller­mo del Toro’s Pinoc­chio
Ruben Östlund’s Tri­an­gle of Sad­ness
Sebas­t­ian Lelio’s The Won­der
Char­lotte Wells’ After­sun
Bian­ca Stigter’s Three Min­utes: A Length­en­ing
Phyl­lis Nagy’s Call Jane
Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s Clara Sola
Miryam Charles’ Cette Mai­son
Maria Schrader’s She Said
Alexan­dre O Philippe’s Lynch/​Oz
Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All
Agniesz­ka Smoczyńska’s The Silent Twins
Ale­jan­dro González Iñárritu’s Bar­do
The Dar­d­enne broth­ers’ Tori and Loki­ta
Jafar Panahi’s No Bears
Mark Mylod’s The Menu
Marie Kruzer’s Corsage

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your consideration.

LWLies 96 is avail­able to order online now from our online shop. Become a LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.