#JustaQuickiePlease: Split Review

After a series of dismal failures, the once hailed, modern Hitchcockian director, M. Night Shyamalan is back doing what he does best, crafting edgy, compelling, and disturbing suspense thrillers.  His first small step on the road to this recovery was The Visit with its stellar performances, twisted script, and indie feel.  He follows that success up with this incredibly imaginative, disconcertingly ominous, and purposefully claustrophobic examination of abuse, societal and self-ostracization, mental illness, and, eventually, survival.  McAvoy is a true thespian.  His performance is sheer genius and entirely believable.  Anya Taylor Joy (Morgan) is perfectly cast as the outcast desperately trying to avoid society because of a gut-wrenching trauma.  The remaining cast is solid, not outstanding, but they flesh out their respective roles effectively enough.  Shyamalan forces the audience to face some seriously dark issues, just as much as McAvoy's conflicted character does to his hapless hostages.  And, as cliched as this may sound regarding this particular director, it has the best twist of his entire cinematic career.  In the end, this is a story of becoming; evolving based on multiple factors and the accountability to the choices made during that metamorphosis.  Pain, internalized, that mercilessly presses one soul to rise as a hero while another falls deeper into a horrific madness.  4 out of 5 Kernels: All the signs show that this film will become an unbreakable compliment to this director's resume, and it doesn't take a sixth sense to realize that.