Some spoilers for Glass below.
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin mentioned that alongside Netflix’s biopic on civil rights activist Bayard Rustin the service was also streaming the 2003 documentary BROTHER OUTSIDER: The Life of Bayard Rustin. As I prefer documentaries to biopics, here we go: Rustin, whom I knew of but not about, was a teenage golden boy (charming, handsome and a great singing voice) who grew into a gay black activist and pacifist, friend with prominent civil-rights leaders such as Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph and ended up in the awkward position of supporting the Vietnam War (in the belief he could do more good allied with the Johnson White House than opposed — or because he was swayed by getting close to power. Opinions differ). His homosexuality, of course, further complicated everything, leading King to cut him off for fear of the backlash from their association. Very good. “That was the first occasion on which I knew Westchester had three police cars.”
SPLIT (2016) wasM. Night Shyamalan’s sequel to Unbreakable in which the more deranged of James Macavoy’s multiple personalities kidnap three young women as sacrifices to the monstrous persona the Beast while his psychiatrist tries persuading other personalities that the superhuman Beast can’t be real, right? Macavoy does a great turn but the treatment of the women felt uncomfortably misogynistic in its treatment of the women, not to mention the Final Girl ending up back in her abusive uncle’s care (something resolved in the third movie but that doesn’t excuse it). And I’m heartily tired of abuse as an origin story. “Is this the ultimate doorway to all things unknown?”
Part three came in the form of GLASS (2019) wherein Bruce Willis’ “Overseer” (“At least they’ve stopped calling you the Tip-Toe Man.”) rescues another trio of young girl’s from The Beast but that only leads to MacAvoy and Willis getting incarcerated with Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) under the care of shrink Sarah Paulson, who’s determined to cure their delusion they possess powers and abilities beyond those of ordinary mortals. Glass, however, is not as helpless as he appears, and he has a plan …
It turns out that Paulson’s character works for a cabal that watches for and eliminates metahumans, believing they’ll inevitably disrupt the established order. Glass, however, knows about them; while the cabal eliminates the trio of metas Glass has arranged to have their battle streamed to the Internet. In his narration he tells viewers that what’s holding us back from becoming superhuman is that we don’t believe a man can fly (so to speak); now that we’ve seen we should trust those feelings that tell us we’re amazing, and act on them.
I found the film watchable but frustrating, as witness my mixed reaction to the ending. On the one hand, it’s hard to believe anything we see online is going to game-change anything — who’s going to buy it rather than think it’s special effects? Then again, people believe all kinds of ridiculous stuff; if belief unlocks meta-powers, it could very well work. Overall, I think the finish would have worked better if we’d seen more signs of people manifesting powers or learned more about the cabal (are they genuinely well-meaning or simply shielding their status and power from disruption?). “Everything extraordinary can be explained away — and yet it’s true.”
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