Missing with That Killer Hook (Or: The Trouble with Candyman)
Nia DaCosta’s Candyman begins and ends so well and is loaded with enough potent ideas that it’s easy to mistake for a good movie. It’s actually a botch in ways that should feel familiar – from the original movie or from producer/co-screenwriter Jordan Peele’s Us.
Candyman is an A movie desperately trying to break out of its B-movie body, like a 12-year-old boy wanting to prove his manhood. It is a slasher film, but it pushes and tugs and stretches to become something more. That it succeeds at all is pretty amazing.