NOPE (2022): FILM REVIEW - SPOILERS

NOPE (M)

Written and directed by Jordan Peele

Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Brandon Perea

Duration: 130 minutes

Jordan Peele is a writer/director who now has a blind opening night ticket buy from me. Not only have his three directorial features been successes, both critically and financially, but all three have been operating in different spheres of the broader horror genre. Get Out is an Ira Levin-inspired horror tale with a sharp eye for social commentary, and Us begins as a razor-sharp home invasion thriller before morphing into something more absurdist and allegorical. Nope continues this trend, as well as continuing Peele's knack for pithy, memorable titles. 

Importantly, both for seeing this film and presumably future Jordan Peele films, Nope does not operate in the same vein of horror as his previous two films. In fact, aside from a handful of scenes of genuine terror, Nope is largely more of a science fiction adventure film than it is a straight horror film. Think Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Jaws. 

So to get my initial spoiler-free thoughts out of the way before I dive in (this is an incredibly difficult film to talk about without spoiling it), Nope is very good. Is it as good as Get Out? I don't think so. Is it better than Us? Definitely. Is it an exciting and worthwhile trip to the cinema? Without a doubt. Jordan Peele is 3 for 3, and he has managed to that without repeating himself. 

From here on out I will be spoiling Nope, so you have been warned.

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

It takes balls to make a film like this when you already have a built up set of expectations from your audience in the way Jordan Peele does. Not only to take on the UFO sub-genre in earnest, but to twist it and use it as a mirror for film culture today; it's a film that manages to have its cake and eat it too.  

The film is at first glance a film of two halves; we spend time marinating in the mystery and horror of the characters discovering exactly what is happening on their ranch, before we shift to the romping second half dedicated to capturing the UFO on film. And while this is true structurally, there is a thematic throughline that elevates the film to being more than just the sum of these two sections separated by tone and action. 

The thematic tissue of the film is teased in the opening scene with the truncated flashback of Gordy the chimp, paid off later when we see this sequence in full. This film is about one thing: spectacle. The human desire to take something amazing and full of awe and commodify it for profit or for personal gain. We get a perfect introduction to Steven Yeun's character and where he learns such entrepreneurial desire in this sequence - he survives and encounter with the purely animalistic as a result of nothing more than dumb luck, and he instead internalises this encounter as proof of his ability to encounter the animal as an equal. This is reflected directly in his adult self attempting to reign the UFO in for commercial profit.

Speaking of which; we need to talk about the UFO. The decision to make it an organic creature in itself is one that pays off hugely, especially when it comes to delivering effective scare moments. The digestion sequence inside the UFO after Yeun's attempted Sky Lasso exhibition is bone-chilling and abstract in equal measure, but the sequence immediately afterwards is what cements Nope as perhaps Jordan Peele's most ambitious cinematic expression. Reverent in its obvious homage to horror classics of the past, the blood rain sequence is pure horror cinema at its finest. The cries of the victims floating unseen through the night sky, suddenly silenced, followed by a torrent of blood and gore showering over the bone white house is so well constructed and executed with just the right balance of restraint and shock value that it is, in my mind, an early entry in the hall of fame of greatest horror sequences of this decade. 

More so than any other previous Jordan Peele outing, this is an extravagant cinematic experience in the way that David Lean epics of the 1950s and '60s struck awe in the hearts of theatre-goers. The night photography is breathtaking, and the IMAX cinematography evokes the grandeur of the great Western cinematic tradition in its scope and natural beauty. There is one shot in particular that has been burned into my brain as perhaps one of the most striking cinematic images of the decade so far - Daniel Kaluuya in a breathtaking wide on horseback in his orange hoodie, the UFO swooping over the crest behind him and rotating up onto its side - stunning, terrifying and beautiful all at once. 

The aforementioned Gordy sequence bears further mention, too. There is a darkly comedic element to the sequence, especially when the sitcom father begins to attempt to reason with Gordy. But that comedic edge melts away instantly like chills down a spine when Gordy looks directly at Ricky - an us, the audience. This single moment and the ensuing minute or so are some of the most tense I have experienced in a theatre this year. 

I do think that the film loses some of the momentum built up by the mystery of the first half by the time the UFO is fully revealed. This is where the film takes on its status as a film of two halves, and very openly becomes something new. But for me this shift in tone to something more grand and bombastic deflates some of the excitement and intrigue that it had built up; this is something that held up for me on a second viewing, too. I don't bring this up necessarily as a criticism of the film, however, because this is entirely something I experienced based on my own tastes and expectations - the film executes this more adventurous final act to perfection on its own terms. And it's not to say that the film is not left with any lingering mystery, because it is. Chiefly, the mystery of the shoe seen by young Ricky is something that I have been mulling over since seeing the film. Exactly what it represents or means is something we can discuss another time, but it represents the lingering mystery and wonderment that excites me about filmmaking and was the inspiration behind the name of this very blog. 

Nope is further proof that Jordan Peele is one of the most exciting cinematic voices of this generation. It doesn't follow the blueprint left by either Get Out or Us, something that would challenge even the most established of directors, and yet continues the trend of his films being singular, unique expressions of an important voice in black cinema. Treat yourself, and go and see Nope on the biggest screen you can find.