Candyman

While my friend Dr. Klineman loved it, I found it more depressing than entertaining.

Though it became the first film directed by a black woman, Nia Da Costa, to top the U.S. box office, I simply couldn’t embrace this movie despite my best intentions. It functioned as if it was turning the George Floyd murder tragedy into a conflicted horror film.

Then again, it did have two memorable performances, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II follows up his role in The Trial of the Chicago 7 as an artist investigating the macabre details surrounding a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand terrorizing Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood. In the process. he starts on a road to physical destruction.

Teyonah Parris is a standout as his partner Brianna, a gallery director. She pursues high-end professional associates to advance her career. A highlight of the film comes from the fun of watching her gay brother (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and his partner (Brian King) try to make sense out of impending disaster.

The film, co-written by the talented Jordan Peele, becomes a bit tough to follow at times. It intermixes a slasher killing innocent people who pronounces his name 5 times while looking in a mirror, with police corruption centering on an all but abandoned Cabrini-Green. Surrounded now by high-end condos with views over Chicago’s racist past, I thought that Peele’s Get Out did a far better job of examining our country’s racial inequalities.

The problem with this film is that it sought to combine George Floyd-type police violence with a slasher’s killing of innocent white people. Despite its praise from honorable people line my friend Dr. K., this is a film that I choose to quickly forget.