Category Archives: Movies

Glass Onion’s Ending

 

 

Clearly as I am speaking about the final resolution to the satirical second outing of Detective

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Benoit Blanc, the center piece of this post is built entirely on a crucial and major spoiler for the film. Proceed if you have seen the movie or simply do not care about knowing the ending.

 

 

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT

After Detective Blanc revealed that billionaire tech-bro Miles Bron had murdered his former partner, Cassandra Brand, along with a friend bent on blackmailing Bron with that knowledge, but that he lacked direct evidence to convict Bron, Cassandra’s sister Helen’s rampage destroys Bron’s home. The fire destroyed Bron plans, upon which he had wagered his entire company, for a new safe energy system.

Among the artifacts destroyed in the conflagration was the famed painting The Mona Lisa, on loan to Bron by the French government and for whom Bron held an obsessive interest. Expressed in his desire to do something that would be so great, so extraordinary, that it would be remembered in the same breath as Davinci’s famous work. The ironic justice in Helen’s rampage is that by being responsible for the Mona Lisa’s destruction Miles Bron as in fact achieved his obsessive fantasy of forever being linked with the painting.

On the screenwriting podcast Scriptnotes writer/Director Rian Johnson, admitted that there was some trepidation that the audience would rebel at the priceless work of art’s destruction. As an insurance policy should the audience find that a bridge too far for their enjoyment, Johnson filmed a never utilized post-credit scene that revealed that painting consumed on in the blaze had been in fact a reproduction and not the original. However, test screenings showed that people accepted his original scripted intentions and the cannon of the film remained that the original was destroyed.

Had that post-credit sequence been used it would have been a mistake and a terrible disservice to the story.

It is a firm conviction of mine that endings are where all the critical themes and meanings in a story are fully realized. Endings must be earned and that must fulfill not only the narrative and emotional requirements of the story they must mean something.

Famously when Frank Oz adapted the musical play Little Shop of Horrors into a feature film, he found that the audience hated the ending with the protagonist feeding his love to the plant followed by himself. However, Oz’s also edited the number The Meek Shall Inherit where the protagonist, faced with the choice between doing right or self-serving interests, removing that character’s critical decision which justified the character’s death.

Had Johnson used the post-credit scene revealing that the Mona Lisa was in fact safe and sound in Paris then the entire ending would lose all its power. With the original unharmed the most devastating consequence of Bron’s idiocy and arrogance would have been wholly negated. That ending would have lacked justice.

Endings are the most critical element of the story. A flawed ending ruins the destination’s journey. (I am looking at you HBO’s Game of Thrones.) It is why I must be a plotter, outlining my novel before starting them because without knowing the destination how can I ever to earn it?

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A Tired Trope

 

Feature films and television is filled with tired worn-out tropes used to glide past problem spots in scripts and create false tension. There is one that I wish desperately to die, the improvised or fortunate bullet-stopper.

We’ve seen this for decades upon decades. A character is shot in the chest, almost certainly dead, only for it to be revealed later that something stopped the bullet. Bruce Wayne’s improved one with a silver tray in Tim Burton’s Batman, a lead token proved the essential protection in Deadpool 2, books are a commonly used device, though it can be forgiven in Sleepy Hollow as at least there was no modern ammunition was used.

Variations on this trope include impromptu shields, Arnold used bystanders to prevent himself from being riddled with sub-machine gun rounds in Total Recall and Steve Rogers used a convenient taxi door to stop rounds from a semi-automatic pistol in Captain American: The First Avenger.

In all these cases the filmmakers and writers have ignored that modern bullets posses ‘overpenetration.’ The rounds often, depending on the substance of the target, have more the energy to pierce metal and flesh with enough remaining to exit and continue on presenting danger to those beyond.

The sub-machine rounds in Total Recall would have torn through the poor bystander Quaid used as a shield and into Arnold’s character himself. No mere silver tray would stop even a small caliber round and Wayne would have been grievously injured.

I have learned to ignore this trope when it raises it ignorant head, but I will not continue its presence in my own work. Firearms are lethally dangerous even if you have a book in your breast pocket.

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Both Miles Bron AND Ben Shapiro are Idiots

 

 

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Two days ago, Ben Shapiro took to Twitter to pronounce Glass Onion, reviewed on this blog and a wonderful film, was in fact bad artistically and politically. His opinion is flawed and idiotic as I will demonstrate.

 

 

Be warned after this  like blood, There Will Be Spoilers.

 

 

Ben Writes:

First, the writing. The first half of the movie is a complete misdirect and a waste of time.

and

We only find out about the actual murder we’re supposed to investigate full one hour and ten minutes into the film, as well as an entirely new backstory (Miles never invited Blanc, and Andi has a twin sister masquerading as her). We’re actively deceived by the writer.

Many people have already pointed out the idiocy of not expecting misdirection in a murder mystery, but I want to lean on the word ‘complete’ which implies quite falsely that there were no clues, (You know what clues are don’t you Ben?) in the first act that what we were presented with was not the entire picture.

As each invitee receives the box, they each understand it is a puzzle and seek to solve it. Calling on each other for help. Helen/Andi doesn’t try to solve it but attacks it with furious anger. Not frustration, not annoyance, but intense hatred.

When we see the first puzzle box delivered to Claire, we are shown that it came by professional courier. Yet, while Blanc is in the tub playing online games with celebrities a voice calls out, “Someone is here to see you.” pause “And they have a box.”

Phillip did not shout out, “There’s a delivery!” or “Ben you have to sign for this!” or “What did you order?” None of the things people actually say when confronted with a surprise delivery. Look Ben, a clue that this was not like the others.

As the invitees arrive at the pier to go to the private island it is clear that Blanc is watching each arrival carefully. Yet, when he speaks it is an exaggeration of his normal patterns. A clue that he is already playing a part.

When Miles sees Andi’s arrival at the island, the reaction is one of utter shock. Edward Norton gives you the full reaction of a man seeing someone who he really really thought was dead. Not the socially awkward reaction of an unwanted guest. It is as obvious and as easily missed as looking directly at Bruce Willis and saying, “I see dead people.”

After Helen/Andi’s initial confrontation with the disruptors, she stumbles off, after she clearly not knowing that Claire had called following up on the email, Claire muses “She’s changed.” Well, yes here’s another clue that Andi is not in fact Andi, a pretty big one.

Oh, and ben we didn’t wait half the film to discover that Miles hadn’t invited Blanc. Miles took Blanc aside when he arrived and stated he had not invited him, and Blanc misdirects him to think one of the others ‘reset’ their puzzle box to invite him as a gag.

Why the misdirect? Because the story itself in the purest form of incredible laziness. It relies on not one, not two, but three bad writing tropes: an identical twin, a comprehensive journal, and a moron of a murderer.

Well, as has been stated, misdirection in mysteries, like magic tricks, are an essential element of the genre. There were, as I have detailed, plenty of clues that Andi was not Andi, and Miles, while a moron, actually performed a pretty decent murder. So well executed in fact that at the end of the story it is clear he will face no legal consequences for killing Andi.

Now onto Ben’s interpretation of the film’s politics.

Rian Johnson’s politics is as lazy as his writing. His take on the universe is that Elon Musk is a bad and stupid man, and that anyone who likes him – in media, politics, or tech – is being paid off by him.

A common interpretation is the Miles Bron is a thinly veiled swipe at Elon Musk. While Bron is a ‘tech bro’ there is actually nothing in the film that makes him a direct comparison to Musk. There is never a mention of any space venture, though that would cover both Musk and Bezos, no mention of electric cars, in fact it is a plot point that Miles’ car, that he loves, is a gas car, and no mention of any form of electronic payment systems. Nor is there any hint that Miles owns social media.  The film was written and produced before Musk nose-dived into Twitter. In short none of the businesses that briefly made Musk the richest man in the world apply to the character of Miles Bron. In fact, Miles’ internet company, Alpha, with things like Alpha News, an important plot point, is much more like Alphabet, the company that owns Google, than anything Musk has been associated with.

For the rest of his twitter thread Ben continue to treat Miles as a stand-in for Musk apparently unaware that a character can represent a general type of person, douchey tech bro, rather than a specific person.

What about all the people who like Musk? They’re dumb and corrupt, too (which means you need no logic for them, so more bad writing!). This means that all Miles’ friends/supporters are still “sucking the golden teat” for Miles/Musk because he keeps signing them checks.

Ben is incredulous that rich powerful people can be surrounded by sycophants, yes-people, and moochers. We can look to Trump’s current legal teams to see how the best and the brightest are attracted to wealth and power.

One of the most important lines, defining the character of Vito Corleone, in The Godfather is when Tom tells the movie mogul “Mr. Corleone is the sort of man who insists on hearing bad news right away.” It tells us that unlike many many powerful people the Godfather does not want yes-men but the truth and that is an aberration.

But any of them could, at any time, burn down Miles/Musk and reap massive benefits. Literally any of them. Duke would become, overnight, the biggest host in the world for uncovering the conspiracy of silence.

Ben really is either ignoring the realities of taking on the rich or he is an idiot. I’m not sure how Ben thinks the group of Mile’s ‘hanger-ons’ can take him down. Certainly not over the murder that they are ignorant of, perhaps by publicly stating he is in idiot. Hmm people do that all the time and it has failed to take down Musk or Trump. Of course, if you have something real, something damaging, then billionaire will take you to court and guess who will have the nearly unlimited resources and legal teams to grind you into poverty before it ever gets before the bench? Not one of the ‘disruptors’ has anything close to the financial or legal resources to take down Miles. Their livelihood is wedded to his, hence they are sycophants.

Now Glass Onion has well-worn and tired Hollywood tropes, but Ben is too thick to actually see those and instead he wails, cries, and moans that liberals are unfair to Musk, too blinded by his own prejudices to see what is really there. Honestly, Ben has done a perfect job of misdirecting himself.

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Movie Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

 

In 2019 writer/director Rian Johnson released his love letter to the classic mystery genre with his film Knives Out. A movie without a pre-existing fan base, no novel, no boomer television series, no classic film reboot, and the domestic box office still soared past 300 million dollars. Audiences fell in love with southern gentleman Detective Benoit Blanc. The success guaranteed a sequel and Netflix brought truckloads of money to Johnson for two more Benoit Blanc mysteries, the first of which, after a one-week theatrical run over Thanksgiving, drops onto the streaming service today.

Glass Onion, taking in May of 2020 as the world grapples with the Covid 19 pandemic, is set on a secluded Greek island as tech billionaire boy Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has invited his close group of friends, nicknamed the Disruptors and his estranged former partner, for a weekend of

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a murder mystery game. Blanc’s arrival is the first mystery as someone other than Bron dispatched to Blanc of the puzzle box invitations. Naturally the weekend does no go as planned and soon the participants find that the dangers are for more real than the party games that they had expected.

The next Benoit Blanc mystery is structured very much the pervious one.  The first act of the film establishes a collection of eccentric characters, this time drawn more broadly that the Thrombey clan, but when you are dealing with an internet billionaire and the surrounding sycophants broad is the order of the day.

The second act inverts everything you thought you understood had been established while playing fair with the information it had presented.

The third act swings into the actual mystery and revelations to land in an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

Glass Onion present more comedy and less mystery than the previous movie but retains all the essential elements that made Knives Out such a fun and entertaining experience. The cast is uniformly fantastic with golden cameos from a number of well know persons. Outstanding in this cast is Janelle Monae though it takes more than half to film to uncover what makes her performance so stellar.

It is a shame that Glass Onion has such a short theatrical run as this is the sort of movie that is best experienced with a crowd but even alone on the couch this is still a movie that should not be missed.

Glass Onion is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.

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Movie Review: The Menu

 

The Menu, directed by Mark Mylod from a screenplay by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, is a dark comedy/horror film set almost entirely within the confines of an exclusive restaurant The Hawthorne, ruled with a dictatorial air towards both staff and diner by Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The film unfolds during a single evening’s meal of several courses as the exclusive clientele discover that this night Slowik had a very special menu planned.

The story unfolds, slowly revealing the horrific nature of the very special evening, through viewpoint of Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), a last-minute replacement date for snobbish foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). An outsider to the world of the extremely wealthy Margot is the audience Searchlight Picturessurrogate and protagonist trapped in the bizarre conflict between the wealthy patrons and the working staff of the restaurant. As the night progresses Slowik’s true intent and hatred slowly emerges along with his staff’s fanatical and cultish devotion.

The Menu leans much further into satire and dark comedy than into horror, with social commentary, that is quite entertaining, giving the piece its principal thematic purpose. Beyond the already listed cast member the film includes John Leguizamo as an aging actor, and Janet McTeer as an influential critic but the movie rests solidly on the talents of Taylor-Joy and Fiennes as the central protagonist/antagonist and it is their conflicting world views and personalities that drive the plot.

While the film has lovely, warm, and cold cinematography by Peter Deming, whose credits include Twin Peaks, The Cabin in the Woods, and Mulholland Drive the real standout work here is the production design by Ethan Tobman. With very limited locations and more than three quarters of the scenes restricted to the dining room/kitchen of the Hawthorne, Tobman has crafted an environment that perfectly captures the cold sterile and lethal setting while never breaking the suspension of disbelief that this could be an actual exclusive restaurant.

Horror fans looking for elaborate kills, graphic violence, and exciting chases are going to be disappointed by The Menu, a film that reveals it horror more quietly but other may find this as delicious as I did.

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Norwegian Kaiju Fun: Troll (2022)

 

While the Japanese film industry reigns undisputed as the global champions in giant monster, AKA Kaiju, cinema other nations have gotten in the act and this year brought a treat from the Nordic North, Troll.

Construction of a new railway line through the mountains of Norway awakes an enormous troll Netflixthat wrecks destruction throughout the countryside as the meanders South towards the nation’s capital, Oslo.  Am assembled ragtag team must battle the troll and bureaucratic interference along with familial trauma to save Norway from the ancient pre-Christian curse.

Troll, directed with a firm talented hand by Roar Uthaug and with sharp, lovely cinematography by Jallo Faber, is a fun, fast, and thoroughly enjoyable film. Screenwriters Uthaug and Espen Aukan, perfectly balance the spectacle effects of a 40- or 50-meter-tall troll cutting through countryside and city environments with just enough human scale story to give the film dramatic weight without sliding into melodrama. The characters, while not blindingly unique, are drawn well-enough to present as believable people, engaging the audiences emotional connections. It is also pleasant that despite the mixed-gender cast there was no attempt at a love triangle or even a romantic subplot, just associates, friends, and family working in common purpose. The films ending is reminiscent in mood to the grandparents of Kaiju cinema, King Kong (1933) and Gojira (1954.)

I am going to talk about two elements Troll in a generally non-spoiler manner.

Frist something that amused me. During the movie’s second act the Troll moves through an Amusement Park, food, games, rides, including the obligatory fake rapids water ride. The day the troll arrived the sky was overcast, a cool day, and still the water ride was full of Norwegians wearing heavy long-sleeved shirts. Clearly the Norwegians have a different standard when the weather is appropriate for getting drenched.

The second damaged by suspension of disbelief but not so badly as to kick me fully out of enjoying the movie. It is strongly suggested, but never explicitly. stated, that the Norwegian military considers a nuclear strike against the troll, but Norway is not among the 9 nations known or suspected of possessing nuclear weapons. Nor does the movie suggest that they are borrowing one from NATO.

That said Troll was a fast, fun movie that played quickly and never failed to entertain. For fans of giant monsters on a rampage Troll should not be missed.

Troll is currently streaming on Netflix.

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The Collateral Damage in Boycotting The Harry Potter Movies

 

J.K. Rowling, having proved that her ‘plea for tolerance’ had quite stark limits, had enraged numerous people with comments and opinions on trans people. This has prompted the quite predictable backlash not only against her but the properties that carry her name, principally the Harry Potter Franchise, inspiring fan driven boycotts.

When it comes to the published novels there are very limited financial effects beyond Rowling and her publisher. No one else shares on royalties from each copy sold and so with each copy boycotted one Rowling and publishers suffer a loss, albeit a very tiny one.

The same is not true when it comes to the movies.

Feature films have a much larger number of people who derive continuing financial benefits from each copy sold or rented. In addition to the performers, both the ones catapulted to stardom and those who continue to be working actors, the two screenwriters, four directors, six cinematographers, five editors, five composers, and others are denied residuals with each copy not rented or sold.

Yes, the amount of money per rental or sale is quite small, btu that is true to Rowling as well.

I am not telling you that you should not boycott the Harry Potter movies, or the films of other detestable people, looking at you Polanski, but you should know that those shells are landing on others besides your hated targets. If you boycott, do it informed and aware of everyone effected.

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Streaming Review: The Bombardment

 

A Danish/Netflix co-production The Bombardment is dramatization of an RAF raid that mistakenly bombed a religious school in addition to the target the national headquarters for the Gestapo.

In March 1945 the Danish resistance feared that the Gestapo were on the verge of destroying Netflixtheir organization and after much pleading and the Gestapo’s use of captured resistance member as human shields the RAF launches Operation Carthage, a daring low-level raid to bomb the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen.

The Bombardment, titled The Shadow in my Eye in Denmark, uses fictional characters to explore the events leading up to and immediately following the raid.

Henry – a young boy traumatized by an aerial attack he witnessed and now with a crippling fear of open skies and psychosomatic muteness.

Rigmor — Henry’s cousin and a very self-assured and outgoing young girl. Henry comes to live with her in the city where he can better grapple with his fear of the open sky.

Eva — Rigmor’s younger friend who has also witnessed the brutality of the war.

Teresa — a nun in training and teacher at the school whose faith has been damaged by the horrors of the war.

Frederick – a young man collaborating with the occupying Nazis who becomes infatuated with Teresa.

The Bombardment does a fine job capturing the daily life of the people of Copenhagen as they deal with both the tedium of normal life alongside with the terror and brutality of German occupation. The film’s opening text establishes the coming disaster giving the normal daily life a cloud of impending doom.  It also does a fair representation of the tragic accident that led several of the bombers in the flight to attack the school instead of their intended target. While characters grow and change by their encounter with the bombing the film actually leans back from making any grand statement about war, leaving such conclusions to each viewer’s own interpretation. While not a film I will revisit or even find terribly memorable The Bombardment is competently constructed and does not overstay its welcome.

The Bombardment streams on Netflix.

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The Shared Fantasy Element of Star Wars & The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

 

On a surface examination it would seem that the pop space fantasy Star Wars and the ground hard sf novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress would have very little in common. One is a fairy tale quest reimagined in a galaxy far away taking place long ago while the other is retelling of the American Revolution set on a lunar penal colony.

Both are concerned with the overthrow of a cruel dictatorial government, one a cartoonishly evil emperor the other a multinational penal system condemning the guilty and the innocent.

But both works have a fantasy element in common, an unbelievably restrained set of revolutionaries.

Revolutions eat their young is a common sentiment. In reality, all too often after a successful revolution and the old guard is turned out, usually fatally, the next most common occurrence is the revolutionaries turn on each other. Divisions that had been set aside as they fought a common enemy resurface and what starts as disagreement turns quickly into violence and assassination.

It often takes a stiff spine and stomach to throw a revolution and it’s very easy to drift across the line from moral action into ‘the ends justify the means.’ After that the will to perform ‘questionable’ acts to win is easily turned against former allies.

In both Star Wars and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress the revolutionaries are upstanding characters that never got their hands truly dirty. The Empire is toppled and it is all just flowers and puppies and a new Republic is born.  In Moon Manny and his conspirators tried to rig the government so that they remained in power but lacking the blood methods usually employed to neutralize former allies they found themselves outmaneuvered and despite their intent an independent government formed.

I got thinking about this because the newest Star Wars television series Andor is gritty, grey, and morally dark.

I love it.

Andor feels real. It feels like the hard choices and nasty work of throwing a revolution. It flies directly opposed to the fantasy revolt of Star Wars and luckily for continuity it will never reach the post revolution period, but until it ends, I plan to be along for the ride.

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Spooky Movie #8: Doctor Sleep

 

Doctor Sleep adapted from Steven King’s novel of the same name is a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classic film The Shinning. (Also adapted from a Steven King novel.) I have read the novel The Shinning a few times and found it to be one of King’s most effective horror stories and like King I Warner Brothers Studioswas disappointed by Kubrick’s adaptation feeling that it missed the essential possession element of the work. I never got around to reading King’s sequel so I can’t speak to this film faithfulness as an adaptation.

With clever casting writer/Director Mike Flanagan picks up the story shortly after the events of The Shinning with Danny Torrance and his Mother Wendy living in Florida, both terribly scarred by the trauma that they have survived. The ghost of the hotel’s chief chef Hallorann visits Danny and helps him to master his psychic abilities.

Despite this when we catch up with Danny as an adult, he is a broken man and, like his father before him, suffering from bouts of rage and alcoholism.

Simultaneously A young girl, Abra Stone, is coming into her own as a psychic with her own special and power shine which brings her into the awareness of a cult of psychic vampires that feed of the essence released by tortured and murdered psychics lead by the sadistic Rose the Hat.

Very quickly Danny finds his path to sobriety and redemption runs straight through Abra and Rose, a path that leads all of them back to haunted Overlook Hotel.

Doctor Sleep is in fact my first experience with the work of Mike Flanagan, and I was quite impressed. The film has a simple yet deep production design that carries both a sense of real world reality while suggesting a deep unseen reality beyond just what is visible. Films about psychic abilities are always a tricky magic act to perform. By their very nature psychic talents are things of the mind and they do not generally lend themselves to effective visualizations. Flanagan manages to walk the narrow path of visual that are interesting and unreal while still not leaving the viewer lost or confused.

The cast is uniformly good, Ewan McGregor as Danny Torrance always carries the haunted look of a man barely functioning despite the pain that clearly tormenting him. Kyleigh Curran as Abra has real talent and will be a treat to hopefully watch her blossom into an adult actor. that said for me the real treat was Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat. Having missed nearly all of the Mission Impossible franchise I was only recently introduced to her work in Dune Part 1as the Lady Jessica but her villainous turn as Rose is truly breathtaking. Playing a person of so little empathy is a very tough gig, overplay it and it ceases to be a character and dwindles into caricature underplay it and the threat begins to fade. Ferguson found the balance keeping her real, keeping Rose’s pain visible while maintaining the hardness that made her frightening.

Thew film’s climax at the Overlook was particularly satisfying especially for fans of the original novel.

Doctor Sleep is currently streaming on HBOMax and is available on VOD.

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