Provokr Pick: Glass
A Thriller 19 Years In The Making
Back in 2000, hot off the success of his groundbreaking The Sixth Sense, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan released his follow-up, Unbreakable. Not quite a horror flick, this cerebral thriller starred Bruce Willis as a modern day Superman, a superhero with no costume, and Samuel L Jackson as Mister Glass, a hyper-intelligent, low-key super villain. While the movie was successful and earned strong reviews, a planned sequel failed to materialize and the creative team went on to other things.
Fast forward to January 2016, and M. Night Shyamalan is in the midst of a career renaissance, having just released The Visit, a quirky horror comedy which put him back in the public’s good graces. His follow-up to that film, Split, followed a madman (James McAvoy) with a ton of distinct personalities. The secret twist ending revealed that the film was a clandestine sequel to Unbreakable, with Bruce Willis himself sneaking in a cameo as his character, David Dunn.
Now, the final chapter in the trilogy, Glass, is upon us. A meta take on the so-called “comic book superhero movie,” the film combines the stories from Unbreakable and Split, pitting the characters against one another in a winner-takes-all battle for their souls. While the film is receiving mixed reviews, part of that comes from expectations of a non-stop slugfest between James McAvoy and Bruce Willis. Shyamalan isn’t interested in turning his prior two films into an action extravaganza; the DNA of his prior films, and of his career as a whole, is baked into every frame of Glass, which feels like the ultimate passion project from a director who has always been at his best when fueled by his passion.
To talk about the story would be a disservice to the film, which has gone to great lengths to preserve its mystery, but Glass is a cinematic event without peer. Even though these movies have been massively successful, the best way to think of Glass (and its predecessors) is as an art house version of The Avengers, with lower, but more personal stakes and fewer explosions bolstered by film noir aesthetics and self-aware, if far from cheeky, sensibilities.
Glass is in theaters now. For the ultimate date night, rent the first two on Blu ray or digital and then head out to the theater to see the grand finale.
