Director: Jordan Peele
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener
Have I Seen it Before: Yep.
Did I Like It: Double yep.
I don’t know if it’s worth having a discussion of diversity in film in the context of a review, but if it ever would be, this would be the film in which to have that conversation. Some might complain about increases in representation. I do not understand these people, and find no other explanation for their attitudes than some degree of prejudice. Truly, a diversification of the types of stories we are exposed to only increases variety. How many more horror movies do we need to see with white guys at the center of the goings on? John Carpenter already mastered that. Let’s try something new.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest…
Peele brings every skill to bear that he harnessed in giving Key and Peele a cinematic literacy that one would not expect from a sketch comedy show. While the playing with tension and thriller tropes in this film put him in serious contention as the next Alfred Hitchcock, he now may be angling for being the second coming of Rod Serling, balancing on the line between those two lofty peaks is a worthy endeavor, and Peele is accomplishing the task with an astonishing level of skill. That he has this innate level of talent at the beginning of his feature career hints that we may have already been robbed of years of terrific films. Assuming that he continues to build on those skills in ways that I can’t at this point wrap my head around, promises that we will have a number of years of even greater films left to enjoy.
The more I gush or try to deeply think about this film, the more I start sounding like Dean Armitage (Whitford, channeling just enough of Josh Lyman to keep me eternally unsettled), so I almost wonder if I should keep this simple. This is brilliant, thoughtful, thrilling film executed with profound skill. If you’ve seen it before and loved it, it only gets better with repeat viewing. If you haven’t seen it, you should rectify your error. If you saw it, and weren’t on board with the film, you may need to re-think your life far more aggressively.