Just call me Echo

- Em messing up how many greats (great, great grandfather) because she had memorized her father’s speech she’s later seen watching :’)

- Ricky/Jupe being like. performatively evasive/dismissive and ever the showman in talking about the Gordy’s Home incident: giving a few details then moving to describing the SNL skit and the actors being sharply cut with his face as a child during the actual tramautic event. it was so evocative and showed so much about his character in an instant.

-while on the subject, the sound editing and choices of music/moments of stillness like in the long scene of the gordy’s home incident. i found myself holding my breath trying to also stay silent.

-also during that, the emphasis on “bad miracles” and focusing on anomalies/odd moments during a traumatic experience with the peculiarity of the shoe standard perfectly upright. Something about focusing on the strangeness of that over the horror surrounding it really hit. I know personally from some traumatic events there were weird things adjacent-but-separate to the experience that I have really strong memories of, glomming onto that instead of the bad thing itself.

- when the crowd was grabbed during the show?  them being dragged inside of JJ actually made me viscerally uncomfortable. 

-Peele’s continued skill with developing tension too. the aliens in the stable scene? the long pause waiting for the head to peak around the corner? immaculate.

-i also hollered at the solemn recitation of the Purple People Eater song. I had a halloween plushy growing up that would sing it and I cannot begin to describe how insane it made me hearing it referenced in this movie oh my god

-AKIRA SLIDE

- Jean Jacket doing the ultimate defensive predator move, OJ standing his ground in that final showdown.

-the auteur camera guy and the idea of the “impossible shot”. There was this emphasis on spectacle and personally, a feeling that really hit home about an impulse in some creatives for the obsession with perfection in their craft: chasing that impossible shot. Yes he mentioned others not deserving to see a miracle, but he also went to record his own impossible shot, no matter the harm to himself. Destroying your self to achieve your own creative pinnacle, no matter the fact that others will not get to witness it.

ok also I know a few folks have said it’s kind of slow but I really didn’t feel that way at all. I think the pacing was really solid and built up well. there were no moments I was bored or like “ok we GET IT” and i think the way the main story was intercut with the Gordy’s incident was really well balanced and showcased the theme and story really well.  Idk. I thought it was really smooth, but it could also be bc i’ve watched too many cheap shitty or really old horror flicks, so I have built up a tolerance for slow builds. even if it does take a bit of time, it pays off really well.