Glass Onion

A few years ago, it seemed like Daniel Craig was certain to be remembered as a guy who played James Bond. Maybe that still holds, but a couple more of these films—we're at three as of this writing—and it may no longer be a sure thing. His Benoit Blanc is arguably a more memorable character, and you can’t deny that it is a persona that is truly Craig’s own, rather than a borrowed or inherited legacy. It helps, too, that these Knives Out movies are good, entertaining, fun and funny, and blessed with a lot of current (at least) cultural currency. In this edition, the story works well, and the cast and setting have plenty of interesting facets (though here the collected characters border on caricature). The fly in this ointment lies in the focus on—and critique of—the ultra rich and their natures. The view has merit and the parody pulls few punches, but it means spending a lot of time with some really unpleasant characters, even if just representations thereof. That aspect of the story does get a bit distracting, one might say…though one can argue the critique is not so much a distraction as the point of the presentation in the first place. I guess it depends on how much you care about the mystery aspect of a mystery, versus character, setting and mood. Me, I’m not so much on the whodunnit angle, so my viewing mind tends to shift towards the other story elements. It works here, though I’m not sure it would in every story. As it is, you can just focus on Craig and let him be your guide to a decent way to kill a couple of hours. I guess this movie doesn’t exactly shatter any expectations, but the fact that it works overall is crystal clear. 

Hidden Figures

That space race stuff never gets old. Throw in a bit of civil rights action to go along with it, and there's a chance you might start feeling good about this country again. The best part here is the performance of Taraji P. Henson, who so often plays characters with a hard edge; in this case, she shows a vulnerability and charm that amplifies the intelligence and worthiness of her Katherine G. Johnson. Octavia Spencer portrays Dorothy Vaughan well enough, and Janelle Monae is strong as Mary Jackson in a piece of the story that gets somewhat short shrift in this narrative. Much of the action centers on indignities great and small, so it's somewhat amazing that there's enough "overcoming" to make this ultimately and uplifting picture. It makes you wonder what human resources are currently being forced into unproductivity through cultural blindness. Definitely worth a look, and worth thinking about.