Nope

Jordan Peele's rise to directorial butts-in-seats stardom has been one of the most pleasant stories out of Hollywood in the last decade.

The fact that his name crawling across a trailer or stamped on a poster is enticing to both movie "snobs" like myself and general audiences is a rare phenomenon reserved mainly for only the likes of Spielberg's, Nolan's, and Tarantino's. 

Peele's films are ones that stick with you too. Get Out, his debut, is probably one of the more talked about and studied films in recent memory while the less-famous Us, was one of my favorite films of 2019. I'm probably in the rare camp that liked Us more than Get Out, but only by hairs. 

From the start, Nope felt different as theories around "aliens" began to swirl. Initial trailers and posters were mysterious but highly intriguing (like the one you see here) but it felt like Peele might be swinging for the "blockbuster" fences with it. 

In many ways, Nope is indeed that swing for the blockbuster fences. There are his classic horror elements present, but also much more sci-fi, mystery, and adventure. One of the film's biggest strengths - similar to why I enjoyed Us so much - is the mystery it crafts. Peele, who also produced and wrote the film, has a knack for creating LOST-esque mysteries through the narrative. The same goes here, with a disturbing opening that you wonder "How does this relate?" and a constant did-I-just-see-that mind trip that's exciting as it is stress-inducing. 

Unfortunately, Nope's biggest fault is that it doesn't quite feel like all the pieces are in the puzzle by the end of the film. Perhaps the wrong metaphor, but it's not in the way that was "creatively ambiguous", but instead "wait...what about X?". There's parts of the mystery that are given decent screen time, but never really answered and the ending, while entertaining, is a disjointed affair, full of characters making decisions without much reasoning, where it's hard to keep up with what's going on. As far as I'm concerned, it's Nope's only issue worth mentioning, but a frustrating one given the build up not matching the pay off. 

Is there...something...there?

Aside from that however, what's here is a lot of fun in a unique package of science fiction, horror, and Peele's talented filmmaking and funny writing. Most of our characters feel fully realized, specifically Daniel Kaluuya's OJ and Keke Palmer's Emerald. Palmer lights up the screen with a lot of infectious energy and a majority of the film's laughs while Kaluuya's more stoic OJ handles a lot of navigating the action and horror beats. 

It's those latter mentions that are where Nope shines the brightest, thanks to a now-very-confident Peele. The horror elements are solid, and more based around eerie tension and special effects in the sky. Before we're fully introduced to what's going on, the way with which our mind and sight plays tricks on us is a lot of fun and features some incredibly subtle, but effective CGI gimmicks. Once we get into a more action/adventure oriented film, the camera work and cinematography is kinetic and thrilling, so much so, that I'd love for Peele to take a stab at a pure action film (franchise or not). Across mainly these two groups of scenes, there's plenty of inspiration from other Hollywood films without directly ripping anything off (see if you can spot the reference to an iconic Dark Knight scene!).

Saying much more about Nope would probably be too much and you're either likely to see it for Peele's name anyway or you're misperceiving that this is another horror film, in which case you should trust in me saying it's mostly not. As much as I enjoyed it, I can't say it's in the same tier as Us or Get Out because it feels like story beats are missing, but that doesn't diminish how entertaining and captivating it can be from one moment to the next.

CONS

• Feels unfocused, with some aspects never really being explained as to how they relate to the overall story
• While the climax is thrilling, it becomes a collection of "Why are they doing that now?" moments

PROS

• Peele's direction is more confident than ever. His horror staples are (lesser) still here but it's some of the action beats that impressed me the most
• Well written characters and humor. Consistently funny, with a few hilarious moments
• Fitting performances all around, but especially from Kaluuya and Palmer (no surprise there)
• Fantastic original score
• Often striking cinematography
• Eerie and well-used special effects. Didn't feel like a single thing looked "fake"
• Entertaining blend of sci-fi, horror, and mystery

Rath's Review Score | 7.5/10