Gordy's Home

SOCRATES: Should movies be about something?
ANONYMOUS: Sirk said he cannot make movies about something, only with something—flowers, reflective surfaces.
SOCRATES: But aren’t his movies said to be about systemic hypocrisy, unrequited love, and sexual frustration?
ANONYMOUS: How could they not be?
SOCRATES: Then movies shouldn’t be made to disseminate a message, but should say something, does that sound right?

Nope (2022, Jordan Peele) is a horror movie that’s incidentally adorned with a ufo invasion façade. It’s also a virtuoso display of inspired storytelling. 
     I can’t remember the last time I watched a horror movie that felt this delightfully psychologically-macabre. Nope strikes the perfect balance of unsettling and absorbing that makes for the most accomplished of classic horror. Isn’t that the hardest to earn? Aside from terrifying the audience or disturbing devices, when was the last time the story itself felt original?
     Jordan Peele’s made some movies that feel like they have a message. Nope hits hard because it says something without saying it. I don’t know that everything adds up to some specific statement, but what I gathered is: there’s a delicate balance between life forms and entertainment. Nevertheless, the ufo could symbolize people spending too much time on junk media (TV, apps, social media?) that suck them out of real life. And maybe there’s a connection between the way some animals you think are tame can sometimes unexpectedly attack when you get too close.

     At the moment when Alfred E. Neuman is depicted as Gordy I was instantly transfixed by the kind of joy of story that's been all to elusive lately. Specifically, the backstory of Gordy’s Home and the listing of all those cast members from the ’95 season of SNL was scarier because of its authenticity. And Nope isn’t just a great horror movie, it also transcends box office concessions by substantially proving its artistic merit. Hoyte van Hoytema’s diffuse palette is as soothing as can be, with night exteriors particularly lit so delicately as to convincingly evoke the feel of being so far removed from city limits. (Also the Edge car tracking OJ on horseback is Muybridge to the future.) And Ruth De Jong with the Haywood house, and rustic amusement community gives the time spent in Agua Dulce a sense of really going somewhere else for 2 hours.
     The whole time watching Nope I kept thinking there is no way they can fuck this up. And by the end, although I’m not taken with the whole Christo and Jeanne-Claude thing, I accept it. Nope isn’t about ufos. By the way how cool is Michael Wincott? I’ve recently brought his name up several times in conversation, mostly because I’m such a huge fan of Strange Days (1995, Kathryn Bigelow); I watch it every New Year’s Eve. I just wondered what happened to him and how cool that moment in 1995 the dude’s in The Crow, Strange Days, and Dead Man.

 

7/21/2022 AMC Madison Yards 8

Atlanta, GA

DCP

Does Jordan Peele Know What a Horror Movie Is?

In a piece I posted about Glass (2019, M. Night Shyamalan) this January I mention how Shyamalan often makes movies that feel drawn out and would have been better suited to fill 20 minutes as episodes of The Twilight Zone.  The same holds true with Jordan Peele. And fittingly Jordan Peele is executive producer and host of a new season of The Twilight Zone this year.

I didn’t like Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele). I love Daniel Kaluuya and the trailer was promising: “When there’s too many white people around I get nervous.” What I went in expecting to be a terrifying horror movie where white people are the monster turned out to be a plot that loses all its potential after it’s explained, with a goofy slapstick TSA agent saving the day. Maybe I missed something but the reveal where the Allison Williams character has lured the dozens of black men into the commune made me question its plausibility; also, what about the women? And it felt like a clever idea trying too hard to propel a social message which wasn’t that compelling. A bunch of racist white people want to enslave some black people while simultaneously poaching their most desirable genetic attributes? So a horror that turns out to really be a sci-fi, with misplaced lowbrow comedy, and a clichéd atmosphere of a really bizarre cult up to no good with an unsettling hypnotism motif.

Us (2019, Peele) is a horror movie that’s not scary. It’s also contrived—the doppelganger fam turns out to be symbolism for the symbiotic underclass of US citizens. Also turns out the government’s to blame (or is it, according to an Old Testament easter egg, God?). Add to all of this the use of upbeat pop hits contrasted against scenes of visceral terror with some moments of broad comedy and it’s back to again losing faith in Peele’s sensibilities.

The first act is great—I love these characters, and cast, especially Lupita Nyong’o. The premise is fun and feels like a horror movie. The second act is bloated with survival thrills from the use of violence as defense against psychopath assailants. But that gets old quick. The third act is a ton of exposition to reveal how these beings came from out of the shadows… yawwwwwwwn. Also, seriously isn’t the first rule of horror still don’t reveal the monster?

Although having watched it opening weekend in a packed theater at night I did enjoy Us as a crowd-pleasing popcorn flick. The audience loved it. But this also made me realize that I don’t care how many “oh hellllll nahs,” “no’s,” “uh uhs,” or other interactions viewers vocalize, unsettling is not the same as scary, nor is bloodlust fueled revenge cheering.

Peele is grating on me. I’m not looking forward to another disappointing big social message comedy sci-fi with unsettling conspirators preying on average good ol’ Americans sold as a horror movie. Sigh.