The Many Layers of Glass Onion - Movies with Mikey

The mystery of Glass Onion is hiding in plain sight. Mikey peels back the layers of this film and discusses what The Beatles have to do with FTX and why art is dead on this episode of Movies with Mikey.

0:00 Intro
3:46 Layer One: Craft Beyond the Surprise
8:00 A plea for support
10:07 Layer Two: The Last Of...
14:48 Layer Three: Games
17:55 Layer Four: The Hole in the Ocean
20:43 Layer Five: Art is Dead, Long Live FTX
24:22 Layer Six: Real Life
27:27 Layer Seven: The Middle of the Onion
32:46 Credits

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The latest MwM is already out on Nebula! It's about Matt Reeve's 2022 film The Batman and how Batman needs villains.

Hello! We are Mikey and Teara and we run Filmjoy. We love to watch TV and movies and talk about why they’re art. We occasionally play some games too.
Movies with Mikey is a positive look at film criticism through the eyes of someone who loves movies to an unhealthy degree.

Music:
Opening Titles:
Music sampled from Open Up Your Love by The Whispers

[sabitsuita]

"Absurdist art can no longer keep up with reality" is a line that goes to friggin hard

[MoonFlower]

Fun fact: the Mona Lisa wasn't very well known until it was stolen. After the painting was stolen, an art critic wrote about the piece and talked about her mysterious smile. Everyone was super interested all the sudden and when the painting was found, everyone wanted to see it. Art historians don't really think of it as Leonardo da Vinci's greatest work of all time. In fact, it was never finished. However, it has certainly had an affect on modern culture and our perception of art.

[BrienBellJTS]

“Stop following rich idiots, they’ll get you killed” is maybe the defining quote of our generation. Or any generation.

Thanks Mikey and Tara for all you do!

[gayahithwen]

The victim's name is Cassandra Brand, not Sandra. The name is a specific reference to someone who speaks the truth but isn't heard and/or believed. Like Cassandra in Greek mythology. You can see her actual name on screen in this video, at 16:36. And when she shortens it, she goes by Andy, not Sandra.

[spencer]

This movie made me realize how easily I'll buy into someone being an incredible genius even when it's very obvious they aren't. Especially if the person is rich and powerful it's so easy to slip into thinking, "Well there must be a good reason for them to be rich and powerful, " even when Edward Norton is using all his acting powers to make me think his character is an obnoxious ass.

Then I saw your reveal about the napkin and realized I made the same mistake twice in one movie.

[Ocker]

The costumes are so obviously right for the characters (I remember noticing that the influencer's bikini was just a touch too small, a clear choice), that you don't even notice them unless you look, genius level work

[brookb]

FINALLY SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT HOW THE NAPKIN IS JUST MORE NONSENSE 🤣

I paused the movie toward the end when I was watching it with my family and burst out laughing and they were all confused and I was like read the napkin. And they still didn't get it so I had to explain that there's NOTHING AT THE CENTER OF THE ONION. That's the whole point. It was nothing but drunken scribbles featuring investor buzzwords. The mountain they stand on is made of sand. It's so, soooo good.

I love this film and I love your analysis of it. Honestly, I would watch another three hours of this. I was like "ohh that was a good intro" only to realize I was 28 minutes into a 30 minute video.

So glad you're on Nebula! I can't afford to subscribe to everyone's patreons, but I do subscribe to Nebula to do what little I can. I hope you're able to keep the lights on! Your work is incredible!

[Michael_Raymond]

I'm still upset that Benoit's problem with Clue is just "it's dumb" and not the more thematically appropriate "guessing randomly does not make you a good detective". This movie was a Clue game where someone guessed right on the first turn and everyone thought it was a mistake so they ruled it out and ended up eliminating every other possibility before they realized their mistake was dismissing the first guess.

[weeesssa]

I've inhaled every think piece on Glass Onion but I haven't seen anyone explicitly mention that Birdie's stupid mesh mask is a direct Lana del Rey reference. It's not a huge thing, but it really stuck out to me as a perfect moment of character work. I'm surprised it's flown so far under the radar.

[sydposting]

Allow me to go one level further re: what Alpha is and what it does. Lionel mentions that their "Crypto Kids" app made Alpha a ton of money - Miles "Child = NFT" fax - which I can bet was not too dissimilar to how grifters use cartoony NFT's and "loot box" gambling to exploit children (and their parents' wallets) with very little effort. That being said, in the flashback scene where Andi creates The Napkin, David Bowie's "Starman" is playing in the background, and the dialogue cuts out to show off some *very* specific lyrics: "Let the children lose it / Let the children use it / Let the children boogie." A crypto-based company like Alpha was always going to end up here.

Speaking of Lionel, one of my favorite details is his wishbone-shaped lapel pin. A wishbone is only lucky if it's broken, but Lionel doesn't break anything. I love this movie so much, it's almost replaced Hot Fuzz as my Desert Island Movie in terms of the things I catch with every rewatch.

I got a Nebula subscription through one of your past videos and was unaware of your merch store! I don't have a Patreon account, so I'm glad to have another avenue to support you. I've been a fan for many years, and no matter how long this gig lasts, I'm happy it existed. I recently introduced my dad to your series through the Interstellar essay (it's his favorite movie) and now whenever we get together and try to think of something to watch, he often asks "How about a video from that 'But did you knowww?' guy?" 🥰

[fartzinwind]

This movie introduced my new most favoritest but equal to my other most favoritest useless character in a movie ever. My original favorite useless character in a movie ever was the guy locked in the dungeon clapping along during Camelot scene of Monty Python and the holy Grail. Now equal to him although he does have more screen time is the equally useless dude on the beach. We are told he has nothing to do with anything and I absolutely love that they stayed true to that he didn't have a damn thing to do with anything

[Gabriel_Oliver]

Over here in the UK I just woke up. And honestly this is better than waking up next to anything else.

[dyingbreath]

Brilliant breakdown. The film to me expressed just how much we allow people who "made it" a greater weight to their thoughts. So many things in the film were just straight up wrong, but the characters believed it because why would someone lie about that. Even though they do all the time. I also think the scene with Helen not caring about the perception and destroying the box was hilarious.

[RothAnim]

"...as the actors nail six pieces of ham to the wall" had to pause and comment there I was laughing so hard. Well played!
(Edit though: I wonder who else realizes the "Miracle Mist" was almost certainly a placebo? The only reason we expect it to be anything else is because we expect Miles to be a genius. It was snake-oil with nothing more than an assurance of "You're good". )

[LiveHedgehog]

I'm wondering if the fact that the Mona Lisa in the film is obviously not the real one (way too big) is purposeful.
As in Miles doesn't realise he paid millions for a fake. And then his whole island blows up and he becomes a laughing stock because he's so distraught at destroying something which anyone with any knowledge of the Mona Lisa knows is a fake.

[marksutter]

When I first watched it, I was like "that was okay I guess." But the movie stuck with me for days as I dug deeper into the many layers. It's incredible.

[aaronbrrrrr]

I saw this a month ago on Nebula, but watching it again today makes me want to go back and rewatch this movie AGAIN. How insight, such nuance. Kudos Mikey!

[xliquidflames]

Now I have to watch Glass Onion again. There's so much more to it than I got the first time around. What an awesome video.

Speaking of which...
If I weren't on disability and could afford it, I'd totally support you guys. This is the best movie channel on YouTube. I hope you guys get enough help to keep going. I would miss you. Thanks to everyone who _does_ support the channel. You're also making it so I get to enjoy these videos for free.

[allisonbergh]

Interesting thing I had coincidentally just learned: in 1966 Sondheim and Perkins had made another weird piece of entertainment: Evening Primrose. A made-for-tv short musical about people living in a department store. I had known that part before. The new part (to me) was that Sondheim and Perkins were likely A Thing at the time. Now learning that they wrote a movie together 7 years later makes me wonder how much of A Thing they were, ‘cause that’s quite a long time in Hollywood years

Also, loved the use of “Pinball Wizard”, Mikey

[Rreinholdt]

Hey Tara & Mikey thank you so much for this amazing video, you guys never seize to amaze and entertain in equal badassness parts. It's 2:30 am in Los Angeles, my partner and I called out from our jobs today and just spent 12 hours in our car delivering groceries in Hollywood hills to be able to have our rent check clear tomorrow and I'm tired... Not only because we are the lucky ones that even have a side gig and have a car, not only because everywhere you see human beings without anything living on the street, but especially because of the places and people we delivered to today, I swear people with actual spaces like these charectures in this movie picture show inhabit. I'm tired of this and all THAT was to say thank you guys for this, as my angry ramblings might have given away ever so slightly, I (curse word) needed this.