One of my favorite things about movies is when you discover a director that just meshes with you as a viewer. When you find a director that you really love and their style just comes through the screen. In just three movies, Jordan Peele has really been able to makes him mark on the horror/thriller genre, I know when I see his name and Moneypaw Productions that I am going to be in for a ride that is a familiar genre paired with a socially conscious viewpoint or idea to make it wholly original. Peele was able to accomplish this with his first two movies, Get Out and US and is able to accomplish this simple sounding but extremely difficult task again with his latest film, simply titled Nope.
This being his third film, I would say this is the least horror/thriller of them all. Nope tends to lean more into the sci-fi aspects with the horror genre sprinkled on top. If you have seen the earlier teaser trailers, you know this is Jordan Peele’s version of a alien/UFO movie. I do not want to spoil anymore than what the trailers have shown but it definitely goes much deeper than a traditional alien move like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The basic setup is that Daniel Kaluuya (who was also in Peele’s first movie Get Out) plays OJ, who is running the family business of training horses for Hollywood productions with his father Otis (who is played by Keith David) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) before a sudden freak accident befalls the family. Once this happens is when the mystery starts to build, and the ball just keeps rolling from there.
While most of the performances in this movie are good, there are a couple of standouts that I wanted to highlight. I think the chemistry between Peele and Kaluuya is absolutely on display here. Kaluuya plays OJ to almost perfection with his mixture of grief and a general exhaustion of the world around him. He also has moments of pure courage and bravery that really shine through. I also really loved the character of Emerald. Palmer brought much needed energy to the movie, her character is always moving around, wanting to be the center of her own Hollywood star. The sisterly chemistry she has with Kaluuya is incredible, the way they interact with each other is so convincing to how real siblings, especially older brother/younger sisters are and since they are together for a lot of the film, it really helps elevate it.
Each of Jordan Peele’s other movies have deep, social and cultural themes to them. Get Out uses the psychological thriller genre to make us evaluate how race relationships are in our present times. Us uses traditional slasher horror tropes to talk and show us about class division and inequality in the United States. Nope is no different in this regard, using traditional themes found in other sci-fi alien to further a social issue that we should pay more attention to.
With Nope, Jordan Peele is able to talk about the forgotten history of Hollywood and how much whitewashing has occurred when it comes to its history. A prime example of the whitewashing of that history is the juxtaposition of the two ranches that we see in the film. You have OJ’s family’s ranch that has been training horses for decades, and next to it you have Jupiter’s Claim which claims to be Hollywood’s idealized version of what the classic west was like. OJ is having to sell his horses to Jupiter’s Claim just to keep his part of that history alive, even when Steven Yuen’s character Ricky “Jupe” Park tries to buy the ranch from him. Both of them are part of Hollywood’s forgotten legacy and haunted by each of them trying to hold on to their part of it.
Overall this might be Peele’s best cinematography he has had in is films yet. You can definitely tell he had Hoyte van Hoytema (Christopher Nolan IMAX collaboration), the shots of the sky, and the unmistakable California landscape are absolutely gorgeous. This paired with the shots of the alien use the IMAX cameras to their full extent to provide a masterclass experience.
While I really enjoyed the film, there were some things that did not feel fully executed to their fullest. The storyline involving Steven Yuen was instructing but I felt like his character did not get the redemption that he was craving from his traumatic experience as a child actor (which I will not spoil). He is fantastic actor and the storyline was right there, just did not hit the spot entirely for me.
While out of the three of his movies this is probably the weakest one, that is more of a testament of how strong I think Get Out and Us are than an indictment on Nope. Jordan Peele is providing so much of a creative renaissance to the horror/thriller genre and I really think he brings a lot of his masterwork to the alien/sci-fi genre, Nope just falls slightly behind what the others did to their respective genres. If you are a fan of his work, then you do not need me to tell you to go see it, and if this is your first one of his movies, then I think this is the perfect time to say “Yep” and not "Nope" to Jordan Peele.
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