Reading, Watching, Listening 8/2/2024
A few words about M. Night Shyamalan
The day has arrived. M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap is out in theatres. Perhaps my most anticipated movie of the summer, and it more than delivered. There are those who still reflexively dismiss Shyamalan—a combination of stupid jokes about his famous plot twists, and a heaping dose of racism—but if any director in recent years has earned a second look, it’s the former “New Spielberg.” Starting with The Visit in 2015, Shyamalan has refashioned himself as a scrappy, self-funding, pure entertainer. Not that the movies don’t have thematic heft or perceptive insights into the human condition, but where his earlier films were weighted toward the spiritual torment of life, his recent string of thrillers prize fun concepts first. In the fourth decade of his career, Shyamalan mastered the true art of the B-movie.
Trap is perhaps the most perfect expression yet. Josh Hartnett is a dad trying oh so hard to be cool for his daughter as he accompanies her to a big pop star concert. He’s also a brutal serial killer, a true psychopath, and it turns out the concert is a trap. Police, SWAT and FBI are all on hand to catch The Butcher, who they’ve learned will be at the show. From there, it’s an escalating series of moves by Hartnett’s character to escape, and others around to ensnare him. It’s an incredibly funny movie—friends, I was cackling throughout—but also suspenseful as hell. Shyamalan knows how to do both, and with such goofy charm. Hartnett is terrific, leaning into the absurdity of the role and the predicament, constantly alternating between overly ingratiating to the point of falsehood and genuine expression. The slippery line separating the two modes, rather than mere accident of performance, is made text later in the film. Shyamalan is smart, and in Hartnett he’s found an actor who understands precisely what is demanded of him and delivers.
Delivering is what it’s all about for a B-movie like Trap. There’s a version of this that’s made by a director with half the talent and stars Gerard Butler, and frankly, I’d have loved that movie, too. But Shyamalan is several steps above. He understands intuitively what to do with the camera, with editing, with sound. He pushes the audience to places that will have them guffawing while sitting on the edge of their seats. He’s a great showman, in part because he understands what makes people tick. I’ll often see critics complain about the silly dialogue (and even sillier character names) in his movies, particularly the most recent ones. I don’t like to say “they don’t get it,” but they don’t. Shyamalan is making movies here—MOOOVIES, as Vin Diesel might say—and realism isn’t the point. The dialogue is always functional and revealing of character. The fact that no kid uses the word “crispy” as slang doesn’t make any difference when Hartnett tries to impress his daughter by showily throwing it into conversation.
Speaking of impressing his daughter. Shyamalan has made it real clear this year that he’s a father of daughters. Earlier this summer, he produced his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature The Watchers. In Trap, he casts his musician daughter Saleka as the pop star hilariously named Lady Raven. M. Night’s cameo in the film, which earned applause at my screening, plays up the family connection. He’s a man deeply proud of his daughters, and he wants to show them off to the world. He also clearly wants to seem cool to them, which is part of what Trap is all about. That and the genuine fear that despite all your efforts, you might be a bad dad.
Which is why I’ll end my comments on the movie by sharing this super funny and adorable video of Saleka asking Hartnett and her dad questions about herself.
Reading, Watching, Listening
Evil is finishing up its fourth and final season. The show was cancelled, despite being reasonably successful, but thankfully Paramount gave creators Robert and Michelle King an extra four episodes to tie up the story. If you’ve never seen it, the show is about a team of “assessors” made up of a forensic psychologist, a paranormal debunker and a Catholic priest, who work for the Church, assessing cases of potential demonic possession. That description, though, barely covers what the show gets up to, or its delightfully deranged tone, or why it’s actually the best show on TV. The first of those final four episodes premiered yesterday, and yeah, best show on TV is right. The show might be a little too weird (and sometimes too scary) for many out there, but damn, you should give it a try.
Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso got a shoutout in my post yesterday about Annie Baker’s new film Janet Planet, but I wanted to share that interview with Bake again here, because it’s just that good. Fragoso is a great interviewer, and one of his talents is pushing his subjects up against the very form of the interview itself, and here Baker breaks through the wall, bringing attention to the structure of the interview itself, and in the process opens it up to something even deeper than I imagine the host could have anticipated. It’s an excellent conversation about the artistic process and our relationship to ourselves. Give it a listen, and subscribe to Sam’s podcast!
See you all next week!