Netflix And Chill: Wendell & Wild (2022)

Another stop-motion animated movie from director Henry Selick (who also helmed such greats as The Nightmare Before Christmas, James And The Giant Peach, and Coraline, as well as Monkeybone . . . but we don't mention Monkeybone), Wendell & Wild feels a step removed from his previous features thanks to a more diverse cast and an excuse to reunite Key and Peele onscreen (even if it's only in voice form, of course). Unfortunately, it's also not as good as most of the titles I just mentioned (except Monkeybone . . . but we don't mention Monkeybone).

Kat is a troubled teen, having blamed herself for years for the death of her parents. Moving from one place to the next, with trouble often not far away, Kat finally ends up at a school very close to the small town where she used to live in happier times. Wanting nothing more than her parents brought back to life, Kat ends up being tricked by two demons, Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele), who want to enter the world of the living and try out their plan to raise the dead with some very powerful hair restorer. There's also a pair of schemers trying to keep their part in a deadly chapter in history hidden, which could become tougher when the dead start to rise, and Kat may find herself equally in danger from the undead and the living.

I'm not sure why this doesn't work as well as other Selick features, but it seems to lack something truly magical and impressive. The detailing is often as lovely as you'd expect, but there also seems to be no connective tissue between the land of the living and the land of the dead, with each one feeling like it stays in whatever snowglobe-like environment is required for each main scene. The tone is also disappointingly wobbly, neither macabre nor amusing enough, and it feels weird that Key and Peele are used here (Peele having also helped to write the screenplay) without making the most of their talents. Perhaps the problems come from the source material, it's based on a book by Selick and Clay McLeod Chapman, or maybe it needs more than one watch to pick up on more of the lovely production design and character developments. Maybe it needed a better score from Bruno Coulais to lend stronger support to the visuals. I would rewatch this, but it won't ever be too high on my list of priorities.

Ross is a very good lead, Key and Peele are a bit muted, but fun, and it's great to hear Angela Bassett, James Hong, Ving Rhames, David Harewood, and Maxine Peake in main roles, every one a great actor also able to deliver a great vocal performance. Sam Zelaya and Tamara Smart are also very good, playing two other teenagers important to the plot, alongside Seema Virdi and Ramona Young in supporting roles.

I cannot dismiss this as a bad film, and it's more entertaining and inventive than dozens of other movies aimed at younger viewers, but it's near the bottom of the pile when compared to similar stop-motion features presenting macabre elements in a child-friendly way.

6/10

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Nope (2022)

I have aimed to keep this spoiler-free, talking about some general ideas that resonates with me before mentioning a few specifics about the film, but I would advise people to go into this film knowing as little as possible. Seriously. The less you know, the more you are likely to enjoy it. As long as you prepare to watch something that isn’t what you expect.

Cinema has progressed so much in the 100+ years that have passed since it began, not always for the better (we've all seen fads come and go), but it's worth remembering that all you need to make a movie is the right camera and the right level of creativity. In fact, you could argue that everyone can make a small animated movie with some drawings on a flickpad. And maybe more people should do that, giving themselves a reminder of the sheer joy that comes from creating a teeny tiny motion picture.

Cinema has also been built on the blood, sweat, and tears of many others, from the stunt performers who often risk their lives to the imaginations that were pillaged, appropriated, and simply used up as industry execs kept searching for the next big thing. Streaming may be a relatively new phenomenon, but the quest for content has always been a giant machine chewing up the lives of those who aren't situated high enough to stay out of its way. Cinema is exploitation, even when it isn't. It exploits animals, it exploits natural resources, and it exploits people. Even when audiences are being catered for, they are also being exploited, which was maybe most obvious during the blaxploitation boon of the 1970s.

And yet, and yet, despite the perils, despite the horrible history of it, cinema, and indeed the arena of showbusiness, continues to cast a mesmerising spell over everyone. There are those who want fame, those who want to seize an opportunity they know is only available fleetingly before others come along to snatch it away from them, and those who have had a taste, no matter how bitter it may have been, and keep trying to get another slice of the pie. Everyone thinks they can take the beast, until it rips their limbs off.

What does this have to do with Nope? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. With his latest film, a genre-blend of sci-fi, horror, and more, Jordan Peele has delivered a layered and thought-provoking film that provides familiar thrills and entertainment while also providing a small, but important, overview of the history of cinema.

Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer are OJ and Em, siblings who end up working together for a while after the sudden, and strange, death of their father (Keith David). The family business is all to do with training horses for movie work, but OJ has already sold a few of his four-legged assets to the nearby child-star-turned-animal-show-host Ricky (Steven Yeun). When OJ starts sensing a presence in the clouds above him, he not only enlists the helps of his sister, but also a local tech store employee (Angel, played by Brandon Perea). And Em becomes convinced that they need the help of legendary cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), a man known for his ability to do the impossible. That is all you need to know. In fact, it is probably more than you need to know.

With great visuals throughout, from the effects to the consistently gorgeous cinematography from Hoyte Van Hoytema (browse his filmography to see a selection of gorgeous movies that he has worked on), and a score from Michael Abels that mixes perfectly with flawless sound design to create one of the best audio-visual experiences in modern horror cinema, Nope is an audacious and thrilling experience from start to finish. It’s a thought-provoking dissemination of art, business, and race delivered in a Spielbergian blockbuster package, something that paradoxically feels like the biggest AND the most persona film yet from the talented Peele.

He is helped massively by his talented cast, with both Kaluuya and Palmer absolutely stellar in their lead roles. Yeun is also great, Wincott has what may be his best role in year, and the only weakness, for me, is the character played by Perea, the one bit of writing and acting that feels less tonally assured than any other aspect of the movie.

I have said all I want to say about the movie. A big chunk of this may not even feel like a review, but it very much is. It is everything I wanted to blurt out after the end credits rolled, and it gives an idea of how much is packed into the 2+ hour runtime. I cannot wait to see this again. I cannot wait to own it. And I cannot wait to see what Peele will deliver next, because it will be hard to top his greatest achievement yet.

I thought long and hard about my rating for this. There are a couple of minor issues that I had to mull over (mainly to do with the scenes involving Petra’s character). Then I realised that they didn’t bother me enough. You can think of a movie as subjectively perfect even while you acknowledge that there are minor imperfections. This, for me, is one of those movies.

10/10

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Candyman (2021)

There are two things associated with this latest working of the Candyman mythos that can provide a lot of irritation and/or amusement. First, the amount of people that keep referring to it as a bloody Jordan Peele film, when it was directed by, and co-written by Nia DaCosta (ironically . . . say her name, and remember it). Peele also worked on the screenplay, and his name as producer most probably helped the studio get behind this, but the ignorance/laziness of people wrongly crediting Peele, whether they love or hate the movie, is astonishing. Not the first time, of course (remember "Eli Roth's" Aftershock, or poor Henry Selick so often being forgotten as the actual director of The Nightmare Before Christmas?), and it won't be the last, but if the past few years have taught us anything it is, surely, the importance of correcting inaccuracies and misinformation. The other main thing that you should choose to just roll your eyes it, well, it's the amount of people complaining about the content of this film, either trying to call it racist, or complaining about it being "too woke", as if the original films weren't exploring the racially-charged mistreatment and abuse of a black man, the social climate and systemic issues that bundled African Americans together in one small area where they could be left to their own devices, gentrification, and the power that can be gained by examining something in the open that has been left to fester for so long behind closed doors.

Anyway, let's get to the film itself, a continuation of the story delivered to audiences in the original film. This time the main characters are an artist, Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), and his successful partner, Brianna (Teyonah Parris). Struggling to find his way back to anything like his previous form, to put it mildly, Anthony finds his imagination fired up when he bumps into William Burke (Colman Domingo), a man who confirms the tale of Candyman, and the subsequent incident that ended with a stolen baby being returned and the fiery death of Helen Lyle. Anthony creates a new selection of work, based around the phrase "say his name", and starts a chain of events that could drastically affect his future, while also forcing him to find out a bit more about his past.

From the very first seconds of Candyman starting, the focus of this film is crystal clear. Much like the first film, it's about exposing something that has been kept in the dark for too long. This is the perfect way to craft a sequel to a well-loved modern horror classic, despite the fact that some people will just want more of the thing they enjoyed most the first time around. You still have commentary on gentrification, you still have the amusing dissection of art and culture from people acting smug and superior while living outwith the main sphere of influence that helped to create that art and culture, and you have a study of an urban legend, and how it can be reshaped and turned into something better or worse over time. You also get a look at the ongoing problem of police brutality, something strongly underlined by the whole "say his name" mantra that runs through the whole film.

DaCosta doesn't go for many easy scares, but they're very well done when she does. She instead creates a growing atmosphere of unease, emulating the original film with a blend of fear of the boogeyman and fear of very real problems afflicting some of the main characters. The script, co-written by herself, Peele, and Win Rosenfeld, is smart, layered, and pretty much a textbook example of how to respect an original work while not feeling the need to slavishly replicate everything it did. There are mirrors, and other reflective surfaces, everywhere, and so many shots are framed to allow viewers to consider everywhere a danger could be lurking.

Abdul-Mateen II is a fantastic lead, someone charismatic enough to make it easier to stick alongside him as his journey takes him further and further away from the person he once was, and Parris does well with a character who is allowed to react naturally to someone who changed into what could be a very dangerous presence. Domingo is fine, but ends up overacting slightly in the third act, and Vanessa Williams reprises her role from the 1992 film. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Kyle Kaminsky help to lighten things up a bit, playing Brianna's brother, Troy, and his boyfriend, Grady, respectively. Brian King, Miriam Moss, and Rebecca Spence play people who may well say "Candyman" five times while looking in a mirror, and the inclusion of Tony Todd will surely keep fans happy.

Is it a flawless masterpiece? As is the case with the majority of movies released throughout time, no. But it's easily one of the best mainstream horror movies I can think of in recent years, and it's a thought-provoking, and often beautiful (I didn't even mention the backstories told in shadow puppet form), piece of work. It also doesn't forget that people will want a hook-handed "boogeyman" to turn some victims into a mass of blood and gore. I would definitely be interested in seeing what could happen in a sequel to this, and I am very keen to see what comes next from DaCosta (say her name).

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Horror Noire: A History Of Black Horror (2019)

Based on the book by Robin R. Means Coleman, Horror Noire: A History Of Black Horror is exactly what it says it is. The lean runtime means that it's by no means exhaustive, and a lot of that runtime is given over to celebrate Get Out, but this is still a pretty impressive primer on the subject, providing viewers with a varied list of titles to check out, and plenty of context to consider while thinking back over the history of the horror genre.

The format is simple. Various people are encouraged to discuss aspects of African Americans in horror movies, often in a theatre setting while clips from horror movies play on the silver screen in front of them. The discussion points range from the downright awful use of an actor in blackface to portray a dangerous black man in The Birth Of A Nation through to the recent success of Get Out, with plenty to mull over in between, from the virtual non-existence of black people in the sci-fi horror movies of the '50s and '60s (because they weren't considered eligible/educated enough to be part of the scientific community) to the well-known trope of the black character being killed off fairly early to show how dangerous things are for the white leads.

Although fairly simple in the way it works chronologically through the horror genre, Horror Noire works very well because of the singular viewpoint. It is that focus, as obvious as it seems to say it, that turns the familiar into something new and interesting. Some of the discussion points may feel more obvious than others but all of them deserve your time and attention. I'll admit that I was scoffing at some moments, thinking that people were stretching too far in order to dissect something that possibly wasn't intended to exclude black people, or portray them in a harmful way, and then I was won over, realising that I'd just never considered the weight of those cinematic decisions before because I sit in the main demographic (as a straight, white male I have been represented comfortably throughout the entire past of cinema).

It's an impressive roster of names that's been assembled here, and I'll namecheck a number of them: Jordan Peele, Ken Foree, Keith David, Tony Todd, Ernest Dickerson, William Crain, Rachel True, Loretta Devine, Miguel A. Nunez Jr, Ken Sagoes, Richard Lawson, Tina Mabry, and more. And the titles discussed are just as impressive, especially if you're a fan of films like Night Of The Living Dead, Blacula, Tales From The Hood, Candyman, and Sugar Hill (and why wouldn't you be?).

It would seem that we're currently in a much better time for African Americans in the movie industry, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, which makes this a timely documentary, a journey that ends in a place of celebration rather than pessimism. But it's also important to keep that momentum going, that progress, that representation, and not have this current boon period being a blip in a more depressing overview that tries to surmise what went wrong a couple of decades down the line.

8/10

You can buy Candyman here.
Blacula is here.
A R1 disc of Eve's Bayou is here.