THE DANMAN CAN

While I appreciate that Nia DaCosta 's  Candyman (2021) is not simply a rehash, reboot, requel, whatever of the 1992 original  ( review ), it is unfortunately a convoluted, heavy-handed mess of ideas (with a particularly sloppy, out-of-left-field ending). The score is great, much of the imagery is well done, and most of the performances are fine, but writer/co-producer  Jordan Peele 's script lacks cohesion (which is unfortunately the same issue I had with his last two films as director,  Us  (2019) ( review ) and  Nope   (2022) ( review )). I didn't find this confection particularly sweet.

Jordan Peele 's latest, Nope (2022), plays in the same willfully obtuse sandbox as David Lynch , only this attempt at an art film wrapped in a blockbuster shell never quite congealed for this viewer. There are lots of ideas thrown onscreen, but the film is overlong and repetitive. There’s some wonky camerawork and editing, and the characters feel underdeveloped. I wasn’t into a lot of the line delivery, there's too much of the creature, I couldn't get into the creature design, and only a few scenes had palpable tension.  Nope felt like another attempt at blending modern with that ‘80s  Spielberg  magic but the sense of wonder was missing. All that said, I liked the score, Daniel Kaluuya was mostly very good, and casting Keith David as his dad was inspired (although he had far too little screen time). I didn't love Peele's sophomore film  Us  (2019) ( review ) either, but I still think he's an interesting (if overhyped) filmmaker that I hope will make more per...

For his sophomore effort director Jordan Peele has delivered us Us  (2019), a well-made and thoughtful but ultimately overhyped horror film. That's coming from someone who loved Peele's first film, Get Out  (2017), on both the first and second viewings. That film was quite hyped as well but I felt it delivered in ways that Us  does not. Honestly though, I'm still processing Us  and I feel like I need a second viewing to form a better opinion. Here's my thoughts after the initial one... Without getting into plot mechanics or specifics, Us  is undoubtedly a more ambitious film than Get Out . It's also more muddled because of this though. The themes explored—doppelgängers, nature vs. nurture, the ambiguity of good and evil, cyclicity—are all intriguing, but the plot and characters feel underdeveloped as a whole (even in a film where I felt the running time dragged a bit). I also found some of the technical aspects to be lacking—murky shots, poorly filmed ...

On "Take 2" I think just a tiny bit of steam was taken out of  Get Out   (2017),  Jordan Peele 's mashup of  Rosemary's Baby   (1968)   &  The Stepford Wives  (1975) (with hints of  Kubrick ,  Cronenberg  and  Carpenter ), as told from the Black perspective. Minor quibbles about backstory, character development and direction aside, it's still one of the best horror films in some time and one of the best films of the year, as well as an important and historic film for both the horror genre and film in general.

With Get Out   (2017),  Jordan Peele delivers a mashup of Rosemary's Baby   (1968) &  The Stepford Wives  (1975) with hints of Kubrick , Cronenberg and Carpenter , as told from the Black perspective.