Candyman (2021)
Making racial injustice feel like an urban myth.
Presentation:
Although the film wasn’t director by Jordan Peele, it was written and produced by him. It looks high production like his other films with realistic modern lighting shying away for the stereotypical moody look. If it looks like a Peele movie, feels like a Peele movie, it basically is a Peele movie. However, this would be one of his worst films as there are so many plot holes that don’t really give audiences a satisfying origin prequel to the urban legend. There are some satisfying scenes that are visually presented well, but cool cinematography wasn’t enough to salvage what is in the end a script beyond saving.
Story:
Candyman is different because it’s supposed to give us a Boogeyman to the racial injustice of the world. But where is the racial injustice in the movie? It seems he kills indiscriminately, which defeats the whole motivation for his conception.
Conclusion:
The story has many holes and unexplained reasons for how many things came to be…which would perhaps be fine if this wasn’t an origin story. Do we now have to have a prequel to this origin prequel? The mirror concept is actually really well executed even if we are very familiar with it, so if you only care for presentation you might really like this film. But I couldn’t accept it when at its core the film is a thematic story with its social commentary left unexplained. There’s pretty much only one racial aspect executed properly at the beginning, which is never adequately supported thereafter leading to a unconvincingly mixed message. I suppose it can be appreciated that it doesn’t engage in lecturing political commentary, but it leaves too much mystery to its detriment and I think lost an opportunity to add more valuable insight with its unique storyline. If they wanted to make you believe in racial injustice, they definitely did the opposite.
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Recommendations
Hollywood film noir doesn’t seem that high up anymore.