a review of 分裂

#26: Split (now in theaters) I came very close to letting this one go like I did with The Visit (which I may need to stick in my queue now) because I was still skeptical of the rumored Shyamalanaissance, but I'm glad I saw this one. And I'm also very glad that the internet cooperated and didn't tell me *anything* about the film beyond the basic premise before I went in. That's all I'm going to say on a plot level, because I think it works best if you don't get to pre-digest anything beforehand. I will say that structurally, familiarity with Shyamalan's better, earlier films is a plus. The only thing that I will add: Even though on balance I liked the film quite a bit, I (as well as a lot of other people I'm seeing) was troubled by film's handling of mental illness, physical/sexual abuse, and self-harm. My star rating below reflects this, as I docked it a star for this aspect alone. It wasn't an absolute deal-breaker for me because (and this may be treading close to spoiler territory) the film does take place in a cinematically heightened reality. But I still really hope that people don't internalize certain plot points in a wrongly stigmatizing or unhealthily validating way. That said, I strongly recommend this and encourage people to see it, and keep an open mind about Shyamalan as a writer/director in the future. I'm really curious to see if this was just a fluke, or maybe an encouraging sign that he's finally hacked his way out of the weeds.