It’s been a while since the last part of this series, but we’re back to introducing another famous filmmaker. Halloween and Black History Month are behind us. On this occasion, I decided to choose a director who combines these two themes in his work. An additional reason for this choice is the social issues that the artist addresses in his art – now more relevant than ever. I am, of course, talking about Jordan Peele – a phenomenon of today’s Hollywood.
The path to directing
Jordan Peele is the son of black Howard Peele and white Lucinda Williams. This life, on the borderline between two cultures, shaped the worldview, humor, and character of the future filmmaker. However, Jordan did not start his creative career in the world of film. He took his first steps in the entertainment industry as a comedian. His sharp and witty humor quickly took him from stand-up comedy to television shows. After many sketches on MADtv, the young Peele hoped for a “transfer” to SNL. However, despite his attempts, it never came. This encouraged him to create his own show. Together with his friend Keegan-Michael Key, they founded Key & Peele. Meanwhile, Jordan Peele’s interest in writing was growing, and he spent years writing a movie script on his own.
Key & Peele proved to be a huge success and guaranteed enormous popularity and awards for its hosts. The extremely accurate satire entertained crowds, and the humor delighted with its intelligence. Already then, in the short comedy sketches on the show, Peele showed a flair and extraordinary talent for directing. Jordan’s face became popular thanks to a series of short sketches in which he played President Barack Obama. But behind the comedian’s humor were deep thoughts, observations about society, and rooted fear.
The situation prompted the artist to take a risk and try to bring the aforementioned script, which he had been writing for years, to life. Jordan Peele did not expect the script to go anywhere further than his desk. However, the relationships and connections he had built up over the years, as well as the quality of his writing, allowed him to enter the set in 2016. At that time, he did not know that he would create something more than just a movie. He would shape history.
For obvious reasons, it would seem that Peele would go for comedy when making a film, right? Well, no, the comedian found his niche in… horror.
Get Out
Jordan Peele’s directorial debut was the 2017 film Get Out. The idea for the script took shape during Barack Obama’s presidency. The reign of the first black president of the United States was accompanied by the narrative that racism was a thing of the past. However, the director sensed that behind the grand words lay an unresolved and downplayed problem. These thoughts proved to be true, and the film’s premiere coincided with a resurgence of racial tensions in the US. The director accurately predicted that the problem had never been overcome, but only neatly buried, and was now growing beneath the surface of a society intoxicated by optimistic narratives. Peele also based the story on his own fears, presenting themes such as loss of identity and the necessity of confronting trauma.
The director tells the story of a black man who comes to meet the parents of his white girlfriend. Under the guise of tolerance, he begins to notice increasingly strange and disturbing behavior on the part of the household members and black domestic staff. The main character is unable to judge whether the things he notices are real or just his paranoia and misunderstanding resulting from cultural and historical influences and prejudices. All this is brilliantly conveyed by the sensational Daniel Kaluuya in the lead role.
Peele skillfully conveys his fear of a ticking time bomb beneath the seemingly stable surface of America. The director meticulously builds tension around this theme throughout the film. However, he doesn’t do this with gimmicks and excessive showmanship. He scares us using subtle, delicate methods, drawing inspiration from Kubrick, Hitchcock, and Spielberg. In this way, he builds a slowly draining atmosphere of paranoia and alienation. The shots are long, taking their time to create fear. The filmmaker uses only gentle camera movements and static shots. He uses editing techniques only when they serve the story. In this way, he allows the intricately constructed shots and excellent acting to shine through. Visually, he relies on a very realistic language, but he uses it to present concepts that are expressive and sometimes even grotesque in their satire. It is through contrast that it skillfully evokes a sense of unease in the viewer. Peele, also as a screenwriter, skillfully guides the story, builds scenes, and creates multi-layered characters. Whether in terms of Chekhov’s guns, the story’s brackets, or its symbolism, the complexity of this script is something unprecedented. The narrative does not bore for even a second, constantly providing new triggers and offering something completely unique. Whether in terms of suspense or the extremely accurate, delicately inserted satirical humor.
The film is a structural masterpiece, and Jordan Peele shapes this world as if he were a seasoned director, skillfully balancing between horror and black comedy.
With each year since the film’s release, new ways of understanding it emerge. This only serves to highlight the genius of the director, who was ahead of his time in creating one of the best horror films in history. It is not without reason that it is the first film of its genre to win an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
Us
After such a phenomenal debut, the entire film industry was watching the director’s next release. Peele did not let success go to his head and remained humble, staying true to the reason he started writing. In his second project, he continued in the direction he had taken with his first film and created another original story based on his fears and anxieties. This time, he focused on the aforementioned fear of identity theft and expanded on it. He also touched on the fear of being replaceable, the fears and challenges of parenthood, and the duality of human nature. The project was inspired by the director’s thoughts on Hands Across America. The director saw in it both the beauty of the initiative and the idea itself, as well as the triviality that distracts attention from real problems in favor of empty show. Formally, this time, the filmmaker chose tools more typical of the genre. This does not mean, however, that the film did not boil with originality in its execution.
The story focuses on a black couple who are going with their children to a resort for vacation. The holiday seems perfect, uninterrupted. Well, except for a strange homeless man in a red uniform standing on the beach. The idyll continues until one night, when figures appear in the driveway of the house rented by the family, standing motionless… in red uniforms. It quickly becomes apparent that these figures look identical to our heroes. However, their behavior is more animalistic, strange, and their facial expressions and movements are unnatural, caricatured, and terrifying. Our family does not know who they are or where they came from. All they know is that the “other family” poses a threat to them and they must flee. Thus begins a chase in which not only their lives but also their very identities are at stake.
Peele once again uses a wealth of symbolism, as well as grotesque elements with a slight touch of sci-fi, to brilliantly portray our deepest fears. The successive scenes and difficulties our heroes must face are, as always with this director, extremely accurate allegories of the state of American society. After all, the dual meaning of the title is no accident and does not refer only to the terrifying family of clones. The music and sounds also play a great role here, only enhancing the director’s techniques. Like its predecessor, the film is extremely well thought out visually. One could rave about the beautiful shots, but the strongest point is the meticulous composition and thoughtfulness of each frame. The director skillfully adapts the camera work and editing to the mood of the scenes. When necessary, the story picks up pace, only to allow the atmosphere to resonate at other moments with long shots and a camera that moves in sync with the action. Many shots have a deeper meaning and use reflections or shadows to gradually build paranoia and fear. The perspective, light, and colors, especially the blood-like red, bring it all together into a coherent whole with a distinctive visual style.
Jordan Peele has thus created a great film that is another contemporary horror classic. Us works both as entertainment and as profound, artistic cinema. All the elements of the story composed by the director play out in a continuous concert, whose main goal is to reach the viewer’s deepest fears.
Nope!
In his next project, Peele not only continued to draw inspiration from Spielberg, but also paid tribute to his idol and his passion for cinema. He did so by basing the construction of the script on Jaws and mixing in references to other classics by the legendary director.
In his next project, Peele not only continued to draw inspiration from Spielberg, but also paid tribute to his idol and his passion for cinema. He did so by basing the construction of the script on Jaws and mixing in references to other classics by the legendary director.
In his third film, Jordan Peele once again joins forces with Daniel Kaluuya. The actor plays OJ Haywood, a young horse breeder who rents animals to film studios. He took over the business from his father, who died in an unexplained accident: he was killed by a coin that fell from the sky. The main character has trouble continuing the family business after the tragedy and even considers selling the ranch. However, everything is turned upside down when OJ witnesses another unexplained phenomenon. One night, a bizarre dish flies over the house and abducts one of the horses. Now, together with his sister Emerald, he decides to turn his fate around by trying to capture evidence of UFOs. And so begins the pursuit after the impossible shot.
In creating Nope!, the director wanted to tell a story about humanity’s obsession with spectacle. With every scene and detail in the film, he presents further reflections and observations about our society and culture. It is no accident that Peele uses the motif of UFOs—one of the most compelling motifs in American cinema. The script is a real multi-layered treasure chest filled with reflections on the central theme. One of the inspirations for the story was all the incidents related to attempts to tame wild animals for human entertainment. References to this theme can be seen from the aforementioned horses used in the film industry to the micro-plot about a chimpanzee who suffered a rage attack during the filming of a TV series. The film shows how pop culture often transforms tragedy into entertainment. This motif is also evident in the characters. Each of them strives in their own way to make their mark on the world, regardless of the consequences. The film also touches on historical and racial themes that are obvious to the artist. In the world of the film, the jockey seen in the first ever recorded footage was black, and his descendants are the main characters. Thus, the director shows the camera as a tool that allows us to see, but still leaves some of us unseen.
All this creates a narrative that encourages thoughts and self-reflection with each successive element.
The visual language of the film is also tailored to the chosen theme. Jordan Peele’s goal was to create shots that were both naturalistic and spectacular, so that we would feel like we were capturing something incredible yet real. To achieve this, he collaborated with Hoyte van Hoytema. The effect is stunning. The frames in the film sometimes look like paintings, which are works of art in themselves. What is most impressive, however, is the extraordinary understanding between the director and the DOP. The shots are arranged in such a way as to constantly show only fragments, but never the whole of what the viewer would like to see. In this way, the duo builds a constant sense of dissatisfaction in the viewer, which is supposed to drive the desire to continue pursuing the spectacle. Various elements of the narrative are shown delicately, always covered by something or bathed in shadow. Thus, we constantly try to see them, but never manage to catch them. The artists show the role of perspective in the presentation of events. This mosaic of cinematic genius is fueled by brilliantly executed sound that gives you goosebumps and, in many moments, deceives the viewer.
The aforementioned parallels to Spielberg are all the more satisfying considering the fact that Jaws started the trend for contemporary cinema spectacles, and its creator is the father of blockbusters. At the same time, Nope! is Peele’s least approachable film. He takes his time and, as in old, classic cinema, slowly guides us through the story. Like Spielberg, Peele meticulously doses out clues and hints of impending danger. These increase in frequency and create tension, resulting in well-deserved moments of horror. In this way, the director keeps us glued to the screen and recreates the magic of cinematic spectacle.
The Voice of Contemporary Cinema
Thanks to the funds earned from the success of his films, Peele is also extremely effective as a producer, promoting young, artistically expressive directors. His support has resulted in the creation of, among others, the new Candyman, Monkey Man, and HIM.
We know that his next directing project is in the works, but the details are being kept under wraps. He has only mentioned that if he manages to convey his vision, it might be his favorite project. We can only wait for the first information and, in the future, for the artist’s next ventures.
If I had to describe Jordan Peele’s style in one word, I would say “intelligent.” The artist’s thoughts are filled with a wealth of extremely insightful observations, reflections, and a multi-layered view of our society. He is able to combine different, quite extreme themes, motifs, and issues into one coherent story. In doing so, he composes a kind of socio-psychological collage of various symbols, which in essence tell of the director’s personal fears and anxieties. He refers to them in a way that both terrifies us and amuses us with satire and dark humor.
Peele is also a huge film buff. He draws heavily on Spielberg’s style, but also on many other directors, such as Hitchcock. Just as he does with the world around him, he brilliantly analyzes cinema and culture, understanding the directorial techniques he observes, then using and adapting them to his own style. He uses his film knowledge to shape worlds and stories that penetrate us to the core and fully reflects the extremely colorful personality of the creator. Peele has a great sense of intuition and, often using subtle and delicate techniques, allows the composition and actors to shine, visually presenting everything he wants to tell us in a story.
What he has created is a symbol of contemporary horror. The director does not scare us with monsters, ghosts, or murderers. He uses concepts to do so. What frightens us in his films is our psyche, social norms, the world surrounding us, and people. For this reason, his work is so multi-layered, rich in symbolism, brilliant, and so tangible.
Jordan Peele is currently one of the most distinctive and unique voices in film, and his work moves us with its terrifyingly accurate commentary on all of us.
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