Split review (2016)- by What The Flick

Full text transcript of the Split review:

There’s a flower on the hill, there’s a flower in the bathroom, like we’re important, it was that maybe she can help us.

Don’t worry, he knows what you’re here for, he’s not allowed to touch you.

He knows that my name, Hedwig.

I have red socks. How old are you? Nine.

The human brain is the most complex object in the universe, the only way we’re getting out of here, aren’t you the.

You help us.

Ok, we’re going to watch the flick Christie, Matt Bibbs, Alonzo. And the twist is none of us are wearing pants. No, it’s it’s good to see my pants. M. Night Shyamalan is back with messing with the audience. He didn’t mess with me because I didn’t see it. But they did so. Or did he? Maybe you were there.

Yeah. So lately, the idea of a new M. Night Shyamalan movie might not inspire a whole lot of excitement based on movies like The Last Airbender and Lady in the Water.

And it’s been a while since The Village. I’ve really, really great. And this is why this is very exciting, because it’s really good. So Jim McAvoy stars as a man named Kevin, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder.

He has about two dozen different personalities within him, and he kidnaps these three high school girls from a small birthday party and brings them back to his underground lair.

They are played by Hayley Richardson, Jessica Soula and the star of the Witch on Taylor Joy.

And they have to figure out how to get out of there based on figuring out who he is a particular moment in time. Take a look.

An individual with multiple personalities can change their body chemistry with their thoughts. Someone coming for you?

What will happen when he unlocks the potential of his brain? There is no limit to what he can become.

Tonight is a sacred night, you will be in the presence of something greater.

The world will understand now the beast is real.

He’s done awful things to people and he’ll do awful things to you.

I’m not sure Malone’s career is fascinating because it was bigger movies, bigger movies, bigger movies, as big as it could possibly get. And then the last couple of his movies, this one and the visit, are much smaller and they’re way more in his wheelhouse. They feel way more like just kind of cool tales from the Crypt episodes like High Concept, kind of good characters. He’s a very good I like his the theatricality with which he presents his stories in terms of not only the performances, but honestly, just the imagery is can be very operatic, even though the stories are very intimate. So I totally fell under the spell of this sleazy, irresponsible kidnapping movie and I dug it.

Well, it’s all the virtuoso camerawork is on display in a smaller setting like this. Right. So he’s he’s been a great admirer of Hitchcock for a long time. And that’s obvious down to his inserting himself in cameos in every single movie.

So that can be on display. And the way he plays with this space is very enclosed. Space is is very tense. And James McAvoy is great in this. And Bibbs and I were talking before we started this taping here about how mental health advocates are going to respond to this. But unquestionably like it’s a tour de force performance because he has to make each of these people distinct and they are. And even when they are darkly funny, there’s still a chilling and often quite sad element to their personality is when you know what the origin is of why he created them as this buffer within himself. So it is it’s a very impressive performance, technically and dramatically, in that they are all different here, sort of turn on a dime or within a single breath, go from one to another. It sounds kind of gimmicky. It’s a whole lot of scenery chewing, but it is endlessly entertaining.

Yeah, I was impressed with this movie. There’s a lot going on here and every time I thought I figured it out, knew where it was going, it would go in a different direction, but not in a way that it didn’t kind of make sense. You know, it would find new ways to every time I thought it would. OK, I now know how this is going to resolve itself. And oh, no, there’s some other way that it could have gone. Wow. And it does that really well all the way up until the end. And I think this movie works really well. It’s, you know, like Bibb says, it’s a smaller movie. And I think that that is more in Sherman’s wheelhouse. I’ve been thinking for years the ideal vehicle for him would be to bring back the Twilight Zone and only give him 30 minutes. Right. Well, he’s he’s doing Tales from the Crypt. Yeah. Which would be great.

Like, don’t give him two hours too much time already to about two hours.

Don’t give him too much money. Like give him smaller stars, smaller budgets, smaller spaces, and he can work miracles. And this movie look like there are some problematic elements, like the way it treats mental illness is questionable. The way it treats onea Taylor Joy’s back story is highly questionable. But it all serves the story he’s telling, and in spite of myself, it works, it works really well. And this is his best movie in a long, long time. I thought this was really interesting and and tense.

And surprisingly funny in places, I was I was thrilled by the incidents, the way that he leaves the story, the way that he introduces new plot elements, just the suspense of how will they get out, when will they get out? All of that stuff works in the context. You’re right. It’s somewhat troubling sometimes. And I think it’s good to go in with just a sort of a reminder that I don’t think the people who made this movie understand everything there is to understand about multiple personality disorder. But I think by the by a certain point in the film, I think it becomes clear that that’s kind of not what the movie is about. I think you can look at the film and potentially see a film that is using a mental health issue as a source of horror in a way that maybe is in response, is very responsible. But I think at some point in the film, I think it finally just says, given the context of what we’re seeing, this makes sense. This works. This actually functions. And this is the kind of movie in which we can explore our anxieties. What else is horror, if not an excuse to explore our fears, the things that make us uncomfortable, to heighten them to an extent that they create entertainment and catharsis. So I was willing to go along with it after a while, but I was uncomfortable for a bit. But honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I went home and I was kind of mixed. I was split, if you will. And eventually I came to the conclusion that I do really dig this movie. I think it is a very well crafted thriller. I think it’s it’s a little fucked up.

But that’s not that’s a good reason to go to a thriller as a as a kidnapping thriller. How does it compare to 10 Cloverfield Lane, which I would say is better than 10 Cloverfield Lane?

Well, I don’t know that I agree with that. I, I think it’s on it’s at least on a par. I don’t know if there’s a lot of similarities. Lane is a better film than this one, partly because I think 10 Cloverfield Lane doesn’t have the. More problematic elements that this one has. But this one. This one like 10 Cloverfield Lane. You know, there’s a lot of questions in 10 Cloverfield Lane, like it doesn’t let you it doesn’t let you know what’s really happening, keeps you in the minds. It with whole you know, both these movies would hold a lot of information. Right. But not so much that it’s a gimmick and tricking you.

It’s it’s when you’re older and you’re forced to see things through the eyes of the captor and some of them more real.

But even then like it, this this one in particular plays with perspectives in a way that, you know, yes, you’re mostly seeing it from entertainment, Joy’s perspective, and you’re seeing it, some of it from the perspective of the therapist. Which is a really interesting, interestingly written character, and that’s a character that. You know, amongst the things just the way he portrays that character and the way that character is on the script. Shies away from a lot of cliches, and I think one of the things this movie does really well is it’s like. 10 Cloverfield Lane is it sidesteps all of the cliches that you expect out of a kidnap thriller as opposed to something like.

The what was the Haileybury nine one one oh, right, call like the call is, you know, or as you called it that way when the call is full of cliches and you see all of it happening a mile away and it’s all fine.

This movie, part of why you’re on the edge of your seat to be cliched about it is you kind of you know, those of us are savvy moviegoers who see movies all the time, like this one is hard to predict. And it but it doesn’t do what some movies do where it’s like, oh, it takes us right angle. That comes out of nowhere. It doesn’t make any sense. And I’m resisting use the word Ugne because the commenters get mad when I use this movie. It’s all of the stuff that does that. You know, it does in the script and it worked.

I think it has.

Betty Buckley, she’s got she’s totally and she brings a much needed source of like perspective and warmth and decency and kindness to a movie that’s kind of brutal and kind of nasty a lot of the time. And she provides really important perspective and context to understand him and his disorder. And I know we don’t agree on this, but I think she she celebrates this person for who he is rather than condemning him.

And I appreciate that she does do that. I think it’s the movie itself and its overall portrayal of the condition that maybe has that interpretation. But I think when you see the film, you’re going to see that there’s a lot different angles that it’s not really we can’t really talk about. This isn’t like a typical Maximilien film where like, what a twist. There’s not a we’re not really in any it’s not a big twist, not anywhere that you’re that you’re used to in any way. But like when you see how the plot plays out, you’ll you’ll be glad that you didn’t know what happens later in the film because it is trying to surprise you and how the story unfolds. I will take it. I will somewhat disagree with the idea that her character isn’t a cliche because she’s actually serves a plot function that, like a lot of Stephen King characters, will fail. But to tell you exactly which one would be itself kind of a spoiler. But if you’re familiar with the horror genre, you might see where she’s like.

This is like the psychiatrist who comes in at the end of Psycho to explain everything. That’s not actually what.

I will also disagree with the idea that and I said I don’t think 10 Cloverfield Lane is a better movie because I feel like the ending at 10 Cloverfield Lane recontextualized the film in a way that made it less valuable to me, that made the film work less well for me personally. And I think whereas at the end of Split made some decisions that I may find difficult and may need to spur some conversation, but I thought there was a consistency to its to its narrative vision, if you will, to its themes that ultimately made it a better overall experience for me.

I really fast to how great a Taylor Joy is in this, just in her stillness. It’s really to just be still and quiet on film when she hurt her face, just her presence. She’s chilling. And we want to root for her because that’s just been kind of unsettling about her presence as well.

This, that and Morgan really. Well, yeah, this is just about so she’s really great in this. And she’s not your typical horror heroine.

I mean, this is a straight up horror movie for Shyamalan, which is unusual. But the other girls are kind of like your, you know, taking their clothes off her hair.

She’s final girl.

I’m not going to tell you anything that would also be that way. That would be a spoiler. OK, that’s it. I don’t know anything, Alonzo.

Why would you ask me that question?

Sorry, but she’s she is like the type of character, not that type of character is defined by how they are. Yes. OK, you’re right. OK, yes, fine.

So I have a number and it’s seven because I too left feeling a little icky. Yeah. And it’s a little again, a little unsettled. And maybe that’s the purpose of Horeb. I feel like it’s a little exploitative in the way it looks. The back story for thrills. I feel a little icky about it, but still with total entertainment.

Yeah, I you know, it’s for a movie that’s got some stuff that people are going to be, you know, offended by and have problems with. It’s effective in spite of some of its subject matter. I give it a seven point five.

Yeah. I think I also give it a seven point five. And yeah, I think again, you’re going to be confronted with some material, with some ideas that might make you uncomfortable.

That is the purpose of the genre. And I think ultimately the film gets away with that, even though maybe not always in the moment. So our average is seven point three.

And where is it? It’s in the 70s right now. There you go. You’ll need to take as many showers as they have personality. Oh, my God.