{"id":410,"date":"2019-01-19T21:35:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T21:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.granitecitynow.com\/?p=410"},"modified":"2019-01-19T23:11:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T23:11:47","slug":"glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.granitecitynow.com\/?p=410","title":{"rendered":"Glass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you\u2019ve seen writer-director M. Night Shyamalan\u2019s \u201cUnbreakable<\/a>\u201d and \u201cSplit<\/a>,\u201d I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did, and I invite you to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If not (gasp!), please go watch them now \u2013 in that order \u2013\nand come back. I\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just kidding; I\u2019m gonna keep writing, but please proceed with caution\u2026 and an understanding that while I won\u2019t give away anything, you\u2019ll likely be confused AF. Also note that whatever is seen in the trailers is fair game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we go\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in 2000\u2019s \u201cUnbreakable\u201d (easily my favorite M. Night flick) that Shyamalan first introduced us to David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a soft-spoken and keeps-to-himself security guard trying to salvage his marriage and connect with his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), after walking away from a horrific train crash in which every other person onboard perished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also met Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), whose\ndifficult and pain-filled childhood led to a fascination with comic books that\nin adulthood became somewhat of an obsession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And David unknowingly was exactly the one for whom Elijah\nhad been searching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixteen years later, Shyamalan freaked the \u201cSplit\u201d out of\naudiences with his tale of Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy, like you\u2019ve never<\/em> before seen him) \u2013 and his slew of\nalternate personalities, resulting from Kevin\u2019s dissociative identity disorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shyamalan actually wrote \u201cSplit\u201d based on a character that\nwas initially intended to appear in but later scrapped from \u201cUnbreakable,\u201d\nwhich makes sense looking back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while these storylines always seemed destined to\nintersect, they finally do exactly that in \u201cGlass\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this time, Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) attempts to\ndebunk the theory believed by each of these characters to be the basis for his \u2013\nor in Kevin\u2019s case, his and his and hers and his, \u201cetcetera\u201d (wink) \u2013\nexistence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf superheroes exist,\u201d Dr. Staple asks, \u201cwhy are there only\nthree of you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But again, all of this is from the complex mind of one of\nthe most inventive and creative cinematic storytellers, so the digestive\nprocess takes some thought and dissection because Shyamalan\u2019s movies are\nnotorious for possessing deeper meanings that extend well beyond what\u2019s on the\nsurface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of color is again important, and it\u2019s everywhere<\/em>: the costuming; the\nbackgrounds; the obvious indications, such as the neon signs glowing above\nJoseph\u2019s head in the back of the comic book store or the stripes painted on the\nfloor of Kevin\u2019s room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greens and purples and yellows and even the reds all\nhave meaning, and Shyamalan chose each color specifically based on the\nqualities possessed by the character or situation being represented.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay attention to the chromatic expression and what\u2019s\nhappening in this narrative when the saturation becomes more or less intense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, there are those subtle clues that are inescapable\nfrom this wily filmmaker, who again makes a small cameo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That twitch in Elijah\u2019s eyes that seems to be his only\nmovement in the presence of hospital personnel didn\u2019t make much sense to me at\nthe time, but\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to David\u2019s dismay there\u2019s early mention of the \u201cTip-Toe Man.\u201d An understated comment of that slinking action by another character later on will have your mind scrambling to make a connection, if you catch it at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of the visuals again bring about a deliberate comic\nbook feel; there\u2019s a stylized look to \u201cGlass\u201d that\u2019s both unique and so very\nShyamalan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He capitalizes on those slow, revealing zooms that all but beg for your attention. The stop-flash sequences that are used when David passes through a crowd put us directly under his rain poncho and allow us to get a first-hand feel of how he does what he does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of shadows feels surreal; the reaction shots we see instead<\/em> of the action create tension and insane curiosity; the around-the-corner and over-the-shoulder techniques drop us smack into those scenes and conversations and effectively pull us closer into this narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And those tilted angles from Elijah\u2019s point of view hearken\nback to a quote from \u201cUnbreakable\u201d involving a \u201cskewed perception\u201d of how the\nworld is seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh. My. God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGlass\u201d combines the visual brilliance of \u201cUnbreakable\u201d with\nthe disturbing nature of \u201cSplit\u201d to create one walloping, gut-punch finish to\nthis masterful trilogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My husband had some issues with the storyline, so he\u2019d like\nto have some words with Mr. Shyamalan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, I\u2019m looking forward to seeing \u201cGlass\u201d again (and again?) to pick out other nuances I missed during the first go-round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was excited to see all of these characters onscreen together, further exploring ideas from the previous films and wrapping up this saga the only way that it could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have just enjoyed the insights of Movie Addict Mel, a cinema dork and conversational writer. Follow her on Twitter @movieaddictmel<\/a>, and \u201clike\u201d her Facebook page www.facebook.com\/movieaddictmel<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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