Category: drama

Breakthrough REVIEW

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So a while ago, I took myself and my mom to the movies and we saw Breakthrough, the next one of those Christian movies.

I will start this with a disclaimer: I grew up in a pretty conservative Christian environment (which honestly made no sense because my parents and I are some of the least conservative people? We just kept finding ourselves in those circles), so I’m familiar with the people this film is really marketed towards.

I also know, believe me I know, that Christian media…usually sucks. Not always! There are wonderful exceptions, but for the most part it ends up being extremely kitschy, preachy, and over-the-top Christian. Like, I know it’s Christian, but I don’t need to be slapped in the face by that fact every five minutes, please? I promise I won’t forget.

So while I went into it prepared for the worst, just to be safe, I was also just kind of excited because disclaimer part 2: I love feel-good stories. I love stories where even though awful stuff happens, it all works out by the end. I love stories full of hope. I love crying because of a good story. It’s just the way I am–and I know not everyone is like that.

All this to say, is this the best movie ever? HA. No.

But is it still good, despite being a piece of Christian media?

Read on!

“Pictures taken seconds before disaster”

THE PLOT

So the movie starts, ironically enough, with our main boy John (Marcel Ruiz) dreaming about being underwater. I think. It’s kind of like the intro to The Shape of Water where it’s unclear if the character is actually dreaming all this or if it’s just visual effects for the audience’s benefit.

Oh my god this is the Christian The Shape of Water isn’t it.

Anyway, John is woken up by his mother Joyce (Chrissy Metz) for breakfast. We then get a getting-ready montage set to Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk” (of course, the most fun part of the song, “hot damn!” Is censored out because…Christian media), which is what John is listening to under headphones. He sits down for breakfast with mom and dad (Brian, played by Josh Lucas) and Joyce immediately sets the tone for the movie by forcing the boys to hold hands and say grace over the food before they eat. Yeah. There’s a lot of that.

John has a bit of a strained relationship with his parents, giving them (especially Joyce) plenty of attitude whenever possible. He loves basketball and this one girl in his class, Abby (Maddy Martin) and that’s most of his character in a nutshell. Oh, and he was actually adopted when Joyce and Brian were on a missions trip, so he has some very understandable abandonment issues–this is all revealed when the class is assigned a “family tree” project.

Anyway, John is going to hang out with some buds overnight after a basketball game, and he is instructed to please, please keep his mother updated and let her know when to come pick him up.

A side plot that comes into importance more later on is that the only church in town I guess recently got a new pastor, Jason (Topher Grace), and he’s ~young~ and ~cool~ with an ~inappropriate haircut~ (sidenote: I looked up the actual people the characters are based on, and I gotta say, Movie Pastor’s hair is way toned down compared to Real Pastor’s hair. Real Pastor’s hair would certainly cause a church uproar–Movie Pastor just looks like he rolled around in too much hair gel). Joyce and Pastor Jason clash allllll the time, quite famously, and this conflict is important for later.

Back to the A Plot: John and his buddies decide to go frolic in the snow and on top of the frozen lake because the name of the movie isn’t Good Choices Were Made By All. All seems fine, although a nearby restaurant man asked them to please, please get off the ice. The boys mock him, continuing to frolic, until suddenly the ice breaks under John and he falls through, grabbing one of his friends on the way down (actually, I think they all end up in the water at some point). Through Unfortunate Circumstances, John ends up knocked out and sinking fast.

The fire department is on the way, complete with fireman Tommy (Mike Colter) who is the only fireman with a name, I think. Anyway, Tommy and Fireman #2 slide over to where John’s friends are waiting, and they manage to get them pulled to safety. Tommy and Fireman #2 enter the water, poking around for a little boy. At this point, John has been under the ice for about 10 minutes. They poke around for a bit, but just when they seem about to give up, Tommy hears a real unsettling voice telling him to “go back.” He does, and lo and behold they pull up John from under the ice!

At this point, Joyce–sitting at home waiting for a text from her son, mind you–gets a call from one of John’s friend’s moms, who was supposed to be watching them (YIKES). She frantically calls Brian, telling him to meet her at the hospital.

Then we catch up with the team of doctors assigned to saving John, and lemme tell ya, it is not an easy scene to watch. They try everything they can to revive John, but there is no pulse. They keep trying, and still…nothing.

By the time Joyce gets there, the doctors have essentially said it’s too late and she can go in to say goodbye to her son (at this point, both in the movie and in the real story, John had been without a pulse for about one hour). There’s an incredibly heart wrenching scene where Joyce looks at her little boy and has memories of him being a baby, and she just stands there screaming his name and begging God and the Holy Spirit to save her son.

It’s painful to watch, but just when it seems like it might be over…John has a pulse again.

Literally no one can believe it, and John is transferred to another hospital with an expert in drowning cases. The rest of the film is a found-family, full-of-feels, “dammit I’m crying again” fun fest as the characters gather around in different ways to pray for John’s recovery.

THE REVIEW

So let me start out by saying that I did like this movie. I like crying and I like movies with victory against impossible odds, sue me.

This movie is by no means a cinematic masterpiece, and it’s not supposed to be. It was created with a very specific demographic in mind, and I don’t think it was meant to convert anyone or make some huge statement.

It was created to tell an incredible story, and it does that. It gives awareness to the true story that inspired the book the film is based off of (and upon some research, the film actually follows the book really, really closely!). It makes you cry. It makes you appreciate how good people can be sometimes.

Now, it does preach a bit. Of course it does. Again, this was a movie created for a specific demographic: one that is used to being preached to and expects it. It’s just a part of the gig.

I do think the movie may have done a little better in the reviews if it hadn’t been as preachy as it is, and I think it could have been just as powerful if all that stuff was taken it and left more up to interpretation. But again: that’s not the point. This story is told through a Christian lens, so that’s what we get.

As such, the movie certainly isn’t for everyone.

But I would argue that if you’re up for it, it’s still a good time. I mean I was completely emotionally wrung-out by the end, but sometimes that’s a good thing! I walked away feeling good, which was such a welcome change after Pet Sematary (if you’re curious, you can check out that review here).

But what are the specifics of this movie that make it…what it is?

Let’s dive in to the details of Breakthrough–spoiler warning now in effect!

(I mean…it’s based on a true story so like…I mean if you haven’t guessed the ending by now…okay anyway)

THE MUSIC

I gotta be honest, I don’t recall most of the cinematic score from the film. I’m not 100% sure there was one? If you look for the soundtrack (at least on Spotify), you get “music from and inspired by” but none of it is cinematic instrumentals, it’s all like, pop songs. Christian pop songs!

That being said, there are two musical moments from the film we do have to talk about:

1. I feel like the entire church scene is only hilarious if you’re from a very specific demographic of Christians. I worked for a fairly conservative church that was desperate for more people, but hissed in retaliation at the slightest mention of doing anything more “young” and “hip” to pull in more people. I’m not even going to say that “hissed” is a strong word to use, I would not be surprised if there was actual hissing. Anyway, I recognized the looks on the faces of the older folks in the crowd at the rock band presentation of the worship music during the service. Pure horror. And when that rapper came onstage? SCANDALOUS. This isn’t even getting into the sermon afterwards where Pastor Jason brought up “The Bachelor” and sat on the floor like he was having a friendly, everyday conversation with the congregation. That was an incredibly well-directed scene because it hit home, and I’m sure it hit home for a lot of the audience who were familiar with that setting. Fun fact: if you, too, would like to scandalize your congregation, that rap version of Phil Wickham’s “This is Amazing Grace” is on the soundtrack!

2. The song used in the trailers for Breakthrough is called “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” and it’s an extremely popular Hillsong work. I mean, praise bands will always jump on songs actually sung by female artists because much as we love singing harmony to the praise band leader Johnny Hip-Hair’s melody, sometimes we just want to sing melody. Please. Anyway, not only is it an apt song choice because of the obvious water metaphor, it’s also a song about having faith in extremely difficult circumstances, and trusting that there is a plan for all of it. So when pretty much the entire town shows up outside John’s hospital room with candles and love to sing their own rendition of the song, there are TEARS. EVERYWHERE. Keep in mind this is also set after Joyce finally lets go of control over her son’s life, trusting that things will be okay. It’s the night when John is taken off of the medically induced coma medication. There is no guarantee he will ever wake up. And suddenly, in the midst of it all, there’s the town, singing of hope. It’s a beautiful scene, and all I could think about is how powerful music is. Stop being cynical for a second and hear me out: sometimes there is nothing more powerful than a group of hurt individuals banding together and making music when words just don’t suffice anymore. Think of the people who sang “Ave Maria” outside of the burning Notre Dame. Think of the family singing Edelweiss in The Sound of Music. Think of the breathtaking performance of “Glory” at the Oscars that year (from Selma). I know the idea of spontaneous group-singing is mostly a joke thanks to…pretty much every musical ever, but I stand by the idea that when it’s done right and purely out of the goodness in our hearts, it’s more powerful than anything. Also, Taylor Mosby absolutely rocks the song.

Okay, feeling time over. Back to cynicism.

THE CHARACTERS

Because this is a drama full of feelings, the characters are a big emphasis.

The obvious show-stealer is Chrissy Metz’s Joyce. I mean, I knew she’d be great since she’s phenomenal in This Is Us (I mean I haven’t been watching lately so I don’t know if this is still true but I assume), but she really goes all out here. Joyce is an extremely detailed character–her good points are emphasized just as much as her weak points. She’s immediately presented as a no-nonsense mother full of fierce love and incredible determination. You love her instantly, so when characters react negatively to her, you get a little protective and want her to win even more. Jerk new pastor kicks her book club out of their room? UNACCEPTABLE. Weak-willed husband snaps at her for being rude to their also rude friends? RIDICULOUS. Teenage son doesn’t open up to her and refuses to acknowledge her? AWFU-okay to be fair, he spends most of the movie in a coma so I guess he gets a pass.

Joyce is, by no means, a perfect human. She feels things strongly, and it’s these feelings that affect everyone else around her. Her strong emotions when confronted with her son’s body tears at the hearts of the doctors listening to her. Her fierce determination and positivity scares the shit out of the doctors, as it should. Joyce breaks down a lot in this movie, and the audience does right along with her. This is a perfect example of a female character exploring and expressing emotions in a real way, and we love her for it. We connect with her because it all feels so real to us, too. The candlelight concert outside her son’s hospital room makes her cry, so we cry, too. Seeing her son’s body, remembering him as a baby, makes her lose it, and so do we.

My point is, Joyce is an extremely connectable character because the emotions that should come out of her story are not shied away from in any way. We can relate to Joyce because we can imagine feeling the way she does if we were ever in her situation (but like hopefully not, if ya know what I mean)–and not even just imagine it, because we see it throughout the film. Joyce is allowed to be a fully-fledged character, showing weakness as well as strength, and we can truly connect with her and love her for it. And you’re absolutely right this is leading up to me calling out *cough*ALITABATTLEANGEL*cough* yet again. I’m genuinely convinced that Joyce would absolutely win in a fight with Alita any day. Wanna know why? Because EMOTIONS. That or she’d just adopt her and make her a more likable individual, which I support.

(“But this comparison doesn’t work because Alita’s a robot so she doesn’t have actual emotions–” SHE HAD A BOYFRIEND. AND FRIENDS. AND GOT SAD OVER A DOG’S DEATH. Okay anyway)

Honestly, it’s a good thing that Joyce is so likable, or at least a strong character, because the other characters…ehhhhhh….

I mean, don’t get me wrong, you want John to wake up, but that’s mostly for Joyce’s benefit. John himself…I mean again, he’s in a coma most of the movie, but he’s just kinda…a kid. He plays basketball and was adopted. That’s…that’s his two character traits pretty much. And that’s fine, actually–while he’s technically the most important character, the movie isn’t actually about him, so it works.

Now, Brian, Joyce’s husband? Bleh. I mean I get it, he’s a foil to Joyce in that his emotions over the situation make him shut down instead of standing up. He straight-up tells Joyce that he can’t be in the room with her because he can’t deal with seeing John like that (*insert obscure Steel Magnolias reference here*). I guess the downside of Joyce being so developed is that Brian is really underdeveloped. He’s really just go-with-the-flow, “yeah my son can call me Brian that’s fine,” “I guess I’ll tell my wife to stop yelling at our friends”…yeah. Now, to be fair, he does later tell Joyce that he should have been in the room with her once they make up, but like…eh. I mean yeah, I guess he should have, but it was actually an interesting character trait of his that promptly got erased. NOW. Maybe that’s straight out of the book, which means it’s straight out of the true story. I get that I’m judging characters that are actually…real people. Kind of.

And of course, we have Pastor Jason. Ahhh, Pastor Jason. I’m even the young demographic he’s targeting as a pastor and I was cringing a lot with him. But it ends up working out–he’s cringeworthy and pretty unlikable in the beginning because he has to have this sideplot with Joyce. It’s made clear that neither Jason or Joyce actually like each other all that much, but when faced with this impossible crisis, it’s really refreshing to see Jason step up as much as he does. He stays there, supportive, like an old friend. He’s just as excited as Joyce is when John squeezes her hand. He’s determined to help in anyway he can, and it’s a really nice way to humanize him.

The other character who steals the show in any way is Tommy Shine, and I think that’s mostly because of Mike Colter’s performance. Tommy is the guy who doesn’t believe in God, but supposedly heard God telling him to “go back” in the water that day. What I appreciate is that Tommy doesn’t have a full conversion to Christianity arc–he’s questioning things, sure, but he isn’t full-out born-again Christian by the end. So part of what I like about Tommy is his character arc, but the other thing I love is just…every time he’s on screen? Look, Mike Colter is great-looking, which is part of it! But I’ve been in the chorus of enough shows to know when someone has developed a full backstory for what can easily be a throw-away character. We may not know Tommy’s backstory, why he’s an atheist, why he became a firefighter, why the voice he heard bothers him so much…but you can tell that Mike Colter knows because he thought about it, and you see that in his face every time he’s onscreen.

The rest of the characters are kinda…I mean they’re there! The drowning doctor at the new hospital is okay. John has a couple friends from school who show up every now and then (one of them (Taylor Mosby), again, absolutely kills the lead vocals on “Oceans”). Again, none of the characters are anywhere near as developed as Joyce is, but that kind of works…it is based off of the real Joyce’s book, after all.

THE CHRISTIANITY OF IT ALL

It’s a huge part of the film, so we get to talk about it!

So like I touched on above, I do think that it’s possible if Breakthrough had been less…overtly Christian, it may have done better with reviewers. With a quick Google search, this seems to be another one of those movies that critics are overall hating and audiences are overall liking.

However, the point of the film is not simply to tell an incredible true story; it’s to tell an incredible true story through a Christian lens. I mean, the real people are Christians, so of course their movie counterparts are going to be as well. I guess I’d still say there’s a way to do it without also preaching to the audience, but again, the intended audience isn’t necessarily your typical moviegoer, and I understand that.

Scenes from the movie like the praise band scene, the many prayer scenes over John, the candlelight song, and the ending church scene where God’s love is credited as the ultimate savior are more necessary for the Christian side than for actual storytelling purposes. As such, I can’t really grade this as a movie because it’s not meant to be a typical movie.

Again, having grown up in this community, I’ve seen my fair share of Christian media. Awful, preachy, and sometimes downright boring Christian media. I know it’s out there, believe me. What I will say for this film is that I don’t think you can categorize it with the rest of all that–it stands on its own in the sense that, yes, there’s a lot of Christianity, and it probably won’t make sense to anyone not Christian who sees it, but it’s also genuinely well-done. The characters are not there to present a Christian story and thus simply be bland archetypes of actual people, they are there to tell a true story that just happens to be a pretty Christian one.

I do think it could just as well not be a Christian story, if it weren’t for one thing…

THE ENDING

So as you’ve probably guessed, John does wake up by the end. Not only that, he somehow makes a full, perfect recovery. Mr. Drowning Doctor (Dennis Haysbert) tells Joyce that his recovery is genuinely impossible. This kid was underwater for about 20 minutes, without a pulse for another 40…there should be things like severe brain-swelling and crazy organ trauma, but there is nothing.

Because he’s suddenly perfect and fine, John goes back to school where he’s greeted with full fanfare. It all seems just too good to be true…and it is.

John’s teacher keeps him after class to ask him “why you?”

Her husband died not long ago and she doesn’t understand why John was able to make this miraculous recovery when her husband didn’t. After all, she believed in God too!

John, being…a kid, doesn’t know how to answer this. The teacher seems to come back to her senses, apologizes, and sends him off.

Still thinking about this, John walks by his locker, covered in sticky notes. As the camera scrolls down, we catch glimpses of notes that say things like “welcome back!” And “miracle boy” and “glad you’re okay!”…but then we see one that says “why are you okay when my mom is still in the hospital?”

John turns around and suddenly doesn’t see his classmates in such a friendly light anymore, because he’s not sure who is actually happy he’s okay and who is asking “why you?”

There’s actually not much payoff to this scene, unfortunately. John runs into Tommy, thanks him for saving him, and then we cut to the entire town being in church while John and his parents tell their story. Pastor Jason does this thing where he asks various people who had a hand in helping John to stand up. It’s an overwhelming sight for both the audience and John, who breaks down crying as he thanks them. He finds his teacher in the crowd and looks at her as he plainly says “I don’t know why me…”

Aaaaaaaand then it ends with them all saying “but God’s love is strongest and got us through this we’d be nowhere without God’s love yaaaaaay!”

It’s preachy, okay?

I do think, however, this whole “why you?” Sequence is fascinating, and it wouldn’t be as striking without all the Christianity leading up to it. After all, if you’re at all familiar with the church, it’s common to hear miracle stories like these, but also know someone who lost someone in a similar situation. If we all have the same faith, why do some get “saved” while others perish?

Just like in the movie, it’s never answered. We don’t know. As hopeful as the film is, it does make sure to throw this at you, which honestly, I kind of appreciate. I constantly complain (or at least, I will be complaining a lot in my Avengers: Endgame review) about how lately it seems like creators are trying to instill “realism” into their fantasy creations–this realism here is applied in the mystery of why John miraculously survived when others have not. The thing is, the realism here works because John’s story, as unrealistic as it seems, is real. This miraculous, hopeful recovery is a real story. This mystery that’s applied, then, is a reminder that yes, not all stories end happily, and we genuinely don’t know why.

In an age where lately we seem to hear more and more about Christians being…awful, and convinced they have all the answers, this movie takes the refreshing stance of: no. We don’t have all the answers. It’s frustrating. It’s amazing. It’s unfortunate. It’s ridiculous.

Buuuuuut remember kids, it’s all thanks to God’s love!! 😀

(Okay I’m done being cynical about the preachiness, I swear.

No seriously, this movie was absolutely not as preachy as it could have been…as some of its predecessors have been…truuuuust me.)

Alright fam, we’re gonna try something a little different here, where I attempt to sort of illustrate my favorite and “oof” scenes, a la my incredible drawings from my Us soundtrack post.

So, without further ado…

FAVORITE MOMENT

I cannot speak enough about the candlelight song scene. I mean I thought I was done crying by that point, and then suddenly Joyce notices the candles from the window so you knew something was coming and then it’s all their friends together standing there in support and then they’re all singing and I JUST.

I LOVE IT.

OKAY.

“OOF” MOMENT

I’m torn between the scene where the three boys are playing on the ice despite being told not to, and Pastor Jason’s initial introduction.

I mean, I know all the ice stuff had to happen for plot reasons but HONESTLY. You know what’s coming, so watching them frolic around beforehand is just kind of uncomfortable and they’re such fools and I just…

The other scene is when Pastor Jason first enters the picture. Joyce and her book club have a room reserved, like it says on the dang sign-up sheet on the door, and Pastor Jason–in the most incredibly over-the-top rude way possible–kicks them out. Again, I’ve spent time in churches like this, and if the new pastor did something like that to a very well-respected member of the congregation? RIOTS. RIOTS, I TELL YOU.

Also, like, I know we’re not really supposed to like him yet either, but wow. He was just a straight-up jerk in that scene. I’m glad he got redeemed because…jeez.

SHOULD YOU TAKE YOURSELF TO SEE THIS MOVIE?

So…okay. As I’ve said multiple times, this is not a movie that is meant for the general public. It knows its audience and it performs beautifully for them.

If you’re in that demographic, I really think you’ll enjoy the film and you should definitely see it.

If you’re not in that demographic but you like crying a lot, I do think you can look past all the in-your-face Christianity and just bask in Chrissy Metz’s performance as well as all of your tears.

If this really doesn’t sound like your thing at all, I get it. I do.

For me? I liked it. It’s no cinematic masterpiece, but that’s not the intention. And again, I love crying, so…yeah.

All in all, I give Breakthrough…

3.5/5 HEARTBEAT MONITOR READING THINGIES!!

It’s not perfect–but I still think it’s good.

TRAILERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Alright…y’all. We have to talk about the Downton Abbey movie.

I’m beyond excited (I mean, we know how much I love crying!! Pair that with British accents, incredible costumes, delightful characters, and dramatic exploits????). Okay. We’ve talked about it.

Overcomer looks like it’s the next Christian movie slated and…yeah I’ll probably see it. Again. I love crying. Plus, it’s also a sports movie? About track??? I almost did track, therefore, I can relate!

(I can’t actually but I can pretend)

I can’t believe I haven’t actually talked about The Lion King yet?? Or maybe I have and I forgot? That’s possible. Anyway, I really, really hope it’s good, plus…John Oliver is Zazu, guys. AND THEY KEEP SHOWING ZAZU IN TRAILERS WITHOUT LETTING US HEAR HIM. LET HIM SPEAK!!

Okay anyway.

Speaking of crying, guess who will definitely be seeing A Dog’s Journey?????

It’s me.

Finally, we have The Sun is Also a Star, which…has anyone else been getting ads for that before every single YouTube video ever?? Like don’t get me wrong, it looks great, and I know I’ve heard awesome things about the book, but like chill out, fam. Just a bit.

That about does it for this review! If this sounds like your kinda thing, I do recommend taking yourself to the movies and seeing Breakthrough. If nothing else, it’s just a nice feel-good movie in the midst of a really not feel-good world, and sometimes? We just need stuff like that.

Miss Bala 2019 Review

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but like hear me out, even the tagline is misleading because…she doesn’t really change, it’s just her though? I mean she gets a gun but she doesn’t even really use it, my dudes

So a couple days ago, I took myself to the movies and saw Miss Bala, which WOW, that trailer was misleading. It wasn’t misleading in a bad way, at least in my opinion, but I can see where some people may have gone to see it expecting one movie, and then they got an entirely DIFFERENT movie.

So what was this movie, billed as an intense action-thriller starring Gina Rodriguez ruining a whole bunch of men’s lives in an incredible red dress?

So hear me out, in some ways, it was exactly that. But it was also so much more.

So let’s learn all about the incredible power of female friendship because, and I cannot stress this enough, THAT’S what Miss Bala is really about.

if only we could all look as put together while we contemplate our life decisions

THE PLOT

The movie begins following Gloria Fuentes (Gina Rodriguez), a professional makeup artist who dreams of being more and maybe like even a designer one day instead of following the same old boring canned designs? She and the audience get a grim in-your-face reminder of her position when her supervisor flat-out says “we don’t pay you to think.”

Great, thanks for that.

But it can only bring her down for so long, because after the fashion show, Gloria heads down to Tijuana, Mexico to spend the weekend with her best friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo). Suzu is entering the Miss Baja California pageant, and Gloria, naturally, will be her makeup artist. There’s a really fun scene where they sign up and the pageant coordinator gives her a once-over and Gloria’s all “oh yeah I’m not entering” and the coordinator just full-out Regina George is like “oh I didn’t think so.” (Like?? has she SEEN Gina Rodriguez???) Suzu takes on the audience’s reaction and is ready to THROW DOWN with this coordinator, but Gloria talks her out of it.

Later that night, Gloria is practicing Suzu’s makeup and they have a really sweet heart-to-heart about how they’re family and all and Suzu gives Gloria this dorky adorable friendship bracelet she made her and it’s all very nice.

BUT ENOUGH OF THAT HAPPY STUFF, we cut to Suzu and Gloria heading to a club to shmooze with some of the pageant higher-ups (Suzu drops the plot point here that the chief of police tends to sleep with the pageant winner every year BUT IT’S A RUMOR OKAY EVERYTHING’S FINE). Gloria heads to the bathroom after Mr. Chief of Police GROPES her, but she doesn’t want to ruin Suzu’s chance at winning, so she just quietly leaves. In the stall, though, she sees and hears a group of guys break in through the ceiling vent and um, they got guns. One of them finds Gloria and pulls her out, which is where she first makes eye contact with the leader, Lino Esparza (Ismael Cruz Cordova). Though egged on to shoot Gloria because she’s seen them, Lino seems to find her intriguing because she’s an American. He tells her she has ten seconds to get out.

Gloria desperately tries to get to Suzu in the crowded club, but it’s too late-the guys open fire on the club and it’s chaos. Gloria barely makes it out, but she still cannot find Suzu (though she keeps passing girls who could be her, but they keep getting shot or hurt and it’s jarring). She ends up spending the night in a cafe with other survivors, with Suzu not answering her phone. Gloria finds a policeman outside, says she’s a survivor and she saw the men who did this. The policeman offers to take her to the station, but something’s wrong. Instead, he takes her to a hotel, and she is grabbed by none other than Lino Esparza’s men.

She is later barely able to escape after being forced to leave a car with a bomb inside parked outside a safehouse. Because of this, she is captured by the DEA, and told she will only be released if she delivers Lino to the DEA.

The rest of the movie is a tense back-and-forth between Gloria and her life with Esparza’s men, all while desperately searching for Suzu. Can she save Suzu and escape from a life of crime, or will she be forced to live out her days as a slave to Esparza’s gang, forever wondering what happened to her dear friend?

this is basically the movie, various men telling Gloria what to do while she just death-stares the entire time

THE REVIEW

Even from the plot summary, it sounds like the movie that was advertised. I mean, isn’t it, in some way, a version of Taken? I mean even the tagline “who would you become to save your family?” I mean it’s…it’s Taken, you guys.

Except it’s not. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually liked Taken when I saw it, but this is not that movie. The way it’s billed, you think Gloria will develop some kind of relationship with Lino and be his gang queen or something, but really she’s doing it to save her friend so it’s all a lie. And like…that is not what happens. You can tell it’s what Lino wants to happen (except for the it being all a lie part)-he’s obsessed with Gloria pretty much from the moment he sees her. He is beyond happy to control her and make her special, groom her into being his “queen.”

But Gloria? She is having NONE of that.

Even when it seems hopeless, and it seems hopeless a LOT, Gloria never loses sight of her goal: Suzu. Saving Suzu is all she wants. She is not in it for any kind of sick relationship with Lino or DEA guy (SPOILER granted, DEA guy doesn’t really last long enough to even make it a possibility but also he kinda betrayed Gloria so we don’t care for him that much tbh).

Now, are there action-packed scenes as advertised? Yes, of course. But you know how in movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger or Liam Neeson or I guess Dwayne Johnson is doing stuff like that now whatever ANYWAY, generally in movies like that, the action scenes are “fun?” They’re always played to show you how impossibly immortal our main guy is, or how weird and ridiculous some of the stunts can get. They’re played to bring out your inner animal to cheer for all the destruction or something I guess, I’ve never enjoyed stuff like that so I can’t speak for why they’re the way they are. The action scenes in this movie are never enjoyable, they’re never there to show off stunts and grunts and whatever else you look for. These scenes are appropriately horrific. The shootout in the club at the beginning is terrifying and stressful, the stand-off in the lot between the gang and the DEA is tense and difficult, and the final assault on the party, despite it being the most played up in the trailer, is scary. It just is.

And honestly? It’s one of the things I appreciate the most about the movie. It felt real, not just played up for entertainment.

I could go on about that for a while, but there are other reasons this movie isn’t the movie that was advertised. I’ll go into those more down below.

So it’s not the movie that was advertised-but is it good?

Honestly? It’s pretty okay.

Like The Kid Who Would Be King, I don’t think this is a movie that’ll win any awards. It’s a little messy, especially in the beginning, and the ending kinda comes out of nowhere. Plus, even though it knows what movie it wants to be, it was not advertised as such, so people don’t really know what to do with it. Plus apparently it’s very loosely based off of a 2011 Mexican film of the same name, so some people have an issue with that.

Look, despite the messiness, I still think there are interesting and good things in this film-plus, Gina Rodriguez is a goddess.

I can’t fully detail my opinion here, so let’s just dive in deeper and discuss.

Spoilers ahead!!

what do you mean she doesn’t look like she’s in the middle of a shootout in this picture isn’t that what you’d look like

THE MUSIC

I really liked the music! I don’t think there was any one musical moment that really stood out to me, although the club shootout was eerie because the club music kept playing over the carnage which was just…very unsettling. Effective, but also just kind of…blech.

Actually, having looked up the soundtrack on Spotify, I can say that the sweet guitar theme in the song called “Gloria & Suzu” is adorable and sweet, and then “Gloria Drives” is a direct contradiction and is super suspenseful and just ACK.

Also, we have to talk about the end credits song “Call the Shots” by Leslie Grace because DAMN. The lyrics are exactly why I like what I do like about this movie, and we’ll get into why in a later section. But seriously, this song is good. Add it to your “empowerment” playlist.

man this entire scene where he flips her hair all over on one side and she just glares at him in the mirror like AHHHH

THE CHARACTERS

Probably appropriately, we don’t have a lot of characters to discuss because a lot of them don’t get fully developed (I mean many of them do die so).

We have to start with our leading lady, light of my soul, Gloria Fuentes. I’m probably biased because I would die for Gina Rodriguez, but Gloria is a wonderful lead to follow through the movie. Again, her goal the entire time is just to find and save her best friend, and it’s just so pure and good you want her to succeed. Gloria is not perfect of course. She breaks down a lot on various jobs from Lino, I mean girl is scared, all right, and in order to save herself she accidentally helps her new comrade Isabel get…killed. You could argue that it is that scene, however, that helps to solidify her actions in the final act. Anyway, point is, Gloria is a good character to follow, and she is smart, capable, and has a good arc-we’re happy that she wins in the end because she deserves it. She is constantly underestimated by the men in the film, and she lets them, partly because she is used to it, but also because it leads to their downfall in many cases and her victory. Fools.

Suzu is, unfortunately, absent from much of the film, but she is an absolute ray of sunshine when she is onscreen. This is good because we have to want her to be rescued. In the little bit we do see of her, she clearly cares for Gloria a lot, and she just genuinely wants to win Miss Baja California. She is too pure and good and I’m so happy she’s okay in the end. I mean, unfortunately, she’s changed because of what happened to her, but she does get rescued.

Lino Esparza is a fascinating villain, and the more I think about it, the more I’m glad they depicted him the way they did. The movie does a fantastic job of painting him as a monster and a human. He does terrible, terrible things. He kills without a second thought. He has no problem ordering Gloria to strip for him, to lie down next to him, to untie his boots for him. He is absolutely drunk on the power he owns because he believes he deserves it. But…he’s dang attractive! And he at least seems to care for Gloria, sort of, but more importantly, look! He has a sweet family who cooks delicious food and there are children and he’s great with them and one day he just wants to buy that land so they just own it and awwww!! Lino is humanized to some degree for both the audience and Gloria, but never so much that we forget how awful he is. He’s well-rounded, and that’s important!

There are other characters, like I mentioned, but they’re not developed or even really important in the way that those three are. Lino has a henchman who never trusts Gloria and treats Isabel like a sex slave. DEA guy Brian has no soul (he tells Gloria there will be a SWAT guy available to get her out of the standoff, but when Gloria says there isn’t anyone there, he just says “k you’re on your own bye” LIKE. EXCUSE YOU). Suzu has a little brother who is Gloria’s godson and he is precious and also comes out unharmed! Isabel is precious, if I could have made any changes, it would have been to have both her AND Gloria take Lino’s crew down, but I get why her death happened.

Basically, the characters that were developed are well-developed, and that’s important. There aren’t a lot of them, but there don’t really need to be. We don’t need to know Henchman #1’s entire backstory to dislike him for the way he behaves towards Isabel. DEA guy Brian had plenty of character development in the betrayal scene and that was all I needed to know about him honestly.

Gina Rodriguez cries a lot in this movie and can I just say how illegal that should be

THE TWIST

I guess the first twist is in the middle when Gloria saves Lino in the lot standoff, but that was shown in the trailer so doesn’t count. The big twist comes at the very end.

Throughout the film, Gloria has been asking Lino to help her find Suzu because he promised. He dances around the topic a lot, but that’s just kind of how he is so it’s not really suspicious…until it is.

The ultimate plan is for Gloria to infiltrate the Miss Baja California pageant and win so that she can be invited to the Chief of Police’s room (yeah that rumor where he sleeps with the winner? HAHA NOT A RUMOR). Once there, Esparza’s men will attack and take him down so that she can find Suzu.

At the party, Gloria does find Suzu! But when she pulls Suzu aside to talk, she discovers something awful-Suzu was sold into a sex-trafficking ring run by none other than Lino Esparza himself. She has a tattoo on her hand that matches the one on Lino’s back-a tattoo logo.

So the whole time Lino was pretending to be looking for Suzu, he knew exactly where she was.

Filled with fury at this revelation but being taken to the Chief of Police’s room now, she decides to ruin the plan. She writes on a card to show to the Chief of Police that Lino Esparza is coming to kill him. This of course leads to a gigantic shootout that Gloria walks through (remember that footage from the trailer with her in the red dress? Mmm. Yep.).

There, she finds both Suzu…and Lino. Lino, still playing innocent, tells Gloria “see! I told you we’d find her!” But Gloria is having none of it. She asks Suzu to show Lino her hand with the tattoo. So Lino knows now, but even though Gloria’s pointing a gun at him, he doesn’t think she’ll shoot (this mirrors an earlier scene where he was teaching her to shoot and she had the gun pointed at him for a time). Unlike earlier though, she does take the shot. This ties in to the bigger theme of the film:

I have a lot of feelings about this dress

THE THEME

Underestimating women, but especially Gloria, is what I would argue to be the main theme of the film.

Throughout the entire film, Gloria is underestimated by every man she comes in contact with. Her supervisor? She “doesn’t get paid to think.” DEA guy Brian? Cool if she can bring them Lino, but if not, she’ll be another casualty in the standoff and not his problem. Henchman #1? He just doesn’t want her to distract Lino, but of course she can’t be the mole. Also, she’s a terrible cook who sets the kitchen on fire (newsflash: she did it on purpose as part of her plan and also you’re an idiot). And most of all: Lino Esparza. He thinks Gloria is fascinating and he likes her because she’s American, like he was. He senses some fight in her, but not enough to do anything about it. He degrades her by touching her, ordering her around, dressing her up, by owning her. He teaches her to shoot because he wants her to be able to defend herself on their next job because obviously she’s totally going to stay with him, but he does not think she will shoot him even when she’s pointing a gun at him.

Women are objects for men throughout the film. It’s ironic that part of the last job takes place at a beauty pageant, something famously ridiculed for the way it showcases women. Suzu is sold as a sex slave, and she’s entering this pageant knowing, probably, that if she wins she may have no choice but to sleep with the Chief of Police. Isabel is absolutely a sex slave for Henchman #1, and both she and Gloria are immediately delegated to cooking for the men at their hideout. Every party shown in the movie has obvious shots of women in tight dresses leading men out of room post-sex, shots of strippers, shots of girls whose only job is to look pretty for the men that own them in this world.

This movie does not end with Gloria taking a gun and shooting all of Esparza’s men in revenge, as well as every other horny guy there. She uses the gun on the Chief of Police, someone who canonically has taken advantage of and slept with who knows how many desperate girls simply because he can, someone who has groped not only Gloria but multiple girls throughout the film. She uses the gun on Lino Esparza, the man in charge of the sex trafficking ring that took her best friend, the man who tried to groom, abuse, and use her, the man who killed Isabel without a second thought because sometimes “sacrifices need to be made.”

And that’s it.

Once Lino is dead, Gloria grabs Suzu and they immediately surrender to the police.

I think that’s why many people (specifically all the old white guy reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes #I’MJUSTSAYING) don’t like this film. It was advertised as that big macho man movie except ohhhhh DUDE it has Gina Rodriguez in a tight red dress DUUUUUUUUDE!!!

Gloria is never objectified for the audience’s sake. She is objectified by the men in the film because that is the point-these men underestimate her and think they can own her, and they cannot.

Why?

Because of female friendship. Gloria’s quest to find Suzu is what drives her, and she never, ever wavers. When she shoots the Chief of Police, she is also shooting the man who would have forced Suzu to sleep with him if she’d won the pageant. When she shoots Lino, she is also shooting the man who sold her friend like a collectible trinket.

Despite being advertised as a big, violent movie with GUNS!, guns are never glorified in the way it was maybe advertised. Lino loves his weapons of course, but again, Gloria only uses it to bring two of her and Suzu’s and many, many women’s abusers down. Then, she drops it. She doesn’t need it anymore. In an age where there are violent shootings every day in the US, I admire this movie for not painting it as some kind of saving grace for Gloria-it was a tool to save her and her friend, and then, she was done.

There’s a lot of Lino dressing Gloria up and then staring at her while she just looks so, so, so very done

THE RELATIONSHIP

I have to talk a little about the Lino/Gloria relationship because I really appreciate the way it was handled.

It would have been incredibly easy to have some sort of “romantic” element added to it-Lino clearly at least lusts for her, and Gloria starts to see some sort of human side to him after he takes her to see his family.

However, it never went that direction, and I am so thankful for that.

Every scene with Lino and Gloria is kind of disgusting to some degree, which is exactly how it should be. He’s constantly staring at her, touching her, flat-out ordering her to strip, or messing with her hair. It’s never loving, it’s always possessive. And Gloria never reacts like maybe she wants it, ever-she’s always stone-faced and clearly trying not to like, scream. Maybe that’s just what I wanted to do.

Even when Gloria may start seeing some sort of good in him, this is immediately shattered by how easy it is for him to murder Isabel. This is a double-edged sword, because it was Gloria’s action of putting the tracking chip in Isabel’s phone (though granted, she did not know it was Isabel’s phone when she did it, she was on a time-limit) that led to her being labeled a traitor. But that’s all Lino needs to execute her, despite Gloria’s screams of protest. She begs to just be able to talk to him, maybe she can make him see sense, but Lino doesn’t let her, he wants her to be taken away where she can’t interfere.

This action solidifies Gloria’s feelings toward him. It SUCKS that Isabel dies, but in a way it’s necessary for Gloria to fully realize Lino as a monster. You could argue that the discovery of the link between Suzu and Lino also does this, but I think you have to build it gradually. Gloria’s furious at Lino, but she won’t do anything to him because her priority is Suzu. Once Suzu is found oh and also he’s the one in charge of that trafficking ring? Then all bets are off.

Basically, they could have added this Stockholm syndrome plotline to this, and I’m so glad they didn’t.

one of a couple different posters for the original movie

THE RE-IMAGINING

The poster above is one for the 2011 movie I mentioned earlier. It also got mixed reviews, but generally people seemed to like it, especially those people angry about this new movie.

I think because they share a title and a very, very basic plot connection, it’s easy to claim this 2019 movie is a remake, in which case it would be a very bad one. The main character is completely different and the Miss Baja California plotline is played way, WAY down.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s fair to call this film a remake-I would say it’s more of a re-imagining. Even the opening credits claim it’s inspired by the 2011 film, not based on.

Now, I haven’t seen the 2011 film, but from what I gather and see, the bullet imagery is played up a lot more in that film than this one. The point of that film is the infiltration of the beauty pageant-the point of this film is Gloria as a character and her friendship with Suzu. The pageant is never the point, merely a side thing.

Anyway, you’re welcome to do what you want of course, I just generally don’t think it’s fair to compare these two films since honestly, they seem to be very different. Should the 2019 film have been named something different, then? I mean yeah, maybe. But like The Power of Friendship sounds like a My Little Pony movie, so…

LOOK. AT. THAT. DRESS.

“OOF” MOMENT

Again, every scene where Lino touched Gloria just was GROSS and EW but we gotta give this one to the ending where Gloria is suddenly recruited by the CIA?????

Um…I mean cool she deserves it but also WHAT.

FAVORITE MOMENT

When Gloria found Suzu and gave her the friendship bracelet she’d been holding on to to show her that she’d been looking for her this whole time I JUST THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH I SUPPORT THEM.

same poster again because I couldn’t find an alternate one? Did they make any?

SHOULD YOU TAKE YOURSELF TO THIS MOVIE?

So listen-it’s honestly tough for me to recommend this movie. I saw a review that called it “genre-defying” and I agree with that. It’s hard to place this movie because it’s so…not what people thought. And that’s not a bad thing, at least for me. I did like it, and I loved the direction it took, but the violence is tough to watch. Again, I feel like it’s meant to be because it’s not directed as entertaining action scenes, which is good. It’s appropriately horrific, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch.

Still, the violence is not the entire movie. Gina Rodriguez absolutely steals the show and does amazing, and it’s so, so satisfying when she finds Suzu and wins. If you like typical action thrillers, you may not like this film. But if you like character-driven, tense films where the bad guys DEFINITELY LOSE and the good girls are incredible AND WIN, then I think you might like this one. Above all else, I think it does have a good story with great characters, and again, a very satisfying ending (prior to the CIA recruitment because that was just waaaaaay out of left field).

As a whole, I give this film…

3/5 FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS!!!!

Because we all know it, that friendship bracelet was a much bigger symbol to the film than a bullet, despite both film title and advertising.

TRAILERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

You would think that by now I’ve seen the Pet Sematary trailer enough to know and prepare for that stupid truck jumpscare in the beginning. I’m not, though. Lots of repeat trailers for this movie, but our new contenders are: Captain Marvel, which I will absolutely be seeing. I mean, Marvel finally giving a female superhero their own movie???? I’M THERE. Plus I would die for Brie Larson, much like I would die for Gina Rodriguez. Cold Pursuit looks…meh. It was so hard to tell what the movie was even about from the trailer, it was just like “LOOK! LIAM NEESON! Also explosions! Cars in trees! Loud noises! Excitement! LIAM NEESON AGAIN!” so um…right now it’s a no from me, unless there’s some incredible plot or I hear good things. But. Meh. And then there was Brightburn, which when I was taking notes in my phone I actually wrote “Brightburn what the GUCK” and I didn’t correct it because that feels a lot more accurate to how I feel about it. I mean, we’ve all been spammed with trailers for The Prodigy, and now this looks like almost the same film except the kid is like an evil..alien? I guess? That stupid jumpscare at the end though. Nope.

And that does it for this review!

Is Miss Bala a great movie? Not really. But I can appreciate and like things about it, and if you think you can too, I recommend taking yourself to the movies to see Miss Bala.

Or if you just wanna see Gina Rodriguez walk around in that dress with explosions in the background because honestly, price of admission, right there.

Glass Review

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I really love everything about this poster especially because it tells you absolutely nothing about the movie, you think you know what’s going to happen?? YOU’RE WRONG

So yesterday, I took myself to the movies and saw Glass, M. Night Shyamalamalan’s (spelling?) latest mind-bending WHAT-IS-HAPPENING movie and also the sequel to both 2000’s Unbreakable and 2016’s Split.

Now when I saw Split, the big twist ending (shoving Bruce Willis in there to reveal that Split and Unbreakable are in the same cinematic universe, the Shyamaverse?) was kind of lost on me as I never saw Unbreakable. I loved Split, however, so I caught up and learned as much as I could about both films and their respective universes to prepare for Glass.

I still don’t think I was prepared enough. I mean what is it with movies this year and saying “oh?? you want a twist? Okay yeah. OH WHAT’S THAT?? MORE TWISTS????? OH LOOK HERE’S ANOTHER ONE!!!! TWISTS FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!”

That’s not a bad thing either!! At least I don’t think so. A good twist (or seventeen) really makes you think AND makes you want to watch the film again to look for clues you missed. It’s diabolical really.

So without further ado, let’s break open this “comic book” movie and shatter everything you thought you knew about this universe.

Pun game still strong.

They put Sarah Paulson in this dramatic white raincoat so it would give you the illusion of everything being fine, guys, Sarah Paulson the angel is here

THE PLOT

We begin approximately three-ish weeks after the events of Split, but that’s not the important timeline detail for you to remember: just as Glass is coming out 19 years after Unbreakable, this movie’s events take place 19 years after Unbreakable’s events. While this INCREDIBLY cool music plays, we go back and forth between following David Dunn (Bruce Willis) in his trademark rain poncho and Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) in his…kidnap factory. The usual. David is in a bit of a vigilante routine at this point (his cover is “I’m taking a walk”) but we see he’s in headphone contact with his son, Joseph Dunn (Spencer Treat Clark), while he walks. After taking down two punks who contributed nothing to the plot or society, we learn that Dunn & Son are trying to track down the person/persons responsible for all the kidnapped girls recently. David runs into Hedwig (one of Crumb’s personalities) on the street and gets a vision of the latest group of girls, leading David to track down the factory where the girls are being kept alone, despite his son’s wishes. David manages to free the girls, but he runs into The Beast (another Crumb personality) and the two have an eeeepic battle in the factory. It does lead to one of the girls being whacked by a table (although I guess all she gets is a broken arm?? They try to use this against David later but like if he hadn’t done anything she’d be Beast food????) and both David and The Beast breaking through a window to fall to the ground below, where suddenly somehow there are police cars and guys with guns surrounding them and Sarah Paulson telling everyone not to shoot. Through the headphone microphone, Joseph hears where they are taking his father and Crumb and he learns it’s a psychiatric facility.

Finally there we see Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah Price (or as we better know him, Mr. Glass). Sarah Paulson plays Dr. Ellie Staple, and her job is to convince our three misfits that they actually have a very specific disorder that causes them to BELIEVE they are superhuman, when in actuality, they’re not, just normal people who are a little broken (GET IT??? IT’S CALLED GLASS???? SYMBOLISM!!).

The rest of the movie is a test on both the characters and the audience as everyone is forced to review what they know about these characters and if it is, in fact, all a lie, and what they’re going to do about it.

Bruce Willis just looked completely done the entire movie and honestly what a 2019 mood

THE REVIEW

Generally, Glass appears to be getting mixed reviews. There are people who loved Unbreakable and didn’t like Split so they don’t know what to make of this movie, there are people who loved both and had their own ideas for this movie and then were collectively disappointed and miffed when those ideas didn’t happen, there are people who hate the entire film but are still in awe of James McAvoy’s incredible, INCREDIBLE acting and his ability to flip from one character to an entirely different one in a matter of seconds. For me personally? I really, really loved it. And I love it more the more I think about it (as we discussed with Escape Room, my favorite movies are ones that make me think about them afterwards!). I thought it was frustrating and poignant in powerful ways, and heartfelt when it needed to be. We’ll get to the characters later, but it was incredible to feel myself questioning why I was rooting for the “bad guys.” Were they really the bad guys in the end? I was questioning everything the whole way through and I LOVED IT.

Every detail felt carefully placed, from the music to the color to the camerawork. It was a distressing ending on one hand but an empowering ending on the other. It was funny when it needed to be, heartbreaking when it needed to be, suspenseful when it needed to be, and made me want to punch Sarah Paulson in the face. And I love Sarah Paulson!

Okay, time to go into further details so SPOILER WARNING if you haven’t seen the movie yet!! And this is a Shyamalan film, so you know there’s a twist. Or, like I said earlier, a whole lot of twists. If you’re on the fence about the movie but you liked Split or Unbreakable and generally like Shyamalan films or this sounds like something you’d enjoy, I recommend seeing it first before reading further. If the details don’t bother you and you’re okay being spoiled before you see it, read on!

*insert mandatory “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative” joke*

THE MUSIC

YOU GUYS. THE MUSIC. THE MUSIC!!!

Ohhhhhh MAN the music was great! It was so strange and anxiety-inducing when appropriate, and then it would switch and suddenly be really heartfelt and sad and you were sitting there like “whY aM I cRYinG??” Apparently the composer, West Dylan Thordson (also composer for Split) also mixed in some key themes from Unbreakable so it fully was a cinematic universe down to even the music?? I just. UGH. I can’t say enough about it. Even the track titles fill me with emotion (I mean, “Kevin & Casey”?? REALLY. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS.)

Notable music moments include the opening track with the montage and anxiety and opening credits flitting all over the screen, it was an experience, the moment when David is slumped over in his room remembering moments from Unbreakable but questioning his powers, the big parking lot showdown, and of course that entire finale piece. And again, the finale piece is called “Origin Story” which is like oh, look, I’m crying again.

why would you do this, Sarah, WHYYYY

THE CHARACTERS

Absolutely one of my favorite elements of this movie and this TRILOGY have been the characters. Mr. Glass and David are PERFECT foils to each other, and the way that Kevin is revealed to be connected to them both is just heartbreaking. None of them are perfect by any means, of course: Elijah is a genius mass murderer, Kevin is a broken kidnapper/cannibal (does it count as cannibalism if it’s The Beast personality?), and even David is weak, quick to believe Ellie, and often acts without thinking (okay not as bad as the other two BUT the point is none of them are perfect superheroes, okay). All the characters are tied into the overall symbolism of the film: when you look at them through lenses (Mr. Glass as the genius evil mastermind, Kevin as his beastly underling, David as the superhero, Ellie as the caring, reality-driven psychiatrist, Joseph as the starstruck little boy, Casey as the battered final girl, and Mrs. Price as the mother of a mistake), you do not and cannot get the full picture. Elijah has only ever wanted a body that could keep up with his intellect, and if you were in his situation, wouldn’t you? Kevin’s personalities developed as a way to protect him from his incredibly abusive mother. David has massive survivor’s guilt both because of the train incident AND his wife is dead now too. Ellie is blinded by her belief that what she’s doing is right. Joseph never saw his father as JUST a superhero but as a whole person. Casey put her uncle behind bars and genuinely cares for Kevin as a kindred spirit; she is not happy about outliving him, or about him being caught initially in the first place. She is not hiding her scars from the world anymore! Mrs. Price loves Elijah and believes he is capable of good, but the world was not good to him.

There are so many sides to every character, not just Kevin with his multiple personalities. You initially want to feel one way about them because of how they’re presented, but as the movie goes on, you realize you can’t do that. These are not two-dimensional characters on a screen, these are whole, broken people in awful situations, and aren’t we all? We cannot dehumanize any of them. Even Ellie, after the horrid reveal, breaks down in a hallway and screams, showing she is not as perfectly put together as she seems. She’s scared, and angry, and human.

I could go on forever, I really could. But really, hats off to Shyamalan for characters that are so well-developed. You want them to do well, and it breaks you when they don’t. When they can’t.

After you see the movie, seeing this room just makes you cry all over again

THE ART

I have to talk about the scenery, costumes, and general design all in one category because it all connects together and tbh visually this film is absolutely a work of art.

One of my favorite elements of The Sixth Sense is the use of color, and in that film, it was the bright red seen throughout that gave clues. Color plays an equally important role in this film, and it goes from bright, to muted, to bright again, and then finally to just what I would call rich. It mirrors the mental and emotional state of our characters, it gives visual cues, it sets up Ellie as a sweet, caring pastel individual when really she is full of evil, so on and so forth.

Every character, as seen in the shot above, has a specific color that is kind of theirs. It was also used in another theatrical poster for the film. Elijah’s color being purple is something that carried over from Unbreakable; it’s a color of royalty and power. Kevin’s color is kind of a mustard yellow, and it’s very reminiscent of Split, with the sickly lighting of the zoo facility and the bright fall leaves of Casey’s hunting memories. David’s color is interestingly enough a sort of teal, which mixes both the idea of blue being both a “hero” and “good” color psychologically to the fact that his weakness is water. He’s constantly surrounded by the very thing that haunts him.

IT’S JUST

Ellie’s color is a pastel pink, although she really just keeps a pastel color palette throughout the film (when she’s not wearing stark white). It makes her seem gentle and like she truly wants the best for our three misfits, which makes it all the more frustrating when she seems to be torturing them instead and then oh, wait, yeah no she’s completely evil. Great.

Though the use of color is the most obvious artistic aspect to the film, the camerawork is also incredible. There are multiple scenes where the camera takes the viewpoint of Mr. Glass, so we see everything from his point of view (sometimes even tilted slightly since his head seems to be permanently flopped over when he’s sedated). There’s a moment where Joseph storms out of the hospital and the camera follows him, flipping upside-down and around to show Joseph’s mental state-is everything he knows, everything he so strongly believes in, really a lie?

There are extreme closeups, reflections, a strong emphasis on the visual of shattered glass, again, I could go on and on and on and on, and I still probably wouldn’t catch everything.

This is why I love watching The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Split multiple times-it’s a layered cinematic experience, and you catch something new every single time. I will absolutely be adding Glass to this list (even though that will mean crying a lot more).

Pictured: three wholesome beans who need protection from this world

THE TWIST(S)

Because it ain’t a Shyamalan movie if there ain’t a TWIST.

Or like 12 billion.

I guess the initial twist is that Elijah has been switching his medication and only pretending to be sedated, but that’s an early-on reveal and COME ON, did any of us really think he was letting them sedate him??? It’s Mr. Glass, y’all. Let’s be real. (“let’s be real” she says about…a movie character who is fictional).

There’s an interesting semi-twist where the audience, just like the characters, may be starting to believe that there truly is nothing supernatural about them-they’re just normal, if broken. It’s sad, man, but fear not-they actually ARE superhumans! The Beast IS real, Elijah IS a genius, and David really IS unbreakable. Hoorah!

The next twist serves to further connect all three characters: Kevin’s father, who was Kevin’s role model, and who left Kevin alone with his mother with no explanation which meant ~time for multiple personalities and lots of abuse~, actually DIED. And not only that, he was ON THE SAME TRAIN DAVID DUNN WAS ON IN UNBREAKABLE.

Mr. Glass, like he says in the film, created both Kevin as The Beast and David as the superhero.

WhaaaAAAAAAAAAAT!

And now you’re thinking cool! So that’s how they’re all connected, and how they’ve been all connected! Where can we go from here? Will they show the world they exist?? HOW EPIC WILL IT BE???

aaaaaaaand then they’re dead.

No.

Really.

Kevin starts us off by revenge-crushing Mr. Glass’s shoulder and punching him in the ribs. He then falls out of his chair, unable to hold himself up, and with each impact you hear his bones breaking (GET IT BECAUSE THE MOVIE IS CALLED GLASS??? GET IT????). He crawls over to his mother, who sits with him while he coughs up blood, I’m assuming from his ribs breaking and puncturing various organs. It’s…yeah.

Kevin still wants to fight David, but Casey gets to Kevin and manages to talk The Beast down. YEAH. She hugs him and asks Kevin to “stay in the light with her for a little while” (CATCH ME CRYING IN THE CLUB). The Beast becomes Kevin, and just when you think everything’s fine, Casey notices a red laser light on her shoulder, and when she turns to look, the light is now on Kevin, and he gets shot. The shooter, we see, has some kind of black clover tattoo on the inside of his wrist. Kevin collapses in Casey’s arms, various personalities say goodbye to her or talk about pain (Hedwig in particular asks Casey to make the pain stop and you hear that sound? That’s my heart breaking). Finally, Kevin comes back into the light and says he’ll stay in the light till the end. He dies in Casey’s arms.

David is pulled aside by a group of masked awful terrible people who start holding his head down in a pothole of water. Ellie comes up and asks David to take her hand, where he gets a vision of her in a creepy dining room with other creepy evil people. She says that in the comic books there’s always some evil organization trying to stop everyone-but they’re not like that. They’re not evil. They’re just right. This means that the ENTIRE DAMN TIME she was being sweet to them and gently trying to convince them they have a disorder, she KNEW that they actually WERE SUPERHUMAN and she was just TORTURING THEM. David notices that Ellie also has the black clover tattoo. Ellie walks away and the masked people finish drowning David. We later see Joseph, who was separated from his dad, running to his dad’s body and sobbing.

We cut back one last time to Elijah, talking with his mother. It was a little hard to make out, but Elijah and his mom are discussing his life being a limited release, and she doesn’t know how it ends because he never told her. Elijah simply says that no, this was never a limited release…it was an origin story.

So that’s it, right? Our three misfits are dead, and the supervillain got away with EVERYTHING.

Except NOPE.

WE AIN’T DONE YET.

Ellie goes back to her secret black clover tattoo society of evil declaring that everything is fine, and she’ll move on to the next city and do the same thing all over again. The entire movie, our three misfits have been questioning “why are we the only ones??” and now we know why-there have been more, there are more, Ellie’s just finishing them off. Before she leaves, Ellie stops in a comic book store (perhaps to gloat?) and overhears some comics fans discussing the mastermind trope. They say that the mastermind always has a real plan behind a fake one-and no one sees it coming.

Ellie realizes that there may be something to this, so she goes back to the hospital to make sure that all security footage of the misfits has been erased. The guy working there says yeah for sure, except oh NO Mr. Glass is a genius you FOOLS. Mr. Glass downloaded the security footage along with a monologue of sorts and sent it to his mother, who (I’m assuming) sends it to both Joseph and Casey. The three meet up and sit together in a train station (BECAUSE TRAINS!!! UNBREAKABLE!!!) and watch as the footage goes viral. The superhuman truth is out there now-people know they exist.

And other superhumans may realize they’re not alone.

Ellie realizes that this was Mr. Glass’s plan all along. It’s interesting to note that during the final battle, Glass refers to Casey, Joseph, and Mrs. Price as “the main characters’ entrance” when they arrive. Because remember, it’s not a limited edition-it’s an origin story.

cAtcH mE CRyiNg iN tHE CLuB

“OOF” MOMENT

The only real “awkward” scene for me (there is an unfortunate lack of crazy dance scene from Hedwig, although he has a rollerskating scene) is in the beginning when Ellie and her soldiers interrupt The Beast’s and David’s fight. How…did they find them?? How did they get set up to surround them so perfectly??? I just…what?

The entire ending death montage is absolutely heartbreaking and I hate it, but the other real gutting moment is after that meeting in the pink room when Ellie got into their heads and we see David just crouched in a corner of his room all broken and sad and doubting and I just Bruce Willis looks so old and sad here I just please give the man a hug please.

FAVORITE MOMENT

Honestly there are so many good ones, but one that totally stands out is the first time Casey comes to visit and she talks with the various personalities and we see that her touch is incredibly healing to Kevin and that’s also when she says she put her uncle behind bars for what he did to her and just YES GIRL. YES.

Also the scene where Ellie realizes she’s lost is INCREDIBLY satisfying.

SHOULD YOU TAKE YOURSELF TO THIS MOVIE?

If you read this and think it sounds interesting, if you like Shyamalan movies, if you like pretty movies, if you like movies with an uplifting ending after all hope seems lost, if you like the actors, or if you just wanna marvel at James McAvoy’s incredible work with every one of his characters, I say go for it and take yourself to this movie! If this doesn’t sound like it’s something you’d enjoy, I don’t think it’s a movie you need to see. I think it’s a great movie and I really, really enjoyed it, but I also think it’s not necessarily for everyone! But in general, I give this movie:

4.5/5 COLOR-CODED SHARDS OF GLASS!

Yes everyone meet our new rating system! It’ll change depending on the movie, of course. If it’s a movie I think EVERYONE should see regardless of it being your cup of tea or not, I’ll give it that coveted 5/5 somethings.

This movie didn’t quite make it there, but I still think it’s quite good and I recommend giving it a try! You’ll cry a lot. And laugh a little! And want to punch Sarah Paulson.

(I still love her)

TRAILERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

We had a couple repeats (Pet Sematary, Miss Bala, and Happy Death Day 2 U) which we’ve discussed already, but we got some new ones to look out for! The Best of Enemies looks amazing, it’ll definitely be an emotional rollercoaster, but like an important one. Plus we know overall how it ends because of history, so the ending can’t be too sad hopefully please I have no more tears. Fighting with My Family actually…looks really good??? I was so skeptical because the poster made it look just weird and like another The Rock flick filled with explosions and bad CGI, BUT this looks surprisingly heartfelt and funny and like…good?? Us looks AMAZING. It was so fun to see the trailer on the bigscreen for the first time! I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m TERRIFIED and that movie will give me nightmares for YEARS probably, but I’m hoping Jordan Peele can give us another social thriller filled with great characters and things to make you THINK. And also lots of jumpscares probably which like not my favorite, but I’ll try it for Jordan Peele. The one trailer that made me just flat out say NOPE was The Curse of La Llorona. It has the potential I’m sure to be a fascinating urban legend-based horror, but that was the MOST ANXIETY-INDUCING TRAILER IN THE WORLD THAT IS EVERY CHILD’S WORST NIGHTMARE PLEASE GET THEM OUT OF THAT CAR. PLEASE.

And that about does it for this review of Glass! I’m sure I’ll find more and more I love or maybe even dislike about it as time goes on, but I’ll say it again, if this sounds like something you’d enjoy, might even like, or you just wanna see James McAvoy play 20+ characters and switch between them in an instant, I recommend taking yourself to the movies to see Glass!