A cinematic mouthful: for a movie "about movies" I appreciate the facet of this that is concerned with the labour of filmmaking, but Peele's ideas of representation— marginalized characters profiting from the creation of "true" images on the site of exploitation— for me crowd in, because we are also expected to be implicated while simultaneously cheering for this cinematic reclamation: a re-revisionist western starring a black woman on a motorcycle waiting for the predator to pull through town.

On a beat-to-beat basis this is a pretty fantastic thrill ride that I absolutely gobbled up, but when the lights switch back on the belaboured subtext makes the many overlapping components start to feel more like a puzzle than an actual movie; it too frequently feels like Peele started with an idea and then retrofitted the parts around it, which gives the cast little meat to chew on (although all three leads are perhaps incapable of turning in a bad performance and I absolutely loved Palmer on this). Gordy flashback is a contender for scene of the year.