Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulson, Samuel L. Jackson
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 129 mins

Glass, director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, isn’t a sequel in the traditional sense. It serves as a sequel to Unbreakable and to Split, a film which in a genius end-credit twist revealed itself to be a psuedo-supervillain origin story / spin-off to Unbreakable. This film sees the return of Bruce Willis’ David Dunn as his path crosses with James McAvoy’s multiple personalities. When both get arrested after Dunn tries to bring him to justice, they are both put in a psychiatric hospital where it is revealed that Samuel L. Jackson’s Mr Glass has also been secretly locked away in the years between the end of Unbreakable and this film. The unit is run by Sarah Paulson’s Dr Ellie Staple who tries to convince the trio that they have convinced themselves wrongly of their superpowers, questioning their past experiences and making them doubt themselves.

M. Night Shyamalan has had an interesting directorial career, his films varying wildly in quality. After a long slump with dud after dud, Shyamalan bounced back with the one-two punch that was The Visit and then Split so this is an important film for audiences to like and many fans have been waiting for a sequel to Unbreakable for years. Unbreakable was an excellent film and proved a tonic to the emerging superhero genre of its time, in effect acting as a superhero deconstruction piece. I also found a lot to like in Split but it does suffer with some creaky expository dialogue that weighs the film down. Unfortunately, initial reviews for this film are mixed-to-negative, so I was trepidatious before seeing the film to say the least due to the good work Shyamalan had done so far.

Glass is an excellent end to this trilogy and mostly represents Shyamalan at his best. It is pretty much a knock-out. Shyamalan develops these characters extremely well, furthering their character arcs and subverts expectations, for better or worse for some viewers. It is very cine-literate and further deconstructs the generic constructs of the superhero genre and offers some fascinating commentaries on these.  As is to be expected, there is a Shyamalan twist and it does undo the good work a little as it isn’t one of his best twists but if you can buy into the film’s central conceit beforehand, it really is excellent. As with a lot of Shyamalan’s filmography, it would be very easy for one to laugh and sneer at this film, as the film walks a fine line.

The performances are uniformly excellent, with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson the standouts. Both characters have interesting arcs which are unexpected, Willis a more mature and sombre David Dunn if a little underused who evokes a Batman-like, vigilante figure, putting in one of the best performances in his career. Samuel L. Jackson is also great as Elijah and the film fully utilises his skill-set again. James McAvoy again is reliably great as he was in Split. Of the rest of the cast, Sarah Paulson makes a good impression as the psychiatric doctor with her own agenda but Anya Taylor-Joy‘s character is a little forced and I didn’t quite buy into her relationship with McAvoy’s character.

Technically, Glass succeeds in spades too. The score is outstanding, West Dylan Thordson returning from Split and successfully melding both past themes whilst creating some memorable new ones. DP Mike Gioulakis is also great and there are numerous shots which are just a work of art to look at.

Ultimately, Glass is a welcome surprise and for the vast majority of its running time, is a gripping and intelligent sequel. Its ending does threaten to undo some of the good work somewhat as it feels as though Shyamalan hasn’t quite figured out what to do. I loved Glass and can’t wait to watch it again and it might possibly be the best film in the trilogy if it holds up on future viewings.  I sincerely hope that in a few years time, this film will be reassessed as it’s been really unfairly recieved.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Excellent)

Director: Jon S. Baird
Starring: Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Nina Arianda, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Rufus Jones
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 97 mins

Stan and Ollie is a well-intentioned dramatisation, but rather shallow retelling of the final years of the iconic comedy duo. The film tells the story of the final years of the duo as they embark on a tour of Britain in the hope of getting a feature film made so that they can return to their former glory. Although there are some narrative bright spots and some good character moments, the success of this film hinges more on the performances than the actual film.  Even then, the film never truly gets under the skin of these characters. The narrative is obvious and the script rather on-the-nose, which hampers the film somewhat. Jon S. Baird’s direction is unflashy but lacks any sense of personality.

The main asset that carries this film are the performances, which elevate the flawed script and safe direction.  John C. Reilly as Ollie is the standout, who embodies the persona of the character to a tee, forming a strong emotional connection. Steve Coogan fares well too as the loveable character who just wants to regain his former glory with his partner but Coogan’s American accent does slip up sometimes.

Ultimately, Stan and Ollie passes the time fairly well, but it’s a shame that the film never really aspires to be more than just a simplistic biopic. When the emotional climax of the film arrives, it doesn’t quite pack as big of a punch as it could ahve done as it hasn’t quite earned the right to. That said, for John C. Reilly’s transformative performance alone, it is worth the watch.

⭐⭐⭐ (Good)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 120 mins

The Favourite is the new film by Yorgos Lanthimos, a director who has proved himself a big talent in the film industry. Starting out making films in his Greek homeland, Lanthimos first came to prominence when he made Dogtooth, an interesting coming-of-age drama with a disturbing edge. After making Alps, he transitioned to English-language pieces with films such as The Lobster, another absurd and somewhat dystopian drama. Most recently, he directed the deeply unnerving The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which I consider to be his best work so far. Both of these films, as well as his earlier Greek works, are all works rich in meaning and contain fascinating, psychologically challenging characters who speak with Lanthimos’ signature arch dialogue. The Favourite is a period drama set in the court of Stuart-monarch Queen Anne who struggles to rule the country and is presented as quite child-like in that she wants people to think the best of her. She enjoys eccentric activities such as racing ducks and tending to her collection of rabbits, who represent her lost children. Rachel Weisz’s Sarah Churchill essentially controls the Queen like her puppet but when her impoverished cousin, Abigail comes looking for employment, the two start vying for the Queen’s approval and courtship, with sinister methods.

The Favourite is another odd film from Lanthimos and isn’t the natural project one would expect a director of his background to take. It retains his directorial identity, with some archly constructed characters and a generally sharp and bitter script. There are some memorable exchanges and some funny moments, as well as some creepy and disturbing diversions as expected from him.

But The Favourite strangely feels like it has lost a lot of Lanthimos’ identity as a director in that tonally, the film doesn’t nail the distinction between the drama and the humour like his other films did. It feels oddly more corporate and more toned-down than it should be, which made for a bit of a frustrating watch. I think the reason The Favourite doesn’t quite deliver is due to the fact that Lanthimos isn’t working from a script that he wrote with his regular collaborator, Efthymis Filippou. This script is written by duo Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara and whilst it’s a good script, the characters feel a lot more vanilla than how Lanthimos would have interpreted them as. Furthermore, whilst Robbie Ryan’s cinematography is interesting and disorientating with wide angles, it lacks the claustrophobia and nightmarish atmosphere of Lanthimos’ regular collaborator Thimios Bakatakis.

The performances in this film have been widely acclaimed and all three of the actresses are very good in their roles. Olivia Colman is expectedly great as Queen Anne but I don’t think it’s her best performance – far more deserving of Awards attention would be for her performance in Tyrannosaur where she is just jawdropping. Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are good as well and have good chemistry together but again, both have done better work.

Overall, The Favourite is a good film and represents an interesting transformation for the period drama genre, making it feel rather contemporary. However, it is Lanthimos’ weakest film in that it lacks a lot of his signature style and it is tonally flawed. It also lacks the weight that his other films have and that is what makes them so memorable and unnerving. Whilst it’s obviously great to see Lanthimos get Awards attention as he has deserved it for a while, it’s annoying that it’s for his weakest film and this is rather reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s success last year for Dunkirk. I will certainly rewatch The Favourite again as there are things I think I will pick up from it on a second viewing but my first impressions are that is a suitably odd and strange work that lacks the heft of Lanthimos’ previous works.

⭐⭐⭐ (Good)