Nope (2022)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Jordan Peele makes movies unlike any other right now. Nope, his sci-fi summer blockbuster of sorts, is densely layered, thoughtful, and compelling and ready to open up conversations we still may not be ready to have.
Daniel Kaluuya is terrific, Keke Palmer especially wonderful, as a brother and sister tandem forced to save the family business from an unfathomable threat.
Michael Abels score is powerful stuff, as is Hoyte Van Hoytema’s stunning cinematography.
NO
Doesn’t fully come together in the moments where Peele goes “all-in” as an ode to Spielberg and blockbuster science fiction.
For some, the symbolism and analogy may get in the way of the movie they think they are getting, When Universal Pictures touts this as “It’s Not What You Think” - at least those going in without reading reviews or talking with friends are going to understand that marketing isn’t wrong.
Some are feeling Peele is a storyteller yielding diminishing returns. Each of his films are topical and smart, but also different in the ways they push people’s thinking on conventional horror, suspense, and science fiction. If you just want simple, Peele is definitely not for you.
OUR REVIEW
Subversive, clever, yet caught in trying to mix together symbolism, topical messaging and an audience-ready science-fiction blockbuster, Jordan Peele’s Nope is intense, terrifying, and not at all what you are likely expecting. While a second viewing is almost mandatory, it was rapper Meek Mills who famously said in his 2013 hit, “It’s levels to this s**t.”
On the one hand, we have the surface story: Brother and sister, OJ and Emerald (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer - fantastic in their personality juxtaposition), begin experiencing strange, unexplained circumstances at their family’s ranch house, leading to the discovery of a giant UFO darting and zipping in and out of sight. The ranch is located in Agua Dulce, a backdrop to many of Hollywood’s most iconic westerns, and the family business is Haywood’s Hollywood Horses - a company providing trained horses for television and movie productions.
When the siblings attempt to document what they are seeing, looking for an “Oprah moment,” a retail store clerk and tech installer, Angel (Brandon Perea), inserts himself into the equation by monitoring new security cameras and tossing out conspiracy theories. To help in their effort, the Haywoods contact an eccentric filmmaker, Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), who offers his services bringing along his homemade, non-electric, IMAX crank-handle camera to document the secrets of the Agua Dulce skies.
Digging deeper, Nope is a film about spectacle. It is also very much a film about firsts. And let’s toss in an exploration of how easily we exploit moments and people, with reckless disregard to any impact that may cause to those involved. How that all fits into a science-fiction film about a spaceship terrorizing a family on ranch land outside of Los Angeles is part of the potential obsession and likely frustration some will have with such an intricate and occasionally puzzling final product.
This time around, Peele has a major budget, a massive fan base, and heightened buzz with Nope. The mid-July release date and a substantial marketing campaign add to the stakes. And for the first time, Universal Studios is opening an attraction in its theme parks to coincide with the release of the film. This is part of the spectacle.
That last point also represents a “first.” And Peele fills his film with several references to seminal moments, both real and imagined within the universe of Nope. For one example, we learn the Haywoods are direct descendents of the Black man seen riding a horse in Eadweard Muybridge’s first-ever motion picture, The Horse in Motion, first shown in 1878.
Emerald, in a sales pitch near the start of the film, states that they are the only Black-owned business offering this service to Hollywood producers and filmmakers. Though she seeks a career outside of the family trade, there’s pride in the pitch she’s giving. And yet no one acknowledges the impact or the lineage that has led to OJ and Emerald being present in that moment and for keeping the family business alive in a shifting world of filmmaking practices and trickery.
Along the way, we also meet a former child actor (Stephen Yeun) who suffered a traumatic on-set experience where a chimpanzee, Gordy, trained to act on television, went ballistic and left carnage and destruction in his wake. That was a first. And also a spectacle. A massive news story at the time, we learn the event led to chimps no longer used as television performers. The actor, now married with a young family, performs a tourist show adjacent to the Haywood compound. Decades later, he is wrestling with the haunts of a situation he has seemingly never moved past.
The firsts constantly collide with spectacle and Nope is very much about the reaction we have around those moments. If people’s most vulnerable or significant moments, both public or private, are tossed aside in equal measure, then who are we? How do we care for people when they are in need? How do we properly respond to crises if people’s feelings and emotions become meaningless to us as a society? And by reducing firsts and spectacle-like moments into meaninglessness so rapidly and quickly, how do we cure our ravenous hunger for whatever comes next?
There’s levels to this s**t.
Nope’s final act, an embrace of the summer blockbuster people expect it to be, does feel slightly hollow when compared to Peele’s previous films. A thoughtfulness drifts away a bit and we are simply watching a film reminiscent of the big studio films he draws inspiration from. Peele has more than earned the chance to create anything he wants. However, in abandoning his overall thesis for some big budget thrills, the film suffers a bit of a tumble from a very ambitious climb.
Kaluuya is terrific as a soft-spoken counterbalance to Palmer’s more rambunctious and enigmatic personality. Emerald sees more for herself. OJ has largely accepted his lot in life. They play brilliantly off of one another.
Outside of Yeun’s character, the supporting cast lacks in the way of character development. Amplifying the film with another powerhouse score is Peele’s go-to-composer, Michael Abels. Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography is stellar, balancing visions of fear and terror amid an expansive setting, illuminating an ominous daylight while almost making the nighttime a foreboding character all its own.
Though probably the easiest of Peele’s films to tear apart, Nope remains a densely-layered analysis of where we stand as a culture, within a world where everything's made to feel big and consequential. Peele sees our collective nature to dismiss, pivot, posture and toss aside significance as deeply problematic. When our “firsts” are junk-piled and spectacle becomes boring, society is truly in far more danger than any cylindrical object from outer space could ever inflict upon us.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Terry Notary, Steven Yeun, Wrenn Schmidt, Keith David, Barbie Ferreira, Jacob Kim, Sophia Coto
Director: Jordan Peele
Written by: Jordan Peele
Release Date: July 22, 2022
Universal Pictures