Jordan Peele is one of the very few filmmakers that I’ve had the privilege of watching since his directorial debut Get Out, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. He shot out onto the scene with such a powerful and creative way of storytelling, and that prowess only shined brighter in his sophomore outing Us. With Nope, we see Peele capture lightning in a bottle, as this movies proves to be his most terrifying and captivating film to date.
SYNOPSIS: Two siblings who run a California horse ranch discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.
As one of the most original filmmakers of this day and age, Jordan Peele is not without his influences, and I think this movie is a prime example of that. From the magical score, to the character archetypes, this feels like a love letter to Spielberg Sci-fi spectacles like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Jaws. It pays homage to these movies in such a respectful and original way, while still managing to be extremely different than anything I’ve seen before.
Peele’s genre-blending has always been masterfully handled, but here, it’s truly off the wall in the best way possible. He has essentially crafted a science fiction/black cowboy/horror film all rolled into one - and SOMEHOW - it works. If you gave this screenplay to any other director, I mean ANY other director, it would be a total and complete disaster. But with Peele, he feels right at home, crafting an exciting and fresh Twilight Zone-esque world that I truly never wanted to be done watching.
Daniel Kaluuya gives one of the most layered and difficult performances I’ve seen from an actor in a very long time. His character is very quiet and subdued, and barely speaks for the entire runtime; yet, we get so much out of him. Kaluuya does so much with his eyes and his facial expressions, I was consistently amazed by his performance in this movie and he better get some recognition when awards season rolls around.
Keke Palmer is great here as well and effortlessly charming. Her dynamic with Kaluuya is the emotional strongpoint of the film, and there are a lot of great moments between the two. She serves as the more expressive character of the two, so during the more intense scenes watching her on screen put me on edge more than anyone else. Steven Yeun is fantastic here as well, and is doing a lot in the little screen time that he has.
In paying homage to Jaws, we do have multiple archetypes here that you have to be aware that Peele is poking fun at. The character of Angel played by Brandon Perea is the tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist, and Michael Wincott plays the more stoic and cryptic character, which at one point is directly referenced in the movie. These archetypes work well here, but it might take some slight getting used to at first. I found that the more Angel was in the movie, the more I began to like him, which is always hard for writers to pull off but it works here.
From the very beginning of this movie, it creates an unescapable atmosphere of horror that truly gripped me and did not let up. There were multiple points in this movie where I was actually scared out of my mind, and one scene in particular that disturbed me beyond reason that I’ve been thinking about ever since. This movie leaves so many things unanswered, and deliberately so. Not knowing everything about what you’re watching makes the terror even more prominent, and it will not soon leave me.
Nope is without a doubt the most apparent horror film that Peele has made yet. There was one scene involving blood that could’ve been ripped straight out of a Stephen King novel. The tension this movie holds up through the entire runtime is out of this world (haha), and there were scenes where I could barely look at the screen. The third act in particular was one of the most intense finales I have seen in a long time, it was a true white-knuckled spectacle that I genuinely could not believe I was watching at times.
With Jordan Peele’s films, there is always more under the surface going on. Us is still Peele at his most dense and layered, but Nope I believe finds him at his most existential, and quite possible his most hard to crack. The trick of this movie is, it almost seems like there isn’t much going on under the surface, until you put all of the pieces together. The opening scene, and the events that we see unfold pertaining to that opening, are what add so much subtext to this story. There’s certainly more going on than meets the eye, but we are not babied whatsoever in finding out what it’s all about. Get Out and Us really flash their messages right at you in bright red, and while there certainly is some of that here - one scene in particular involving a TMZ reporter is very telling - there are certainly different interpretations to the different layers at play.
At times, I found this movie to move just a little slow, but this fact only enhanced the scenes where the tension was rising - the calm before the storm if you will. But I think what made some of the slower scenes feel so slow, was the lack of development for the characters. The story for our cast is very simple, and there’s not a whole lot of room for them to develop inside of it. The movie is primarily focused on establishing the concept and building tension of what is happening, and it really works. You still care for what’s happening, but would you care more if you knew these character a little better? Probably. However, this movie knows what it is, and it’s certainly not a character study by any means.
It somehow accomplishes being a shocking horror movie, an awestruck science fiction spectacle, and a down to earth western all in the span of two hours, and never once do these genres feel muddled together. This multi-faceted storytelling approach causes the movie to be a never ending series of unexpected events that never come across as out of balance.
Nope is a phenomenal and wholly-original summer blockbuster filled with thrills, spectacles, and genuine scares. It had me on the edge of my seat for the entire runtime, and I was truly sad to leave the theater after the experience. Daniel Kaluuya and Jordan Peele are the new Scorsese and De Niro, and I can’t wait to see what crazy thing Jordan Peele comes up with next as the most original voice in film today.
9/10
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