Back in action to talk 'Nope' and 'The Big Chill'
Also, Brad Pitt's action career derails and the Predator franchise is revived.
As the kids say, it’s been a minute.
I didn’t intend to go more than two weeks without writing, and I don’t think I’m quite back to normal yet, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Real talk: it’s been a hard summer. In the spring, I made a career change that I thought would be good for me, but it turned out not to be the case. For the last few months, I’ve spent my weeks and weekends working long hours and found myself mentally and physically exhausted at the end. To be honest, the stress and anxiety made me kind of a pain in the ass to live with (more so than usual), and it’s taken all my strength just to engage at home, let alone find time to watch or write about much.
Thankfully, I’ve been blessed with an opportunity to hit the reset button and return to my former employer, which should leave me feeling a bit less braindead in the evenings and weekends. I think I’ll return to a more manageable routine in the next few weeks, which will provide the head space to give this newsletter the attention it deserves. I’ve been very grateful to see the number of new subscribers climb this year, and I hope as we head into the final weeks of summer and approach the fall that I’ll return to my usual pace. In 2023, I think we’re going to look at moving this to the next level and adding some subscriber-only content. So, thanks for hanging in there so far, and stick with me. I ain’t done yet.
Over the last few weeks, there have been some movies and TV shows I’ve been watching, and I think the best way to start wading back into this is to break them up. So, today we’ll dive into what I’ve been watching from a movie perspective and then early next week, we’ll hit TV. I’m mulling over whether to continue Franchise Fridays or take a break and continue my Spielberg series; the jury’s still out, but something new on one of those fronts will hit Aug. 19. So, thank you for your patience, and stay tuned!
Now, let’s talk movies.
Say ‘yep’ to ‘Nope’
Jordan Peele’s career as a horror director has surprised me, but it really shouldn’t have.
Yes, Peele has his roots in sketch comedy. But much of Key and Peele’s humor was rooted in a love for cinema, and its punchlines were often strengthened by the show’s pitch-perfect re-creation of genre tropes and aesthetics. It was silly, yes, but there were skewerings of action and horror films that, with the sound off, could be mistaken as legitimate entries in those genres.
Rather than continue that with a string of genre-mashing comedies (although I think Keanu has its moments), Peele and Keegan-Michael Key have found success in their own tracks. Key has leaned into comedy, and Peele has, of course, put his love of genre to work by delivering some effective horror movies.
I’m not saying anything revolutionary when I remark that I think Get Out is one of the best films of the last 15 years, regardless of genre. And while I think Us has a few sophomore stumbles, there are enough solid ideas, fantastic performances and unsettling images to earn my recommendation.
His latest, the sci-fi/horror mashup Nope, has proven to be another success, both critically and commercially, further cementing Peele as one of the rare filmmakers whose name alone can put butts in seats. By turns horrifying, funny and thrilling, it’s a big bit of spectacle that manages to tackle a subgenre that’s been done to death in a fresh way.
OJ and Emerald Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) are siblings who operate their late father’s ranch, which lends the animals out to movies. They have a proud history stretching back to the earliest days of cinema; they’re proud of the fact that their great-great grandfather was part of the very first motion picture ever made. When OJ sees something strange in the sky shortly after his father’s unnatural death, he and Em decide to get it on tape and present the very first HD proof of a UFO.
There’s more to the story, of course. I haven’t mentioned Steven Yeun as a former child star with a tragic background that fuels his own preoccupations. Or the aging cinematographer (Michael Wincott) obsessed with getting pristine predator footage on film. Or the conspiracy-obsessed electronics store clerk (Brandon Perea) who initially seems to be a tossed-off character but becomes an integral part of the story.
Nope is Peele’s most ambitious movie, and it’s also his messiest. There’s a lot going on, and his decision to jumble plot threads, sometimes leaving the main story for long stretches to follow a digression, can be frustrating. It’s not that any of it is bad; indeed, when the full picture is revealed, all of these seemingly disparate pieces make sense from narrative and thematic perspectives. It’s just inelegant, and there may have been a way, either in the scripting or editing stages, to present the same information without the stuttering narrative.
Despite the mess, I think Nope is one of the most thrilling and fun experiences I’ve had in a theater all year. Peele leans into spectacle, crafting a big, scary and fascinating twist on the typical UFO tale. There’s a lot going on, from commentary about humans’ penchant to control wild creatures for their own entertainment to a not-so-subtle subtext about the too-often unheralded contributions of Black filmmakers.
It’s also Peele’s funniest film to date. Palmer and Perea have a fun antagonistic chemistry, and the absurdity of the premise garners a lot of laughs. But more than overt humor, there’s a playfulness at work that made me chuckle. Peele understands the expectations audiences have for this type of film, and he has a lot of fun playing against them. There’s a stretch where Peele gives about three different jump scares and reveals that lean hard into the conventions of every alien movie, and they’re all revealed to be fake outs. This would normally be frustrating, except they’re so well-delivered and they leave us off guard for the truly terrifying things that happen next.
I won’t spoil anything, except to say that when Peele reveals the true nature of the threat, I found it deeply unsettling. It leads to some truly tense and scary set pieces, innovative visuals and truly disturbing sound work. There’s also a moment involving a chimpanzee run amok on a television set that is suspenseful and unnerving, both detached from the main narrative but also thematically essential to understanding the threat at hand.
As always, the cast is fantastic. I particularly like Kaluuya as OJ, who’s so closed off and burrowed into himself for much of the film, but finds himself energized by this weird project he and Em undertake. Palmer is a live wire of energy, and I’ve already said how much I enjoyed her back and forth with Perea. Yeun is quickly becoming my favorite presence whenever he shows up in a movie, and there’s a mixture of folksy charm and unnerving obsession that makes his character pop.
Peele cribs a bit from Spielberg and other big-budget filmmakers in delivering a movie that’s equal parts Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws while still maintaining the director’s unique voice. Visually, there are some amazing moments that mingle awe and terror in a way that Spielberg perfected, but everything is laced with Peele’s sense of humor and voice. The final act, in particular, is thrilling and fist-pumping, while also delivering some visuals that feel beautiful, dangerous and alien all at once.
I’m still waiting for Peele to deliver another Get Out, but Nope proves that he’s still a director who is evolving and delivering original ideas, a Nolan-level talent who’s just a bit happier to play around in genre. I’ll happily say “yep” to whatever he does next.
Surprising an audience with The Big Chill
Over the summer, I kept hyping up a special event that my We’re Watching Here co-host, Perry, and I were involved with at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. On July 21, we had the pleasure to co-host the theater’s bimonthly Secret Cinema, surprising an audience with a movie of our choosing.
Perry and I had a lengthy list of possibilities, mostly films we’d discussed on our show already. But he was particularly excited about one movie that he had a personal connection with, and I was happy to follow his recommendation and put The Big Chill at the top – not the least of the reasons why was the presence of a strong performance by the recently departed William Hurt. I had never seen Lawrence Kasdan’s 1983 comedy-drama before, and I figured this was a good time to close that gap. I watched it shortly after and enjoyed it, but it was at the second viewing when I really felt the movie connect.
If you’re unfamiliar, The Big Chill concerns a group of old college classmates who reconnect after a friend’s suicide. Following the funeral, the friends spend the weekend at a South Carolina lake house, where they relive old times, reconnect with old flames, and reflect on how the passion of youth has given way to the cold reality of adult life.
This is a movie I’m glad I waited to see, as I don’t think it would have had the same impact on me in, say, my twenties as it does in my 40s. I’m just a bit older than the characters, but their struggles still resonate. True, The Big Chill is best-known as a Baby Boomer reflection, and a lament for how the passion many felt in the Sixties felt dulled as they grew up and sold out. But I think anyone in this age group can relate to the idea of missing the relationships that once felt so vital and how the drive to do something is too often dulled in the responsibilities of family and career. There’s a palpable sadness lacing the film that might only be able to be understood by those who have ventured off their original paths.
And yet, I don’t want to mischaracterize the film as a dirge. While there are moments of sadness, The Big Chill is warm and funny, which comes out even more on a second viewing, when you can appreciate the rhythms and dynamics of this group of friends. Kasdan’s a smart writer, and the dialogue is often just as sharp as it is funny and heartfelt. The ensemble, which includes Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Tom Berenger, Hurt, Jeff Goldlum and Jo Beth Williams, is an all-timer, and maybe the best compliment I can give this film is that rewatching it just a few weeks later felt like I was already visiting old friends.
This was, by the way, a great film to see with an audience. The laughs all hit, and the warmth radiates off the screen. It’s a funny, touching and engaging movie, and we had a great discussion and Q/A session afterward. Hopefully, Perry and I will get to do this again; and until then, we’re already planning our next few We’re Watching Here episodes, which we should be able to double down on once my schedule clears up.
Bullet Train is a world-class derailment
David Leitch’s Bullet Train is, on paper, a movie I should love. It gives Brad Pitt his first attempt at a John Wick-type action movie, leans heavily into an exaggerated and colorful aesthetic, and features a great cast. But in practice, the movie’s just a two-hour headache, an obnoxious collision of violence and noise that I found to be deeply unpleasant and empty. I have more thoughts in my review at CinemaNerdz.
Finally, another good Predator movie
I’m bummed that my summer got too fraught to finish my look at the Predator franchise, but maybe we’ll pencil that in for some time in the future. That said, many have said it could have been a blessing, as there’s a bit of a dearth in good entries following the first film. That looks to have changed with Prey, now available to stream on Hulu. A prequel that shifts the action to the 1700s Great Plains, Dan Trachtenberg’s action-adventure is a smart, thrilling and badass, reviving the franchise and introducing a new hero to the franchise. Again, I go into my detail in my review at CinemaNerdz.
And that’s it for now. I’ll be back early next week with some TV thoughts, probably Tuesday or Wednesday, once I’ve had the chance to digest the Better Call Saul series finale. It’s good to be back!