Glass Onion, Triangle of Sadness, and good for M3GAN

Avoid luxury cruises/islands, plus people love the dancing, yassified Chucky doll

and

Jan 10, 2023

Hello!

On this week’s episode of Criticism Is Dead, we discuss Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Triangle of Sadness, two films that beat us over the head with cynicism about money and power.

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02:01 Glass Onion, streaming on Netflix, is neither outstanding nor terrible, but basically akin to a fine or even fun Scooby-Doo mystery.

First off, don’t listen to the haters/lovers who despise/rave about this film in (less than) equal measure because of the weakness/strength of its supposed flavor of class politics. Don’t get it twisted—Rian Johnson’s latest Benoit Blanc adventure is not really about class at all, so much as it is about the exchange of currency, in both figurative and literal senses.

But mostly, it’s just a bombastic, unserious romp with an all-star cast, which is all you need sometimes. To be clear, we both had a nice old time watching this film, although I must admit some personal disappointment at how “dumb” everything turned out to be — not “so dumb, it’s brilliant,” but, ultimately, “just dumb.” I get that that’s the point, but I just don’t think it’s one that I care to be spoonfed.

20:06 Triangle of Sadness, available VOD, is blunt, vulgar, and chaotic — and very good.

If you can get over a few instances of toilet humor (literally) and an apparently polarized critical reception, Triangle of Sadness is actually a great film. It’s not at all subtle about any of its interests — class, gender, and more — but that doesn’t detract from how successfully it fleshes out those threads with escalating, gleeful mayhem. The third act is by far the best, featuring some fantastic performances, a sense of humor, and a genuinely interesting ending. Certainly more worth watching than some other films in this genre!

P.S. This is the Polygon interview with Dolly de Leon, who plays Abigail, that I mention in the episode.

37:33 Plus, culture notes about M3GAN the doll and M3GAN the film’s viral fame.

“a camp horror icon in the making” per Vox

Bonus etc.

… is currently not available, give me a break, it’s rough coming back to a new year 🥲

Thank you and see you next week!

— Jenny

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Inquiries, complaints, and recs for what to watch can go to criticismisdead@gmail.com.

Some credits:

Music: REEKAH
Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu

Criticism Is Dead