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Date: 1/22/2019
What I’m watching: a truly innovative superhero that concludes a trilogy of films and a startling new documentary.
In theaters: Glass
According to the buzz in social media, director and writer M. Night Shymalan’s conclusion to his superhero trilogy has either delighted pop culture fans or severely disappointed them.
I’m in the former group. I loved it.
The film concludes the story started in “Unbreakable” in which Bruce Willis plays an ordinary guy who discovers through his survival of a train wreck that he has amazing strength and stamina. That train wreck was engineered by a genius named Elijah Price who suffers from a condition of having extremely brittle bones.
Price (Samuel L. Jackson) concluded that in the world there had to be someone who was as invulnerable as he was vulnerable and decided that if he causes catastrophes, that person would be eventually discovered.
In “Split,” Shymalan introduces Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has more than 20 personalities, one of whom is “The Beast,” an entity with superhuman strength and the idea that he can rid the world of the “impure.”
In “Glass,” all three of these characters meet. They have been captured and placed in an institution. There Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) tells the men she has three days in order to convince them they are delusional about their abilities. If they admit they do not have extraordinary abilities, the courts will have greater sympathy for them.
This is a universe that is the polar opposite of the ones created in films depicting Marvel or DC superheroes. There are no spandex suits, no hidden headquarters, no billionaires and no gimmicks. Bruce Willis’ David Dunn still wears a poncho as he did in “Unbreakable.” The Beast seems happy simply to pull off the shirt he is wearing. Only Jackson’s Price has adopted a name to fit his super villainy – Mr. Glass – and has a snazzy outfit.
Perhaps it is Shymalan’s almost pedestrian vision of what other filmmakers make as CGI-fueled modern myth that has bothered some fans. For me, this grounds the movie in a way that few other superhero films have done.
Dunn simply wants to help people. Glass wants to prove to the world his genius intellect is a formidable weapon and The Beast is the anarchist who is happy to team with Glass.
There is no villain from outer space or another dimension. Instead we have people struggling with their very human conditions and through those conditions they realize they are something other people are not, and therefore, are linked to each other.
This is what makes “Glass” stand out from other superhero films. Hey, I like a bunch of them – not all of them – but “Glass” is something truly unique.
Shymalan toys with the audience’s expectation, which I also enjoyed. For instance he leads us to believe what the climatic confrontation will be between the three men and then drops it. It’s a clever move.
Like in his best work, Shymalan keeps you guessing right until the credits roll. And there are no post-credit sequences that has become required part of other superhero films.
Although seeing “Unbreakable” and “Split” may help your appreciation of this film, I think most audiences will be able to join into this film without preparation.
On Netflix: Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened
I had never heard of this controversy from 2017 but director Chris Smith’s compelling look at the Fyre music festival certainly opened my eyes.
The film methodically dissects what turned out to be an immense swindle, a scam that affected not just the people who bought tickets to what they thought would be an amazing music festival in the Bahamas, but also investors, staff members, construction workers and other vendors.
At the heart of it is also a condemnation of social media and its effect on people. Organizer Billy McFarland had a social media campaign developed that utilized a group of supermodels and social media influencers to promote the upcoming festival in such a way that their commercial involvement in the enterprise was obscured.
One of the film’s commentary is on the immense effect social media influencers have today.
The amazing thing about this documentary was how much of the narrative was covered in footage shot at the time. Many of the people, including McFarland, shot footage either with video crews or cell phones that brings this story to life.
Even after the disaster – the footage of ticketholders who learn everything they were promised to receive with their ticket is a scam is devastating – McFarland taped meetings that showed not only his complete lack of remorse but his plans for another fraud.
The result is a damning story of greed and expectations that out-distanced reality.