Tag: commentary
Mr. Saitou is a heartfelt commentary on the absurdities of business
Japan’s brutal working culture isn’t exactly a secret. You’ve probably heard the horror stories, or at least, got the general gist that success in Japanese business often equates to time. You don’t necessarily need to be doing work, you just need to be present as the clock hands shift. A hard worker is reduced to a statue that only springs to life again when their boss gets up to leave.
Mr. Saitou is a short pixel art RPG that offers a hilarious commentary on the absurdities of working culture in Japan, with occasional flashes of seriousness. Completable in one sitting, it’s a game I’d recommend to anyone.
10 things we learned from Rian Johnson’s ‘Glass Onion’ director’s commentary
Can’t get enough of Benoit Blanc and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery? Then you’re in luck, because Netflix has released a director’s commentary track for the film, where Rian Johnson dishes on how the film was made.
One important note: Netflix doesn’t release commentary tracks on their platform. Instead, they release them as a podcast. To listen to Johnson’s commentary, go to wherever you listen to podcasts and find Netflix’s Watching With… episode about Glass Onion. The podcast will tell you when to press play on the movie itself.
Johnson’s commentary is a great look into the secrets of Glass Onion, from dissections of the movie’s craftsmanship to smaller details you may have missed on first viewing. Here are 10 fascinating things we learned from the Glass Onion commentary track — although trust us, there’s way more where this came from. (And just in case you’re reading this before watching the film for some reason, consider yourself spoiler-warned.)
1. Rian Johnson has an unexpected cameo in Glass Onion.
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Glass Onion is full of all-star cameos, including ones from longtime Johnson collaborators Noah Segan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. But perhaps the most surprising cameo is a brief appearance from Johnson himself — specifically, from his hand. When Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) decides to use Jeremy Renner’s hot sauce to make it look like Helen (Janelle Monáe) has been shot, we get a close up of his hand holding the bottle. Except it isn’t Craig’s hand, it’s Johnson’s!
“We did a little reshoot because I wanted a very specific reveal of ‘Renning Hot,'” Johnson explained. “So apologies, Daniel, that’s me.”
2. What were some of Glass Onion‘s deleted scenes?
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix
Curious about Glass Onion scenes that didn’t make the final cut? Johnson’s got you covered. Throughout the commentary, he mentions a variety of deleted scenes, such as Birdie (Kate Hudson) reading to children in a library in such an inappropriate manner that she gets even more canceled. There was also a sequence in which Birdie and Peg (Jessica Henwick) almost run into Benoit and Helen before arriving on the island, in which case their plot to catch Andi’s killer would have been foiled.
Johnson revealed that he almost cut the brief scene in which Jeremy Renner’s hot sauce, standing in for blood, almost drips into Helen’s nose while she’s playing dead. However, when he saw audience’s reactions to the suspenseful moment in preview screenings, he admitted that he was glad he’d kept it in.
3. Helen originally had kids in Glass Onion.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix
Initially, the section of Glass Onion we experience from Helen’s point of view featured a subplot that centered on Helen’s children. “There was kind of a runner [where] she would be investigating and having to juggle these calls from her kids,” said Johnson. One of the calls would have dealt with an emergency in which Helen’s daughter freaked out that her poop had turned blue because she’d eaten too many blueberry Pop Tarts.
“We had that in there because [we were] trying to add another element in there of the audience liking Helen,” said Johnson. “We realized they were on Helen’s side, we didn’t need it, so we took it out for pacing purposes. And I think it worked better without it.”
4. Johnson offers a deep dive into Glass Onion‘s whodunnit influences.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix
Glass Onion pays tribute to whodunnits like the original Death on the Nile and The Last of Sheila — for example, Angela Lansbury, star of the former, and Stephen Sondheim, co-writer of the latter, both have cameos in the film. In his commentary, Johnson also points out how Death on the Nile‘s score served as a starting point for composer Nathan Johnson, and how Andi’s role as a “fly in the ointment” of a vacation in the first half of the movie parallels Jacqueline De Bellefort’s (Mia Farrow) part in Death on the Nile.
Even the hourly “dong” (voiced by Gordon-Levitt) has its roots in whodunnits — specifically, the “noonday gun” in Evil Under the Sun.
5. Miles Bron has a murder tracksuit.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix
When Miles Bron (Edward Norton) learns that Andi has evidence that could destroy, he’s wearing a blue tracksuit. When he drives to her house to kill her, he’s wearing a black tracksuit. Ergo, he changed into a special tracksuit for the occasion — a “murder tracksuit,” as Johnson called it. Sure, this is a small detail, but it makes a hilarious amount of sense. Of course Miles would change into a stealthy black tracksuit to commit a crime.
6. “Eat the rich” is not the main point of Knives Out or Glass Onion.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix
While both Benoit Blanc mysteries so far have dealt with satirizing extremely wealthy, out of touch suspects — the Thrombeys in Knives Out and the disruptors in Glass Onion — Johnson pushed back against the notion that these films are solely about taking down the rich.
“To me, it’s not very interesting, the notion that rich people are jerks,” he said during a scene that sees Miles’s friends back him up even though they know he is a murderer. “To me, the interesting thing about this is what we see playing out here: the notion of the power structure — not globally, in terms of the rich up top, although that’s certainly there, but I’m talking about within groups of people. In the first movie, it was a family, in this movie, a group of friends. The notion that there’s this unhealthy power structure that’s in place, and what people who may even have good intentions will do in order to protect that structure if they’re benefiting from it, and what it takes to break that structure — that, to me, is actually so much more interesting than the notion of just something as simple as ‘Eat the rich.'”
7. Every clue in Glass Onion is hidden in plain sight.
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Something Johnson stressed throughout the director’s commentary is that Glass Onion “plays fair.” Everything related to the mystery, we watch happen. We can see Miles holding Duke’s (Dave Bautista) gun and switching his glass. Later, we can see him take Duke’s phone. There are so many other tiny moments like this that you can only catch on rewatch, or with Johnson pointing them out. The director’s commentary also allows Johnson to explain some of the smaller red herrings, and how the film distracts the audience enough to the point that they don’t notice these crucial details.
8. Glass Onion is full of treats for musical theater fans.
Credit: John Wilson/Netflix
Not only does Glass Onion feature a cameo from the late musical mastermind Stephen Sondheim, it also contains several references to his musical Merrily We Roll Along, which Johnson described as being “about a group of friends [that] rots.” Sound like any group of disruptive friends we might know of?
Johnson — a noted musical theater fan — listened to Merrily We Roll Along while writing Glass Onion. Some lyrics found their way into dialogue, like when Claire (Kathryn Hahn) brutally tells Helen life isn’t fair. “Now you know!” she spits, a reference to Merrily We Roll Along‘s song of the same name. Plus, if you look behind Philip (Hugh Grant) when he opens the door to his and Benoit’s apartment, you can catch the poster to Merrily We Roll Along in the background.
9. Glass Onion stars a SpaceX employee.
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Tech bro Miles Bron has been compared repeatedly to Elon Musk, a connection Johnson has called an accident. However, if you want another Musk-Bron connection, look no further than the film’s opening montage. When we meet scientist Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), he is on a video call with other members of Miles’s company Alpha — a company that could be likened to Musk ventures like Tesla or SpaceX. Johnson revealed that the Alpha employees on the call were played by his friends… including one who works for SpaceX. Looks like Miles isn’t shaking the Elon comparisons any time soon.
10. The glass sculptures in Miles Bron’s house are Beatles Easter eggs.
Credit: A man hides in a collection of glass sculptures on pedestals.
Between being named after a Beatles song to having Miles play “Blackbird” on guitar, Glass Onion is quite a Beatles-centric movie. That Beatles motif extends to Miles’s art collection, and specifically the many glass sculptures he has on pedestals throughout his main room. Johnson points out how several of these pieces tie to the Beatles: We can see a walrus from Magical Mystery Tour and a cluster of strawberries for “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Even the button controlling the Mona Lisa’s security system — shaped like a jester on a small hill — is a reference to “The Fool on the Hill.” The devil is truly in the details.
For more Glass Onion facts, listen to Johnson’s commentary track wherever you get your podcasts.
Glass Onion gets a director’s commentary on Netflix
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Linktree, a ‘link-in-bio’ social media tool with 1.5bn monthly unique visits with users including Harry Styles and TikTok, has announced…
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FIFA 23 Will Let You Disable Commentary Criticizing Your Play
Event Horizon: 19 Things We Learned From The Audio Commentary
One of the best sci-fi horror movies Event Horizon premiered in theaters on August 15, 1997. Now, 25 years later, it remains a terrifying film and one of the better horror movies of the late ’90s. To celebrate its anniversary, Event Horizon has been rereleased with a Steelbook Edition in 4K UHD.
While the release is brand-new, there’s nothing new to the special edition outside of the ultra high definition transfer of the film. Plus, it’s just a very pretty package for a great movie. However, there are features from previous releases to dig back into. And that includes audio commentary from director Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt.
So digging into the commentary, we found 19 things we didn’t know about the movie that was revealed during the commentary for Event Horizon. Check out everything we learned below.
If you’re interested in Event Horizon 4K UHD, it costs $28 and you can pick it up at Best Buy –it’s available on Amazon too, but through secondary sellers. The special features consist of the previously mentioned audio commentary, five “Making of” documentaries, deleted scenes, and various other featurettes.
For more movie and TV show lists, check out some must-watch comedy TV shows on HBO Max, the worst ’80s kids movies, and the best anime of 2022 to stream right now. Additionally, learn how Event Horizon influenced Destiny 2’s Season of the Haunted.
1. This was Anderson’s Mortal Kombat followup
Anderson got a hold of the script right after he finished Mortal Kombat, which was doing well in theaters. He felt it was a good depiction of space and a good haunted house movie rolled into one.
2. The design of the Event Horizon is surprising
The ship was based on Notre Dame cathedral, in Paris. It was scanned into a computer and rendered, and they designed a ship based on some of the elements from the building.
3. The book that floats by
When we see a book floating by the camera inside The Event Horizon, it’s actually Paul Anderson: A Life, the director’s autobiography. No, the book doesn’t exist. We wish it did, though. Who doesn’t want to read the (we assume) 10 chapters about the Resident Evil movie franchise?
4. Only one person here
Sam Neil is the only person in this shot. Everyone else in the tanks are actually dummies. We mean mannequins, as this is not a discussion about their intelligence. That being said, mannequins have no intelligence, so they’re dummies on multiple levels.
5. It’s a cheap scare
Anderson notes that it’s a very cheap scare when the bunk door quickly opens during Weir’s (Sam Neill) dream sequence. However, there are very few in the script, so they felt like they had to add some, while still steering away from too many false scares.
6. The wormhole explanation
They were worried about the scene where Weir explains to the crew how a wormhole works because it’s a lot of dialogue and could have slowed down the pacing. However, Anderson considers it the highlight of the movie. “Great work by screenwriter Phillip Eisner,” the director said during the commentary. They told him to come up with a simple way to talk about it, that’s what Eisner came up with.
7. How the gravity boots came about
According to Anderson, the wirework in the movie took so long to create the zero gravity look, and he thought it looked so bad that they had to cut back on it. They couldn’t make the movie with as much zero gravity as they wanted. So the gravity boots were created to make it a little easier to film.
8. Inspired by Universal Studios
The corridor headed toward the core was inspired by the ice tunnel on the studio tour at Universal Studios, which Bolt explained he saw on an episode of $6 Million Man. Dante’s Peak ride also had that tube. The Anderson and Bolt said it felt like a haunted house so they used something similar for the film.
9. Gyroscopic core
The third containment was practical. It was a complicated piece of construction that had to move, but it was well built and never broke down during filming. There was a shot in reverse showing it stop. It was inspired by the cube from Hellraiser, according to Bolt, in the way it realigned itself.
10. Camera movement
Because people were on rigs and in the small space of the ship, Anderson tried to use a lot of camera movement. Additionally, it added a feeling of confusion, something Anderson wanted the audience to feel–as that’s what the characters were going through.
11. Exploding corpse
When the gravity in the Event Horizon comes back on, a corpse that’s frozen hits the floor and crumbles into human flesh cubes. The first time they did a take of the exploding corpse, the person who made the frozen corpse–Bob Keen–baked a Barbie into the center as a joke, so when it broke, a Barbie popped out.
12. Inspired by Alien
Anderson explains that the well-defined characters in this movie were inspired by Alien. Everyone has a distinct personality and characteristics, much like how the crew in Alien very much felt individuals, not just cannon fodder for the Xenomorph.
13. Anderson turned down X-Men for this
Coming off of Mortal Kombat, Anderson explained he didn’t want to do another PG-13 movie, and turned down X-Men to do Event Horizon. He wanted to do something darker. X-Men eventually went to Bryan Singer and was released in 2000.
14. The crew is futuristic Coast Guard
The crew on this rescue mission to the Event Horizon are essentially in the futuristic version of the Coast Guard, according to Anderson. They went from guarding the waters to guarding space. In an early draft of the script, everyone had handguns on them. It didn’t make sense to Anderson, so they got rid of the guns–except for the nailgun at the end.
15. Fire extinguishers
All of this smoke you see here in the final action scene is fire extinguishers being fired off camera.
16. This isn’t exciting enough
According to Anderson, this final scene isn’t as exciting as it should be. This was because of time constraints, and Anderson gives it a 6/10.
17. Something else Anderson doesn’t like
He wasn’t a fan of the talking computer and wishes they didn’t use it. They needed it to “juice up the pacing” and to remind the audience there is a ticking clock.
18. There’s a reason for the rescue ship shadow
They couldn’t afford to build another model for the rescue ship, so they used a shadow over the ship being rescued in order to leave it up to the audience’s imagination.
19. Closing music
Before The Prodigy made it big, Anderson and Bolt wanted their music in the movie, so they had The Prodigy come do a set visit. Three weeks after Event Horizon came out, their album Fat of the Land became a huge hit in the US.