Split

Finally! A couple of years after I declared war on Shyamalan, the formerly miraculous revelation of mystery cinema, and condemned his more recent works with a series of expletives, the stubborn Indian managed to hold his own and in less than two hours didn’t make me sleepy, angry or bored. Split may not match the claustrophobic atmosphere of Signs or the subtlety of Unbreakable, but the overall concept of a narrative based on the gradual unveiling of the two main characters, the hunter and the victim, is outrageously appealing and, hand in hand with the impeccable performance of McAvoy, and Taylor-Joy and the director's renewed sense of intense and believable tension, creates an impulsive whirlwind of interesting filmmaking ideas and games. I was a little disappointed by the lack of any truly surprising twists, but if Shyamalan has longer term plans for this fictional world (as the final scene suggests), as an interlude, Split is more than satisfying and successful. The climax with the shotgun in the gloomy corridors is the best in years. (04/18/2017)

Behold, infidel, who said that the genius visionary and director with Indian roots M. Night Shyamalan is well past his prime. After a series of commercially not very successful (but in my opinion definitely not bad) movies, he presents a film that deals with an incredibly interesting idea, which is also supported by practically perfect acting performance by James McAvoy. I have no idea what’s going through Shyamalan’s head when he’s coming up with such complicated premises, but I have to say that he’s doing a terrific job of putting his ideas on the screen, and mainly, he’s stirring up such emotions in me that I’s never come up with them myself. While watching this film, I actually felt that I was watching something that is rewriting the history of film and something that there will be lectures about in universities. That’s the kind of impression this movie made on me. (01/21/2017)

They say Shyamalan is back with this film, but I have the feeling that he never fully left. With a few exceptions, he's still doing the same stuff: ghost stories, or at least thrillers, often with naturalistic elements, where the primary role is played for 90 percent of the film's running time by a crystallizing twist that more or less shocks at the end. But once the rules are set, it's good to stick to them. And so, when the whole film has the undertone of the reality of the laws of physics of the contemporary world, it is good to stick to them for the whole duration, because that final game-changer irritated me a lot. And this is one of the reasons why Now You See Me, which pissed off many a film fan with its digital trick escapades, was a flop. Maybe at least McAvoy will get an award for his performance, it was awesome! (01/29/2017)

It’s not that I didn’t want to shout “Mr. *****!” (mentioning that name would be a spoiler) while listening to the first notes of James N. Howard’s soundtrack classic in the movie. And not that I didn’t get chills down my spine at that moment. But in Split, which has practically no point or moment of surprise, this plot “extension” doesn’t serve any purpose, which is a proof that Shyamalan – despite all the wounds on his soul caused by his fall from grace in Hollywood – did not become a superman. But even so, the film was two hours pleasantly spent. Shyamalan has an irresistibly unique style, which I like to remind myself of by watching his divine trilogy. (02/07/2017)

McAvoy's captivating showreel, which is very good for a long time, then sometimes it gets quite bad (because it is unreasonably long) and boldly sophisticated during the meta-closing... Or desperate that already missed the bus. I do not (yet) know, since neither I don´t have a clear opinion on this. It will depend a lot on whether or not it's over, because it's not finished. (01/19/2017)