I do find it odd how much it feels like it's been forced on us to look at him as if he's the next Hitchcock, or Wes Craven, or even the next M. Night Shyamalan. It's as if people think if they pretend this is true enough it'll magically make it true (a sorta fake it till you make it kinda thing).
I finished Get Out, after weeks of Blair Witch/The Sixth Sense-level hype thinking, "this was what everyone has been raving over?" I mean, I don't know what I was expecting. But it was certainly something better than what I got. More unique, at least. An original twist, perhaps? Something very out of the box, like with what they did with Cabin in the Woods? This, however, felt more akin to an especially long (and not especially good) Tales from the Crypt episode. I'd have probably forgotten all about its existence if it wasn't brought up so much in the following years.
When Get Out came out, I wasn't really thinking much about activism or BLM or anything like that (it just wasn't a topic on my radar at the time) so that never occurred to me previously. But you may be onto something there. It would certainly make sense out of how much attention he and his mediocre films get. Perhaps people just really want more "legendary" black filmmakers or something so they're just prematurely taking what they can get and running with it? Because I certainly can't understand his praise otherwise (that being said, I'm equally baffled by people who act like The Departed is Scorsese's best movie, so maybe I'm just out of touch lol).
I've always been a film buff, though, and have seen some overly-hyped films/filmmakers in my time. So that's not a particularly new thing at all. But at least when I didn't agree with the hype I could at least understand how others may be on board with it. With this guy, though, it just never added up. Then he's given the Twilight Zone (horrendous) and still, with each new mediocre movie, I'm being force-fed the idea that he's brilliant.
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JakeSWITCH (504)
2 years ago
It's not dissimilar from the seven Academy Award nominations 'Black Panther' received and the people hailing Ryan Coogler as the next Steven Spielberg.
'Get Out' and 'Black Panther' were both groundbreaking in terms of representation, but somehow this became conflated with artistry by lazy film critics chasing clicks and Hollywood studios fishing for award kudos.
FYI, I also can't understand the praise for 'The Departed', particularly when you place that film next to 'Infernal Affairs'. Then again, some people like 'Gangs of New York'...
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