At this point it's a fairly well-known joke that M. Night Shyamalan 's movie formula concludes with some sort of mind-bending, life-altering " twist " at the end of each film. While this joke (like any stereotype or cliche) is grounded in truth, it completely over-looks Shyamalan's skill as a story-teller. Let me pause here while many of you become riled up. I'm not, by any means, saying that Shyamalan is the best director. I'm also not saying that you need to like his movies. What I am saying is that he has immense talent for crafting a story. There are few writers out there in Hollywood who are as accomplished as Shyamalan. Throughout each of his movies, there are clues and hints and layers of subtext that he communicates both visually and through carefully structured dialog. Seriously. Like the plots or not, he is a great writer. When Shyamalan became a known entity in Hollywood, the other major component of his films (aside from the twist) wa...
these are movie musings for snarky movie nerds. there's always spoilers.