For two hours, you will forget how to breathe

Rating: 10/10 (20 April 2017)

Split is a film directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars James McAvoy as this man with 23 personalities who kidnaps these young girls and they try to escape. Shyamalan's career is quite a story. With his first few movies ("The Sixth Sense", "Unbreakable"...), he was hailed as the new Spielberg and had a bright future. Then, all of the sudden, he starts releasing some bad, bad movies ("The Happening", "The Last Airbender"...). Then he redeemed himself with 2015's The Visit which was quite a refreshing thing for the found footage genre and it took everyone by surprise. That gave a bit more hope for this one when it was getting released. And now we can finally safely say that Shyamalan is back on track!
I've always liked Shyamalan as a director. He had some horrible movies, but still, he was one of the only ones who mostly had original stories and ideas with movies and that alone makes me respect him. I expected this to be good, but it took me off guards. It's his best since "The Sixth Sense" and I'd even go as far to say that it's even better. It has a small opening scene and then it throws you straight into action to assure that you're following. Then, after that, you get to know the backstories and characters little by little. And each new reveal, pumps up the anxiety of this film. From the first few minutes, Shyamalan assures that he has our attention and the feeling of uneasiness grows throughout the movie. Visually, the film looks beautiful and cinematography is fantastic. But even though everything impressed me about this film, there's one more particular thing that blew me away and that's James McAvoy. He has to get recognition on the next awards season. It would be a crime if he got snubbed. Let's just hope he doesn't get overshadowed by someone who got a certain accent right or who perfectly portrayed a mental breakdown in one scene because McAvoy does it all here. He was incredible and boosted up the creepiness in some scenes. The rest of the cast is pretty good too, but all of them are overshadowed by McAvoy. And also, you might know Shyamalan is known for twist endings. Trust me, you WON'T see this one coming.
I have no flaws with this film. I loved absolutely everything about it. It's for now my favorite movie of 2017 and it's likely to stay that way. But, you never know.