Nope
Director: Jordan Peele
Writer: Jordan Peele
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun, Keith David, Wrenn Schmidt, Barbie Ferreira
Reason for watching: After two absolute bangers with Get Out and Us, I will always show up for Jordan Peele’s movies
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
Can Jordan Peele miss? Apparently not because we are three movies into his directing career, he has made three original and unique horror/sci-fi blended movies that are absolutely incredible. Credit where credit is due, he wrote all of his movies as well. I still remember the word-of-mouth excitement there was over Get Out when it was released five years ago. Everyone and their mother were telling you to go see it. Us was a supremely unique and well-acted movie as well. So my excitement for this year’s Nope was off the charts, and once again Mr. Peele has delivered.
Nope follows siblings OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) as they experience some unusual phenomena on the horse ranch they recently inherited from their late father (Kieth David). Their horses begin to go missing and electrical disturbances happen frequently. On top of this, they both witness a flying saucer disappear into the clouds on multiple occasions which leads them to believe they are being visited by a UFO. Recruiting the help of local tech expert Angel (Brandon Perea), cameras are set up to try and capture evidence of their visitors. Some evidence seems to suggest their neighbor Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), owner of a small theme park and former child star of a TV show featuring a chmip, seems to be in on whatever is going on. But as they learn more and more about the nature of the invading object, it becomes clear that it is not to be triffled with.
Peele has maintained his horror sensibilities here. The constant sense of foreboding and that someone or something is watching our heroes permeates every frame of this movie. But Peele has added a tremendous spectacle here that elevates the event-like nature of this movie even more. Seeing images of this massive floating disk is awe-inspiring and watching it wreck havoc on its victims is terrifying. It is much closer to watching an apocalypse-esque movie as this imposing ship wrecks chaos and death wherever it goes. One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is seeing the actual abduction of people take place.
In fact this foreboding sense of being hunted or stalked by this invader reminds me of another movie from fifty years ago from an up-and-coming filmmaker: Jaws. In the same way as Mr. Steven Spielberg had audiences looking at the water in fear of seeing a great white pop up, so does Mr. Peele keep our eyes trained on the sky. Constantly on the lookout for something terrifying from above, the audience is able to relate to the protagonists and feel that same fear of the unknown that drives this movie.
Like all of his movies, Nope has a meaning or morale behind the story, and there seem to be two here that are intertwined. One that tells us we cannot control certain animals and another about the curse of spectacle. While the UFO out on screen makes for a very entertaining movie, the idea of this massive object being used by others for some kind of personal gain is foolish. Yet throughout we see different folks trying to utilize it for this kind of gain. Jupe is the prime example of this but so OJ and Emerald in a way, as are some appearances by entertainment hounds like TMZ. Their hunts for fame or fortune at the expense of everything they have including their own lives is a stark reminder of what this kind of greed can bring. And there are terrible consequences for those who try to tame this “beast” in the sky.
After seeing this movie, I am incredibly excited for where Peele can go from here. If he can maintain this sci-fi angle while still making terrific stories of a thriller and horror nature he certain can done anything. While I would not want to waste his talent on something so oversaturated as a superhero story, perhaps we should be given him the opprotunity to make a large budget movie about whatever he wants. There is no telling what amazing movie he could make if he was given incredible opprotunity. But I fear that tying him to a large pre-existing property or franchise would draw unneeded scrutinity. If he wants to continue playing in a sandbox of his own desire he certainly should as I would welcome it.
9/10
Until I see another one