Candyman (2021)......a tough one to review, a tough one to contemplate......
We couldn't help asking ourselves if this film could appeal to any demographic beyond appreciative black audiences.....(and white liberals gutsy enough to endure its carnage.....)
By all means, anyone who loves finely crafted cinema should consider this a must-see......even if it means they'll have to close their eyes during the scenes awash in grindhouse gore. (Shame on 'em if they do, because the expected slaughter sequences here are put together with as much style, imagination and genuine filmmaking talent as any of the more popular awards-nominated movies soon to take center stage....)
Therein lies our problem in approaching this most very up-to-date 'Candyman'. It walks, prances ,and somersaults on a tightrope it's trying to walk across......balancing between a deadly serious indictment of institutionalized American racism that demands your close attention and a gorehound's carnival fever dream of shredded bodies and literal cascades of blood.
Co-written by Jordan Peele ("Get Out", "Us") and directed by an African American woman Nia DaCosta ("Little Woods"), the film dutifully fulfills its slasher-movie requirements while pursuing its main objective - presenting the legendary monster Candyman as an metaphorical avenger for the hundreds of years of cruelty, brutality and horror visited upon people of color by an America that refuses to acknowledge them as human beings......even today.
But we could only wonder as we viewed the film.......will splatter-movie fans pick up and comprehend what this movie's actually saying to them? Or are they only sitting through it to whoop and holler at the spectacle of Candyman eviscerating an entire pack of snotty, privileged teenage white girls?
In its unflinching, look at where we still stand today, 'Candyman' for all of the artistry poured into it, presents a gruesome, uncompromising and ultimately nihilistic house of horrors.......it succeeds so well on that level that we wouldn't label it as 'entertainment'........with the looming threat of Donald Trump running for the Presidency again, the film looks more like it's a harbinger of coming attractions.......
There's much to admire and savor here for viewers brave enough to revel at both the film's higher purposes (including a devastating takedown of urban 'gentrification' ) and its descent into bottomless horror....(with a heavy reliance, similar to David Cronenberg's films, on the gradual but certain corruption of human flesh)
We say to all serious film buffs......take the challenge of seeing it......and take it in. It belongs among our list of 4 star (****) horror films.
No comments:
Post a Comment