Film Review - Nope (15)

What do you call a bad miracle, huh? Is there a name for that?

Modern cinema needs Jordan Peele. If it didn't do so pre-pandemic, it certainly requires his unique movie-making sensibilities right now. In a Hollywood more wedded than ever to sequels, reboots, and adaptations of well-established intellectual properties, thank God there's someone within its system writing and directing mainstream work on their own terms. 

In a career that draws comparisons with the early work of M. Night Shyamalan, Peele has, with his three features to date, become an event filmmaker for this era. His brilliant and provocative debut, 2017's Get Out, viewed racist America through the prism of horror in a way that both chilled and enthralled. He followed up with Us, a macabre doppelganger nightmare, boasting striking visuals and a terrific double-performance from Lupito Nyong'o (even if for me it didn't hold together conceptually). And now he's given us Nope - a sidestep from horror into summer blockbuster territory, but with his idiosyncratic style fully intact. Result - a dark but exhilarating theme-park ride like no other you'll have ridden.

Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya play Emerald and OJ, sibling inheritors of the Haywood Ranch, 'the only black-owned horse trainers in Hollywood', as Emerald proudly states. But with a lucrative contract falling through and the business subsequently flagging, sister and brother seek financial salvation - looking to the sky rather than the plain. Strange phenomena are afflicting the ranch, and both Haywoods suspect they're experiencing a close encounter of that much debated third kind. What they need is proof - the kind that might provide them with an 'Oprah moment', propelling them and their business into fame and fortune. But attaining such evidence is problematic, especially if the extra-terrestrials in question turn out not to be the cuddly kind...

That's all I'm saying plotwise, with reluctance to reveal even that much. The more that Nope retains its enigma, the more entertaining you're likely to find it. Just be prepared for Peele to take a genre you feel you know and put several spins on it, none of which you'll see coming. If the film starts out paralleling one classic holiday mega-movie of old, you may be well be recalling a different one by the end, thoroughly taken aback by how you got there. 

With this third movie, certain traits are apparent that might be described as 'Peeleian'. This is an artist forging his cinematic destiny, taking familiar movie tropes and spinning them into fantastical creations all his own. You may be reminded of this movie or that director, but his films - however your rank them in quality - are all Jordan Peele. That's true in terms of narrative shape and visual style, along with the lack of compromise in how these stories play out, and the viewpoint from which they're told. 

It's not simply that the director is putting non-white characters front and centre in the kinds of film that traditionally had white protagonists, or that he's telling old tales from a new perspective. The stories themselves are almost reckless in terms of imagination and where this teller allows them to go. Nor is it a question of genre-splicing; Nope has the epic qualities of both science fiction and western with liberal splotches of horror along the way, but it's more than the sum of these familiar parts. The ideas that develop are ones you've never thought of before, and the visuals are ones you've never seen.

Think of Get Out, with Daniel Kaluuya dropping into the 'sunken place' as Catherine Keener torments him with a teacup and silver spoon. Or the mirror-image family of 'others' in Us, wearing their red boiler-suits and terrifying rictus expressions. There are a good half-dozen images from Nope so striking that they'll stay with me long after having watched the movie, none of which I'm going to flag up here (even if the telltale trailers do). Some are horrific in their implications, some are surreal, some are just plain awesome. But all demonstrate the freshness of Peele's vision and the reason why his work is rapidly acquiring the tag of 'must-see'.

As in his earlier films the acting talent helps. Palmer as Emerald is an irreverent whirl of energy, while Kaluuya's OJ is a stoic contrast, a taciturn cowboy whose dry delivery in moments of tension provides some of the funniest moments. There's great support too - Brandon Perea's tech salesman becomes a likeable central player, The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun is a local showman with big ambitions, and the gravel-voiced Michael Wincott is just great to listen to. Some of the dialogue is muddy - frustrating in early moments of plot exposition, thought that may be IMAX-related. I had a similar problem with Bullet Train the week prior - amazing ambient sound that you often felt in your bones, but reduced clarity in the actual characters' speech. Whatever the reason, it was a notable irritation in an otherwise great experience. But let's focus on the greatness.

Because in a week where news broke of the Cineworld theatre chain's imminent bankruptcy, great film experiences are what the industry needs. Movies that remind mainstream audiences, post-lockdown, why cinema is able to deliver something that home viewing, however advanced, never can. Nope is that kind of movie - visually crafted with verve and technical expertise at every point; telling an old story in a new way, one with sharp intelligence, visual wit, and an iconography all its own. Its current $118 million global box office is pretty solid, enough to reaffirm Jordan Peele's status as a modern auteur filmmaker, making original movies aimed at a big audience. He's to be applauded - and the best place to do that is in a cinema seat enjoying the latest fruits of his ambition. Go see Nope. In terms of both artistry and commerce, it's this kind of film that will keep the modern film industry alive. 

Gut Reaction: The most suspense-based clenching and flinching I'd done since A Quiet Place - Part 2, with added squinting at the screen to check if I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing.

Memorable Moment: Gordy goes bananas in the film's frankly mental subplot.

Ed's Verdict: 8/10. While retaining the elements of horror and satire that made his name, Peele broadens his scope, creating the most unusual and original big budget entertainment of the summer, one that deserves - along with films like Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis - to be seen on the biggest screen available. Like, yesterday.