Tag Archives: Thriller

2020, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Swallow (2020): Stomach-Churning and Emotional

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Swallow is one of the hardest watches in years. It’s not long and there isn’t much gore, but director Carlo Mirabella-Davis knows how to get under the audience’s skin with a simple premise. The film stars Haley Bennett (Hardcore Henry) as Hunter, a housewife recently married to a man from a wealthy family. They live together in the stunning mansion overlooking  a river purchased for them by his parents and she spends her days decorating and cleaning it while he works for the family business. During this time Hunter develops a strange fascination with consuming inedible objects.

Even knowing its topic beforehand will not prepare you for the acts on display. Hunter’s behavior starts small, with a marble, but quickly escalates to disturbing heights. Mirabella-Davis films these scenes in medium shots where Hunter’s body language takes center stage. We see her subtle grimaces, convulsions, and pain as she swallows things no human being was ever meant to eat. These scenes are universally revolting. The director doesn’t rely on extreme close ups or tracking into Hunter’s face to get the point across. Instead, Mirabella-Davis’s static shots eliminate any potential distractions forcing the viewer to unwillingly imagine Hunter’s physical experience and contemplate what emotional  state could have caused someone to behave in this manner. Very little graphic imagery is shown, but Mirabella-Davis frames the actions in an uncomfortably inviting way. Some will find these moments, and therefore the film itself, unwatchable due to their repulsive nature yet this is only a testament their effectiveness.

Hunter examines the objects in unsettling detail before consuming.

Haley Bennett is incredible in the difficult role and carries the film. Hunter has a disturbing, inexplicable habit that could make her too strange for viewers to relate to, but Bennett’s performance highlights her vulnerability. Hunter isn’t crazy, despite her actions. She seems fragile, broken by some aspect of her past, yet good-natured. Hunter wants to be a good wife to make her husband happy, she wants to fit in with her in-laws, and is too timid to do anything to offend them. She gives the impression that she is trying to redeem herself by being what others desire and is an extremely sympathetic character. When her compulsion develops, it is disgusting, but it calls attention to some unknown emotional baggage she carries. Bennett gives her the frailty needed to make Hunter a victim using a terrible coping mechanism rather than a lunatic.

In it’s final act, the film shifts its focus from Hunter’s present to her past. Mirabella-Davis examines Hunter’s background and allows her to confront issues that have been plaguing her. These scenes are heartfelt and tender as Bennett again displays Hunter’s sincere vulnerability. While other filmmakers would have focused on the gross-out elements, Mirabella-Davis takes the more difficult route to understand rather than to judge. He is invested in the characters motivations rather than her actions and creates the same interest in the audience. Swallow is a stomach-churning experience, but one that sympathizes with its subject and delves beyond the obvious to comprehend the compulsion without vilifying its victim.

4/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Earthquake Bird (2019): Subdued Thriller

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Based on a best-selling novel, Earthquake Bird is the story of a translator living in Japan and the series of relationships she forms. Lucy Fly (Alicia Vikander; The Light Between Oceans) is a Swedish woman who translates English films that begins a romance with Teiji (Naoki Kobayashi; Tatara Samurai) after he takes a photo of her walking by. Their relationship progresses naturally, but is changed when Lucy is asked to help an American that has recently moved to Tokyo, Lily (Riley Keough; Mad Max: Fury Road). Lily begins to tag along on their outings leading to jealousy and potentially worse when Lily goes missing.

Foreign films set in Japan often focus on its eccentricities, but director Wash Westmoreland (Colette) is interested in the escape it provides. Lucy and Lily talk about how, as foreigners, they receive extra attention that can be addicting in comparison with their home countries. With Lucy we see that she views Japan as a sanctuary. A place where no one knows her and, since the film is set in the 80s, a place where she can remain cutoff if she wants to. Lily approaches Japan from a similar angle. She wants a fresh start in a place with different customs, different rules, and hopefully a different life. This view of life as a migrant is a unique portrayal of Japan and sheds light on Lucy and Lily’s personalities.

The love triangle never reaches its potential.

Vikander is excellent as the reserved Lucy Fly. Lucy is a victim of trauma and has faced personal tragedy that she blames herself for and has led a restricted life. She left her homeland to distance herself from her past, but also uses the enormity of Tokyo to distance herself from others. She is emotionally closed-off and reluctant to form new bonds which Vikander conveys through subtle hesitation and controlled expressions. She rarely emotes and it serves to show afraid she is to reveal herself, even if it is just a simple smile. This makes her strange courtship with Teiji, which begins with an awkward ramen meal, uncommon because she rarely expresses herself in the time they spend together. Instead, we see longing form in her eyes and witness her insecurities grow as she develops feelings for him. Lucy is not a typical protagonist, but Vikander’s nuanced performance makes her a compelling one.

Despite the strength of the lead actress, the film struggles to create its mystery. Westmoreland uses the same cold exterior that Lucy displays for the tone of the film to limited success. The plot progression is slow and there is a noticeable emptiness to the film. Even the busy streets of Tokyo often seem sparsely populated and it gives the impression that the direction is missing some much needed energy. Lily, as the more outgoing American, initially appears like she will be this spark, but even her role is muted. Keough gives a much more carefree performance that contrasts well with Vikander but she is still fairly subdued. Even in the film’s climactic moments, it does not break its placid exterior. The lack of energy behind Earthquake Bird’s central mystery makes it a mostly subdued thriller and weakens the impact of the intriguing love-triangle and Vikander’s refined performance.

3/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

The Death of Dick Long (2019): Dark Comedy-Thriller with a Secret

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After friends Zeke (Michael Abbott Jr.; Loving), Earl (Andre Hyland; The 4th), and Dick (Daniel Scheinert) finish band practice, Dick asks them, “Wanna get weird?”. Since this is a film directed by Daniel Scheinert (one half of the duo behind Swiss Army Man), the answer is most definitely “Yes”. The three go all out drinking, smoking, and setting off fireworks, until the film cuts to Zeke and Earl carrying a bleeding Dick to a hospital emergency room before leaving without a trace. Later, they discover that Dick didn’t survive the night.

Visually, the film is less interesting than Scheinert’s previous work. Swiss Army Man featured creative production design and artful practical effects that would have fit in a Michel Gondry film. Scheinert shows elements of that aesthetic in the film’s opening wild night, but mostly focuses on creating the grounded setting, even down to its music choice. The soundtrack features bands like Creed and Nickelback that are regularly ridiculed in mainstream press but are successful in rural areas. The film’s visuals may not be particularly imaginative, but it does carry an authentic backwoods country vibe.

The opening wild night is the most visually exciting part of the film.

Scheinert straddles a difficult line between thriller and comedy. The death, and its horrific cause, give the film a slightly dangerous edge. Zeke and Earl are not only trying to hide their involvement with whatever led to Dick’s demise, they won’t even mention what caused it. This casts suspicion over their actions. If it was an accident, what would they have to hide? It seems unlikely that they would deliberately harm their friend, but why else would they deny their involvement? What other sort of illicit activities could have happened that night? Zeke and Earl’s behaviors raise questions about their culpability.

The comedy comes from their reactions to the situation and their poor attempts at hiding their connection to the death. Zeke and Earl argue about movie references while cleaning bloodstains out of a car and awkwardly hide the facts from their significant others. Their position becomes increasingly complicated as they run into the two local police officers at inconvenient times and have to weasel their way out of the interactions. It isn’t overtly going for laughs the way a regular comedy would, but the film’s incompetent leads get themselves into several difficult, but humorous situations when avoiding being caught.

The end result of the strange balancing act is an enjoyable film, but one that doesn’t exceed expectations in either area. The film isn’t quite a thriller, but the central mystery is still involving. It isn’t necessarily tense, but Scheinert is able to maintain enough intrigue to keep the audience tuned in. The humor isn’t gut-busting, but there is enough of it to amuse. When the story finally unravels with an answer that is shocking beyond belief, something out of the territory for a resolution to most stories, it provides ample reason for all of the preceding behavior. The Death of Dick Long is a dark comedy-thriller that, given its subject matter, balances tones enough to entertain the audience until it reaches its outrageous reveal.

3/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Parasite (2019): High-class Infiltration

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With his first film to be made fully in Korea in a decade, director Bong Joon-ho has created his best work since Memories of Murder. Parasite is the story of a poor family living in a basement apartment . The father (Song Kang-ho) was a driver but, like the rest of his family, is unemployed and barely scraping by. The son gets an offer from his friend to substitute as an English tutor for a rich girl, despite his lack of a college education, and enters into a completely different world. Using the English name “Kevin”, he meets the Parks, an affluent family that pays him a sum that is inconsequential to them, but life-changing for him.

The film begins as a comedic con movie. Kevin (Choi Woo-sik; Okja) tricks his way into the wealthy household on his friend’s recommendation, but the film becomes increasingly ridiculous as he, and each subsequent member of his family, devise ways to get their loved ones a job, even if that job is already taken. They set up elaborate schemes to put the existing staff out of work that, while unfair to the innocent employees, are hilarious in their audacity. The rich mom appears kind, but gullible, or “simple” as Kevin’s friend puts it, and falls for their innocuous line of recommendations. Slowly, the entire Kim family becomes employed by the Park family and their clumsy attempts to hide their relationships become a great comedy of errors.

The poor Kim family does odd jobs like folding pizza boxes just to survive.

Without spoiling anything, their deception escalates with unforeseen consequences. This is where the plot thickens and the film’s themes begin to show themselves. While the Parks seem kind and welcoming at first, the disparity between their lives and the lives of the Kim family comes into focus. During a heavy rainfall, the Park family, in their walled off home above the city streets, are largely unaffected, with their son even camping outside during the storm. The Kims however live in a partially underground apartment. The rain leads to their home being flooded to chest-high levels of sewage water, drastically impacting their lives in a way the Parks are not even aware of. In the subtle way they treat their employees, the Parks show their aversion towards the Kims and their lower class life, gradually changing how the Kims, and the audience, view them. The Parks may be the victim of deception, but their attitudes create a moral gray area.

Bong is known for his skillful blending of genres and tones, but Parasite is remarkable even by his high standards. The film works on so many levels. It’s a thriller, a farcical comedy, and a commentary on class, all without conflicting tones or sacrificing the strength of one genre for the other. As the film dives into unexpected territories, it feel completely controlled and reaches surprising levels of emotional significance. Bong uses the film to comment on class privilege, but also the sacrifices and glass ceilings of the lower classes. He shows what the poor must struggle through, what they dream of, and what their realities are without completely absolving them of blame. He isn’t afraid of showing multiple perspectives. Parasite is masterful blend of genres and a tonal juggling act featuring a complex look at wealth disparity in modern society.

five stars

5/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Wounds (2019): Bland Thriller

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After an incredible debut with Under the Shadow, writer-director Babak Anvari’s second feature can only be considered a disappointment. Based on the novella The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud, the story follows Will (Armie Hammer; The Lone Ranger), a bartender in Louisiana, that leads a steady, but happily aimless life drinking heavily and enjoying himself. After breaking up a bar fight, he picks up a cell phone left by some college students and accidentally takes it home. He finds some alarming text messages asking for help and, believing it to be a prank, tells them to come back to the bar to pick up the phone. Soon the texts become dangerous and he discovers horrifying pictures and videos of body parts and what appears to be torture. He decides to give the phone to local police officers that frequent his bar, but the pull of the phone and its transgressive material begins to seep into his life.

Hammer continues to be an actor that looks the part of the leading man, almost to a ridiculous degree, but doesn’t have the acting talent to match. His deep voice lacks nuance in his delivery and his attempts at inflections during dramatic moments feel forced and stilted. He struggles to emote with his monotone diction and doesn’t have enough material to support him. Will, as a character, is mostly hollow. Some of this is in keeping with the themes of the story, but it doesn’t make him an engaging presence. He is never given enough background or motivation to add depth to his character and the supporting cast is similarly vacant.

Hammer can’t display the level of emotion required for the role.

While Anvari’s first film was a demonstration of complete directorial control, Wounds is lackluster. The film never maintains any level of sustained tension and struggles to even produce fleeting moments of suspense. Under the Shadow featured many scenes of poised camerawork that was fraught with impending peril as well as creative compositions, but none of that skill is present here. The majority of the film is shot with fairly standard blocking, sorely missing any personal style. There are a few jump scares, but they appear randomly and too briefly to have any effect. Worst of all, they have no relation to the story. For example, a close-up of a loud, dusty air conditioning unit is spliced in between two random scenes as a jump scare, but it only produces confusion. Decisions like this raise questions about the director’s judgement and vision in creating the film.

Some of the poor results can be blamed on the source material. The Visible Filth is an intriguing story, but one that may not have been a good fit for the big screen. Moments of tension created by unknown, potentially sinister text messages and voicemails work well on the page, but in cinematic form this becomes images of adults looking at their phones which doesn’t carry the same level of dread. This failed translation is especially harmful in the film’s conclusion. It resolves little for those who held on hoping for a worthwhile reveal for the story’s struggling mystery. The ending, while true to the source material, is so bland visually that Anvari resorts to mediocre computer generated effects to obscure the screen and hide its banality. Wounds isn’t an offensively bad film, but it is a bland and forgettable one which, given its pedigree, makes it profoundly disappointing.

2/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

The Nightingale (2019): Unflinching, Unhurried Revenge Story

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After her promising debut with The Babadook, Australian director Jennifer Kent has stayed close to home with her sophomore effort. The Nightingale takes place during the Black War period in the early 1800s on Tasmania. The British have entered the area and used it as a penal colony. Clare (Aisling Franciosi; The Fall), a convict, works a servant for the British Army and lives with her husband, also a convict, and their baby. She is tormented by Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claiflin; My Cousin Rachel), the local ranking officer, who makes unwanted advances towards her. When she asks for a approval letter that would allow her and her family to move, he brutally assaults her. A further act of violence is committed shortly after and it leaves Clare with nothing on her mind but revenge.

There will be complaints about the heinous acts on display. Clare is victimized and Kent does not shy away from depicting her suffering. In the film’s most uncomfortable scene, Kent places the camera, and the viewers, directly in Clare’s perspective. In this shot, the image shows nothing, but says everything. The camera only jostles as Clare’s pain and powerlessness is passed directly onto the audience with unsettling efficacy. These scenes, and there are multiple, are cruel, but necessary for the plot and character development.

Franciosi gives Claire a single-minded need for retribution.

The plight of the natives is also a major topic for the film. As Clare seeks to find and punish Hawkins and his cronies, she enlists the help of an Aboriginal tracker, Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), to help her navigate the wilderness. Clare’s prejudice, and that of her fellow colonists, is immediately apparent. They talk about the Aboriginal people as wild, treacherous animals that Clare cannot trust or be left alone with for her own safety. Early on, she only refers to Billy as “Boy” and walks behind him with a rifle pointed at his back. Her condescending tone and blatant racism is difficult to process after the sympathy she has gained from her suffering. It becomes clear that as terribly as Clare has been treated, the native people of Tasmania had it much worse. Gradually, Clare and Billy learn of each other’s tragic pasts and become allies. Billy risks himself to prevent Clare from being harmed and Clare uses her position of trust as a white woman to get Billy past trigger-happy colonists, but the savagery and debasement of the Aboriginals is still a pervasive presence.

It is Kent’s uncompromising approach that carries the film. The slower pacing and unyielding camera lend weight to the actions onscreen. She creates a sense of shared suffering in the victimized characters and in the audience. This also serves to create an entirely despicable villain. Hawkins is unrepentant for his behavior and abuses everyone around him with extreme entitlement. Kent spends more than enough screen time establishing the horrendous nature of his character which makes Clare’s dangerous and likely unsuccessful path to finding him necessary. With her focus on the harsh realities faced by the women and natives of Tasmania, Kent has created an unflinching and unhurried revenge story.

4/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Luce (2019): Mixed Messages

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Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.; It Comes at Night) is a golden boy. He’s a star athlete, incredible student, and beloved by his school staff. He gives speeches at school assemblies and is poised for a great future, but comes from a difficult past. He was adopted from war-torn Eritrea by wealthy white parents and his life seems perfect until a teacher (Octavia Spencer; The Help) finds fireworks in his locker and has suspicions about his true character. As Luce, Harrison brings a smile and expressions that seem kind, but could just as easily be fake and the slightly stilted body language plants enough seeds of doubt to make his teacher’s allegations possible.  Similarly, Spencer seems like a dutiful teacher at first, but may have her own agenda.

Luce has a lot to say about race, primarily racial stereotypes. Luce is a model teenager that seems to excel in every field. Teachers give him the benefit of the doubt and, in some cases, even go out of their way to protect  him, but that luxury isn’t afforded to every student. Other black students, doing the same behaviors as him, are quickly punished and suffer long term consequences. Luce’s friend tells him “You’re not really black” and Luce questions why he gets to be “one of the good ones” and others don’t. This is an incredibly complicated issue and the film uses this labeling to add layers to the doubts about Luce’s actions as the characters and the audience are asked to question their own predispositions to judging someone’s innocence.

Harrison’s manners have a slight suggestion of insincerity that prevents Luce from being completely trustworthy.

In its lineup of topics, Luce goes after innocent targets with no discernable purpose. When Luce is initially accused of wrongdoing, his mother supports him at all costs, refusing to believe any allegation. His dad has less blind faith and when events create reasonable doubt, he spouts, “I just wanted a normal life. I didn’t want our family to be a political statement.”, implying that he not only regrets adopting Luce, but that they did it to make themselves seem progressive. It’s possible that there may be cases like this, but who is director and co-writer Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) trying to interrogate here, adoptive parents? Luce’s mother points out how they spent years going through therapy with their son to help him recover from the terrible life he faced in his home country, a gargantuan effort that few would be willing to do when a “normal family” is an option. To question people that choose to give a child from a better life, people to choose to face the difficulties the child may bring because they believe he or she is worth, is irresponsible and harmful. Some films tackle easy subjects, some tackle difficult subjects, but in this instance, the director punches down at people doing a demanding and altruistic deed, without provocation or reason. There are so many topics within race relations and stereotypes that deserve a proper examination, but Onah’s shotgun approach hits innocent targets in a way that raises questions about the level of care put into the film’s themes and creates mixed, troublesome messages in what could have been a perceptive thriller about racial stereotypes.

3/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Hotel Mumbai (2019): Visceral Recreation

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Based on the 2008 terrorist attacks in India, Hotal Mumbai follows several characters in the historic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, a five-star, hundred year old lodging. Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) plays a waiter at the Taj who, after almost being sent home for not having the required clothing, finds himself caught in the center of a coordinated assault. Instead of escaping, he and several of the other hotel staff decide to stay to help evacuate the guests to safety, risking their own lives in the process. The film also follows a wealthy heiress (Nazanin Boniadi) and her American husband (Armie Hammer; The Social Network) staying at the hotel and shows the terrorists as they enter Mumbai and execute their plan.

Patel delivers mixed results as the lead but has a strong supporting cast to compensate. Patel’s blank face isn’t able to express the necessary gravity of the situation. Even in the tensest moments, he just seems vaguely confused and his expressions wouldn’t be out of place in a comedy. Fortunately, the cast that plays the rest of the Taj’s staff is up to the task. They appear determined and methodical, operating in the same well-structured unit they use for regular business, only with significantly higher stakes. Anupam Kher (The Big Sick) is stern but caring as the head chef and manager. He repeatedly shows his resourcefulness and resilience and he leads the frantic guests through significant danger and calmly confronts the daunting risks ahead. The remaining cast is hit or miss with Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs delivering mostly flat acting and the others having too little screen time to be memorable.

Patel’s expressions don’t match the danger of the situation.

Despite this being  his first feature, director Anthony Maras shows he has an eye for tension. He stages the horrific acts with a harsh, unstylized brutality that never veers into exploitation. The violence elicits shudders not cheers. His greatest asset is his ability to capture the terror of the unknown. Much of the film consists of characters hiding in the dark, afraid that the terrorists may enter their room. Maras maintains a breathless tension in these scenes by making use of offscreen space. We hear the knocks on guest rooms followed by screams and gunshots and, like with the shaking water cups from Jurassic Park, we know something bad is coming.

Hotel Mumbai’s major flaw is its message, or rather, its lack thereof. Many films have taken real life events and turned them into dramas, but Maras’s picture doesn’t appear to offer any particular insight. He partially avoids the mistake of taking a tragedy and focusing on a few visiting Americans instead of the locals who suffered in greater numbers. Thankfully, the hotel’s team is shown as the heroic people that they were, but the film doesn’t delve into the lives of the staff either. The characters and any greater context into the events that led to these incidents are secondary to the illustrating the momentary actions and emotions. Hotel Mumbai is an incredibly effective, visceral depiction of what it could have been like to endure this act of terror, but lacks a deeper meaning behind the recreation.

4/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Serenity (2019): Baffling and Bizarre

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Somewhere in the middle of the sea, Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey; Dallas Buyers Club) makes a meager living taking tourists out to fish tuna and sharks on his ramshackle boat. He lives an uneventful life save for a particular mammoth fish he has been chasing. One day his ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway; Les Misérables) abruptly arrives on the island and makes him an offer. She promises ten million dollars if he will take her current husband onto his boat and kill him. Her husband Miller (Jason Clarke; Zero Dark Thirty) has powerful ties, shady dealings, and has been physically abusing her. She sees this as her only way out and begs Dill to do this for their son who has now become a shut-in, spending his life behind his computer screen to avoid his abusive step-father. With a juicy premise written and directed by Steven Knight (Locke), Serenity initially seemed like a film to watch out for.

On the surface, Knight wants this to be a neo-noir. Every required trope of the film noir is present. Dill is a loner dedicated to his job, deliberately living in isolation, and Karen enters the film with the bleached blonde hair, barely opaque dress, and drawn out delivery of the classic femme fatale. The visuals are sun-soaked with raised contrast to emphasize the heightened reality of the story. While the script is intending to play with the established norms of the genre, it falls too snugly into the mold with characters lacking anything to distinguish themselves from a general archetype. Clarke’s villainous Miller is one-dimensional in his immediate and unmitigated loathsomeness and Hathaway’s Karen is little more than a plot device to force Dill out of his routine existence.

Despite the cast’s efforts, none of the characters are memorable.

Without spoiling anything, the film introduces a game-changing element midway through. This piece of info radically reframes the narrative and not to its benefit. It is a reveal that, while hinted at in the film’s narrative and stylistic choices, is ridiculous and renders much of the story pointless. Furthermore, it raises a myriad of questions about everything shown so far and the plausibility of every character’s actions. What should be a plot explanation becomes a source of numerous plot holes and immersion-breaking inconsistencies.

By the time the credits roll, we’re left in a state of disbelief and confusion. This isn’t a multilayered, reflexive narrative like Mulholland Drive, rather it’s an ill-conceived, poorly-executed idea that raises questions about film’s entire development process. Did no one raise any red flags after reading the script? Was the cast attached alone enough to override the glaring narrative flaws? This can’t have read well on paper so it boggles the mind that two Academy award winning actors and a talented writer-director would involve themselves in a project like this, particularly since this is an original idea. The combination of high powered talent both in front of and behind the camera along with a blatantly problematic narrative make Serenity one of the most baffling and bizarre releases in recent years.

2/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews

Glass (2019): Bent, but Not Broken

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After the surprise success of Split, Shyamalan’s follow up has become the much awaited sequel to this nearly 20 year film series. Having escaped capture, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy; Atonement) continues kidnapping innocents until he and David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the main character from Unbreakable, find themselves caught and locked up in a mental institution with Dunn’s nemesis Mr. Glass (Samuel Jackson). They are placed under the supervision of a psychiatrist who claims they have delusions of grandeur, mistakenly believing themselves to be superheroes, and plans to cure them of this mental illness.

The leads are enjoying themselves reprising their roles. Willis, who has phoned in many of his performances, is fully invested in his weary, but committed Dunn who now runs a security store and patrols the city at night. McAvoy continues to embrace schizophrenic acting as he switches from playing a nine year old boy to a strict British woman and more. While sometimes resembling a comedian improvising new characters, the jarring personality changes are entertaining to watch. Jackson plays up his Mr. Glass as a cartoonishly evil villain that fits the film’s explicitly comic book tone. His erect hair and shimmering purple suit make him a cross between a mad scientist and the Joker with enough heinous acts onscreen to reinforce his threat, despite his physical appearance. The other returning cast member, Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey, plays a limited role and is pushed to secondary character status for the bulk of the runtime.

The pale, but pronounced colors rise far above the visuals of most superhero films.

As with all of Shyamalan’s films, the focus eventually shifts to the plot twist. In the case of Glass there are multiple reveals late in the film. None of these is as impactful as the twist from The Sixth Sense or as unexpected as the larger universe connection in Split. At the same time, the twists are inoffensive. They reveal some information which breaks a central relationship, but nothing that recontextualizes the narrative so far. They serve as additional facts rather than major paradigm shifts.

There are also attempts to flesh out the greater film world that fall flat. Shyamalan tries to expand his mythos with secretive organizations and hints at expanded lore, but these attempts at world-building come too late to have any effect. As the third, and presumably final, film in the series, this effort is unnecessary and distracts from the central story.

The final question of Glass is whether it builds on Shyamalan’s recent resurgence to good favor or if it is a trip back to his string of bad features from the mid-2000s. The true answer is neither. The film is somewhere in between. The story isn’t thrilling or surprising, nor does it create emotional investment, but the acting is enjoyable and the craft is strong. Shyamalan reteams with cinematographer Mike Gioulakis who adopts a striking color palette. He uses soft hues of purple, yellow, and green to represent Glass, Crumb, and Dunn, respectively, that are rarely used together in film and give the title a distinct, contrasting aesthetic. It won’t live up to the hype generated by the surprise reveal in Split and falls far short of its potential, but Glass is harmless entertainment.

3/5 stars.