Jordan Peele's Generic Renovations
With 2017’s Get Out, Jordan Peele burst out of the confines of sketch comedy and announced himself as one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema. Part and parcel of Peele’s success was his undeniable mastery of–and facility with–generic conventions. Get Out has been ascribed a range of genre labels, from psychological thriller to political horror, black comedy to sci-fi, zombie movie to horror verité. Peele himself has added fuel to the fire by musing that his film is a “social thriller” and a “documentary” that “subverts the idea of all genres.” Since the success of his first film, Peele has released a pair of even more generically ambitious and ambiguous films: Us (2019) and Nope (2022).