Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is the second film in Rian Johnson's Knives Out murder mystery franchise, and it is equally as beloved as the first film. (Knives Out has a Metascore of 82, while Glass Onion has a Metscore of 81.)

Coming three years after the first film introduced audiences to Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc, a detective sent to investigate the untimely death of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) at his family home in New England, Glass Onion follows Benoit to a Greek island to investigate a death that occurs during a getaway organized by tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton).

Although there is, of course, a very heavy "whodunnit" element to Glass Onion, ala the first film, the tone is also still comedic in nature. The wealthy characters are all larger-than-life, featuring unique attributes of the privileged that end up juxtaposed with those who work for them. But more pointedly, the film skewers the idea of "genius" and how the privileged can be desperate to hold onto that status, even if it means selling their souls.

This time around the cast of characters includes Miles' ex-business partner Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe); East Coast politician Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn); Miles' employee, scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.); supermodel-turned-designer Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson); influencer Duke Cody (Dave Bautista); Birdie's assistant (played by Jessica Henwick); and Duke's girlfriend (played by Madelyn Cline).

It's rare to find whodunnits that do not take themselves too seriously, but if you find yourself wanting to watch another mystery after screening Glass Onion and you don't mind shifting around with tone, here, Metacritic highlights 10 other movies to watch, ranked by Metascore.

Gosford Park

Metascore: 90
Best for: Fans of upstairs-downstairs dynamics
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 137 minutes

This 2001 film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes may be the closest on the list to the Knives Out franchise, in that it also takes a dark comedy tone and deals in the very different perspectives of those who are working a party and those who are attending it. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) is the one who is murdered, during an event he is hosting, and the question of who stabbed him becomes the forefront of the story, with two men coming in to investigate. (Stephen Fry's Inspector has an air of ridiculousness, driving humor, while Ron Webster's Constable brings things back to a bit more of a grounded nature.) However, there are other secrets threatening to be spilled throughout this story that complicate the matter at hand, too.

"A wickedly astute and beautiful comedy of manners-cum-murder mystery, it's too dense, and occasionally confusing, to grasp fully the first time around. How lucky, then, that it's also too much fun to see just once." — Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Metascore: 88
Best for: Fans of rags-to-riches stories that are all about relationships
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 100 minutes

Wes Anderson's 2014 film is another large ensemble piece set in a luxe location (this time a mountainside, European resort) that centers on a crime. The story is told through flashbacks and narration as former resort employee (now owner) Zero (Tony Revolori) recounts his exploits working alongside a concierge (played by Ralph Fiennes) who was framed for murder in the 1930s. That concierge was also bequeathed a priceless painting that becomes the larger mystery of the movie, and is also the key to how these men move from the working class to a more wealthy status.

"One of Anderson's funniest and most fanciful movies, but perversely enough it may also be his most serious, most tragic and most shadowed by history, with the frothy Ernst Lubitsch-style comedy shot through with an overwhelming sense of loss." — Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Metascore: 72
Best for: Fans of mistaken identity (and a lot of it!)
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 103 minutes

Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer are at the center of Shane Black's directorial debut, this 2005 neo-noir dark comedy that draws inspiration from the 1941 novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them. Downey plays Harry, a criminal who stumbles into a potential acting gig, which is how he meets Kilmer's Gay, a private investigator tasked with helping Harry prep for the gig. As they work together, Harry joins Gay on a stakeout, where they see someone dumping a car (containing a body) in a lake. Although they attempt to help, they bungle things worse (by accidentally shooting the body), and from there, things spiral into even more convoluted territory with more potential dead women, the return of this corpse, and lost body parts. This is not so simply a whodunnit but a, "what exactly was done, by whom, and why" that also involves abusive family members, mental institutions, and fraud. Those things don't sound comical on the surface, but that's why it's classified as a dark comedy.

"Black's inventive, self-conscious script — heavy on voice-over narration — can be too clever for its own good. The movie is baroque fun, but exhausting." — David Ansen, Newsweek

The Nice Guys

Metascore: 70
Best for: Fans of unlikely partners and simple men taking on large conspiracies
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 116 minutes

This is another neo-noir, male duo-centric title about a PI from Black, but this time the film is a period piece starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. Set in 1977 Los Angeles (but released in 2016), Gosling plays a struggling PI named Holland who is hired by a woman who believe she saw her porn star niece after that niece supposed died. This is how he meets Crowe's Jackson, a man who is supposed to scare him off the case. The larger mystery that unravels includes activism, experimental film, investigative journalism, and, of course, corrupt law enforcement. The two men who started on opposite sides of the investigation end up having to work together to stop the body count from rising, which adds additional stakes to simply cracking the case of the potentially faked-death.

"The modest pleasures of The Nice Guys lie not in following the wiggy story twists but in watching Gosling and Crowe mix it up and mess everything up." — Stephanie Zacharek, Time

Game Night

Metascore: 66
Best for: Fans of everyday people jumping into action-adventures
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 100 minutes

John Francis Daley's 2018 comedy is an outlier on this list in that it is not a whodunnit at all. However, the tone, the caliber of cast, and the style of action are all similar to the Knives Out franchise. Here, the titular game night goes completely awry when usual hosts Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams) are usurped by Max's brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) who offers an insanely large prize before promptly being abducted. The film is not just a search for where he is and why, though; instead it turns into a larger caper involving a the black market, a Fabergé egg, and potentially selling out people in witness protection. 

"This tame but fitfully funny goof on suspense cinema at least assembles an agreeable guest list. ... As with any real game night, the company is more important than the game." — A.A. Dowd, The A.V. Club

Vengeance

Metascore: 65
Best for: Fans of murder mysteries that come with ruminations on selfish male behavior and the drug trade
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 107 minutes

B.J. Novak writes, directs, and stars in this 2022 film about a podcaster who gets a call that his girlfriend is dead. Only, he didn't have a girlfriend — just a lot of hookups saved in his phone. Still, he is caught by the emotion in the delivery of the message because he is told she thought the world of him, and he decides to go to the funeral. He also senses there could be a story there, and the more time he spends with her family, the more he realizes there definitely is. Her cause of death is listed as an overdose, but no one thinks she is the type to take drugs, so he begins to suspect she was murdered, all while recording interviews for his podcast and becoming more personally entangled than he expects. While there are definitely comedic elements in this film, it does have a more somber message than the Knives Out franchise.

"A jumbled, fitfully amusing, occasionally fascinating effort, but one that shows promise even when it's stumbling over its ambition." — Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Metascore: 63
Best for: Fans of classic mystery tales
Where to watch:

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Runtime: 128 minutes

Agatha Christie's 1934 novel received the adaptation treatment more than once, but Sidney Lumet's is the one that started it all. Its detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is an inspiration for Benoit, who is called to investigate the murder of a wealthy passenger on the titular train; it keeps its investigation in one central location; and it, too, features an A-list cast (including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, and more). Since it's based on a Christie novel, the tone is all business as Hercule interviews the others on the train, solves the case, and presents two options for how what went down can be presented once the train docks at the station. There is a sense of questionable morality to it, which means it is not comedic in tone.

"This all-star version of an Agatha Christie antiquity promises to be a sumptuous spread, and so it is, but not as tasty as one had hoped." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

Murder By Death

Metascore: 62
Best for: Those who love maniacal twists
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 94 minutes

Neil Simon wrote this 1976 mystery parody and Robert Moore made his directorial debut with it. Like the original Knives Out, the action is set at a country house, but this time there are multiple detectives in attendance of a "dinner and a murder" party thrown by the equally mysterious and eccentric millionaire Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) who claims he is the best criminologist in the world but challenges his guests to solve a murder for a prize of $1 million. Only, there is more than one dead body and a lot of manipulation that makes some in the house not what they appear, allowing for red herrings and many motives for the murder. Since it is a parody, it sends up tropes read in Christie novels or seen in films of the traditional whodunnit genre. Admittedly it is a true product of its time in the good and the bad: Seeing Peter Falk trying to solve yet another crime is fun, but an actor in yellowface is particularly cringey when viewed through today's lens.

"Robert Moore...in his feature-film debut has shown the good sense to give free rein to the inspired zaniness of his cleverest players." — Janet Muslin, Newsweek

See How They Run

Metascore: 60
Best for: Fans of mysteries that get meta
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 98 minutes

Tom George's 2022 film actually follows characters investigating a murder at a theater at which Christie The Mousetrap is celebrating its 100th performance and is potentially going to be adapted into a feature film. Set in 1950s London, everyone at that theater becomes a suspect for Sam Rockwell's Inspector Stoppard and Saoirse Ronan's Constable Stalker, who are also very different in their approaches to the investigation because she is new and eager, while he is a veteran who doesn't get his way in the case, in part simply by having her there. They do, of course, eventually bond, but things take a turn when he becomes a suspect, too. The film also stars a large ensemble, including David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Shirley Henderson as a fictional version of Christie.

"An old school whodunit reconceived as a farce. It's self-referential (the characters end up snowed in at a country estate, just like in The Mousetrap) and simultaneously poking fun at the murder mystery form while also paying homage. If only it were actually funny!" — Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Metascore: 57
Best for: Fans of the titular character and period mysteries with political and supernatural plots
Where to watch: 

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Runtime: 128 minutes

Downey stars in the titular role (with Jude Law as his partner John Watson) in Guy Ritchie's adaptation of the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character. In this version, there is a mix of supernatural elements with typical crime, as after Sherlock helps get a supposed serial killer convicted and sentenced to death, his grave is empty and there are sightings of him around town. This leads Sherlock and Watson to get involved with a secret society with ties to both the supernatural and political worlds within the British Empire, of which they are trying to seize control. The film's mystery extends beyond the whodunnit format and well beyond the mystery of one man to have wider worldly implications.

"By now we've seen so many good, bad, and indifferent Sherlocks that it's almost a relief to get something different, however wrongheaded. And there's no such thing as too much Downey." — David Edelstein, Vulture