I think more films, perhaps all films, should feature someone turning into a bulletproof gecko using the power of their mind. It should be part of cinema’s lexicon. Three acts, foreshadowing, dutch angles, gecko. ‘Greed is good’ would be more persuasive if proclaimed from the ceiling from an antagonist impervious to gunfire.
Firmly on Team Gecko here.
I missed this the first time around, but I thought the long pause and look between Taylor-Joy and the cop implied that she was just about to spill the beans on the abuse.
At least this was less bad than the other M Night Shamalamadingdong disasters. But that’s not saying much.
I just finished this. Excellent movie. The pacing and the tension were so much like Unbreakable. And then of course, at the end of the movie he almost spoiled that by making an actual reference to Unbreakable. That was kind of unnecessary. The movie was already very much like Unbreakable in its structure and pacing and the way character backgrounds were slowly revealed with flashbacks.
Anyway, it’s really good to see a return to form for Mr. M. Night.
I can’t believe @tomchick liked this! J/k.
But I thought it was somewhat uneven and maybe underdone. McAvoy (especially), the increasingly "I need to watch this movie because Anna Taylor-Joy is acting in it " AnnaTaylor-Joy (no, she’s not great in Morgan but nobody could be great in Morgan. But her presence improved the movie as much as one might hope given the script), and the always wonderful Hailey Lu Richardson had great performances which really carried the movie. The Therapist was pretty good too. All her interactions with McAvoy were good. I’m not clear why she stuffed the handkerchief into the. . . keyhole? at the end. But you could really feel her alarm in that scene.
Bu t it was really underwhelming for the final confrontation to just fizzle out because Taylor-Joy had some weird scars (what were those? I am assuming they came from self-harm due to lingering abuse issues). That isn’t to say that it needed to end with her using her Witchy powers to cast TILTOWAIT and destroy The Beast. In fact, I quite like the idea that this was a film leading into something else, of it not having a definitive confrontation. But this is what felt underdone to me. Although spider-McAvoy was suitably creepy.
I did like Cooke’s abuse backstory. I think she was clearly abused even before the scars reveal and the amazing flashback scene where Uncle John wants her to play animals (probably the best scene in the movie; what a clever way to initiate something so completely despicable). This is a credit to Taylor-Joy certainly. But something of a credit to the script; I thought “pee on yourself” was just Cooke being clever but after the animals scene I’m like “double holy fuck batman”. But I’m not sure I like that it wasn’t certain regarding whether she said anything at the end. I want to believe she did, although it looks like we won’t know until 2019. But I don’t know if she did and it bothers me.
I don’t think the zoo, uh, “reveal” quite worked (although it makes the Walkie Talkie thing make perfect sense).
This was certainly better than The Happening but everything is better than The Happening except getting Cancer (e.g.) but I’m not even sure on that point. I only saw parts of The Visit and it didn’t quite work for me, so I’ll probably score this as better than that as well. It’s notas good as Early-MNS maybe but it was better than anything in awhile despite being the movie being somewhat uneven.
I thought the twist was going to be that all of them were in Cooke’s head, and it was going to be about abuse in some form. I abandoned that as soon as McAvoy went to the therapist, of course.
Eating people to absorb their knowledge and powers is the oldest trick in the book. I rather like that this is a movie bridging Unbreakable into a wider universe. The Shamaylamaverse has more going for it than Dark Movieverse. Which also isn’t saying much.
I still can’t figure out what the big twist is supposed to be here. Is it:
It’s not like I demanded a twist, it’s just that I read more than once there was a twist, so I’m trying to figure out what the heck people were talking about.
All those things were learned during the course of the movie. There was no one “twist” moment in this one. I liked that. But if people are talking about a twist, I’d guess that it’s that last one, that it’s in the same universe as Unbreakable. But I can’t figure out why they would think that was a twist.
One of the reveals (I don’t think of it as a “twist” at all) is that Anya Taylor-Joy’s abuse has motivated her to self-harm. The film does everything possible to not show you her arms until the very end despite all the clothes changing and sweaters. It’s not a great reveal though, because the movie gives no real hints to the audience that being “broken” will save her until that cert moment.
Yeah, it seems the major “M. Night twist” is the fact that Split is part of the Unbreakable world.
There was a twist, I guess (I mean I wouldn’t really call it that), but it wasn’t a big twist in the normal sense of the term and certainly not a Shaymalamatwist! We knew that different personalities can cause physical changes in-universe because the Doc gave us a lecture (well a segment of a lecture) on it. it’s just that it was unexpected IMO that his personalities were probably inspired by various zoo animals. I didn’t see that coming.
I do think the movie established that suffering was a necessary component of “becoming”, but not that it would necessarily save Casey. I think @telefrog neatly summed up why I felt the clamix was flat.
I thought the “twist” was that the beast was actually real and not just part of his delusion?
Not reading spoilers in this thread because I might watch it. I’m just posting to say I thought I was the only one who called him shamalamadingdong.
I liked this, largely because of McAvoy’s and Taylor-Joy’s performances. It would have been a better movie if that inexplicably stupid final scene in the diner had been cut.
Oh, I’ve gotta disagree with that, personally–it was stupid, alright, but stupid in an audacious way that turned me around on the film I had largely disliked up to that point, and made me laugh out loud. It felt like I was the butt of a good prank.
Finally had time to see this and I liked it a lot. McAvoy was just fantastic portraying the many personalities, and I think its the first time I’ve seen Anya Taylor Joy in anything.
I’ll move on to Glass next as I see that is finally showing up for rent.
Dude… see The Witch. It’s a great movie overall, and it’s her best performance.
This is my shocked face 😱
You really, really need to watch The Witch.
Save yourself the trouble. It is so disrespectful to the source material it is better left unwatched.
Wait what? I heard GLASS was good?
Also now I have to see The Witch!
Glass is terrible.
It’s only a few bucks, I’ll see it and then possibly hate it like some of you. :)