Lotsa good shit this week.

Nope

With Nope, his third feature, writer/director/actor/comedian Jordan Peele really cements himself as one of the only mainstream, quality auteurs we have in the movies today. His debut film, Get Out, was a brilliant horror movie about white liberals that managed to be funny, insightful, and terrifying, all at the same time while managing to never come across as pretentious. While I didn’t quite grasp what Us, his second feature, was ultimately going for, it was a movie overflowing with ideas. That leaves Nope, probably the most fun a Jordan Peele movie has ever been and easily the funniest. It follows two siblings that own a horse ranch together – Daniel Kaluuya as the timid, internalized sibling and Keke Palmer as his loud counterpart. Both are phenomenal, especially Kaluuya who can communicate so many emotions using just his eyes. When a UFO begins fucking with their horses and terrorizing the farm, the two set out to capture the phenomenon on camera in a bid to make money to more or less save their flailing horse ranch. Steven Yeun is fantastic in a smaller but powerful role as a washed-up child actor who owns a bigger and better rival ranch, an exploitive asshole who sells all his bullshit with a charming smile. His story is the main subplot of the film which more or less gets abandoned going into the third act of the movie. That’s the biggest problem with Nope, it has so many great ideas it executes well but it never really ties them together in a way that’s completely satisfying. I’m certainly a fan of many movies that leave threads untied, but here it seems like it puts the film at a disadvantage. It’s very obvious the movie is really about exploitation and the dangers it poses both to its victims and perpetrators, but I just think it needed a bit more context. One thing Nope does really well is incorporating comedy and tangential gags into the story. The advantage of having a big-budget auteur filmmaker who knows comedy this well seems maybe unparalleled unless I missed the serious, $100M budget Mel Brooks action movie. Maybe Ghostbusters, but that was a straight-up comedy despite its many fantastical elements. Nope is just as successful in generating suspense and thrills, thanks in no small part to Nolan’s cinematographer, Hoyte von Hoytema. It’s shot in a way that somehow makes a big open mountain range seem claustrophobic AF. Nope and more so its creator, Jordan Peele, are true originals that the film industry is stupid lucky to have. Throw more money at big-budget original projects that don’t rely on green screen, shit CGI, or old, overused intellectual property. It would be nice if this generation of the film isn’t remembered solely for piggy-backing off of old comic books and boomer cinema. Grade: B+ (In Theaters)

RuPaul’s Drag Race – All Stars 7

It’s all-stars, all winners baby, so why did it seem so underwhelming? There was so much talent on the show this season but the tea remained safe in its kettle, totally unspilled. While I absolutely love watching for the amazing fashion creations, hilarious improv challenges, and energetic lip-syncing, I also like watching for the drama because at the end of the day it’s a reality show. Sure, it’s a competition but the show comes first. This is generally why I like O.G. RuPaul the most because you get to witness the transformation of performers from amateurs to professionals. With All-Stars, everyone is so good and successful that they seem completely content with themselves. They don’t have to prove shit, and because they’re all working steadily in the industry, they can’t freak out and give us the moments we crave (think Kandy Muse, Mimi Imfurst, Alaska) because they’re super conscious of the relationships they build/have to maintain. That’s great for them as performers (and humans), sure they get a shit load more done, but it kind of builds up a wall to their vulnerabilities. I didn’t feel like I knew any of these queens better by the end of the season, and the stakes always seemed to only be sorta there for them. What we were left with were a series of sporadically great but always good fashion, comedy, and musical performances – everyone delivered more or less, some did way better than others, and the judges soft balled the shit outta their feedback. It was a mild cheddar season for All-Stars. Best Episode- The best guest director they have EVER had on the show, Zola creator Janicza Bravo comes in to coach the ladies through a sexy Christmas farce. She actually directs them like actual actors instead of surface-level “be bigger”/”be dirtier” elementary instructions by Michelle Visage or Carson Kressley. Grade: B– (Paramount+)

The Bob’s Burgers Movie

Yes, it’s a movie, but The Bob’s Burgers Movie just feels like four episodes of the show. This isn’t really an insult because the actual show is really good, but it never really justifies its existence to switch platforms/formats. This could have been like a three or four-episode arc for TV, easily. The two biggest things this “movie” has going for it is the decision to make it a murder mystery (which is always FUN) and the decision to make it a musical (which is always MORE FUNNER). That’s it, I suppose? Grade: B (HBOMax and Hulu)