Nope Review

 

Jordan Peele's Get Out had been a revitalizing take on the thriller/horror genre from the lens of a black eye. It had become a cultural phenomenon upon its release. One of the reasons for that is because it took a real situation that Black Americans find themselves in and wrapped it into one of the scariest imagery ever. It was fresh and invigorating to see a Hollywood film like this from a black director. In the film industry movies with black leads and cast are pigeon holed a lot. We get a lot of movies dealing with the hood, drugs, slavery, sports, and comedy, but horror and thriller movies are rare. This film was like a tipping point for more diverse films by black creators.

In 2018 we finally got the first black superhero Black Panther on the silver screen. We got Sorry to Bother You in the same year, See You Yesterday, and Fast Color for a few others not long after. Jordan Peele also brought his second feature film US in 2019. The public reception on this is mixed though I still quite enjoyed it. When the poster and title for Nope was revealed I was immediately intrigued. I didn't need to see any trailers or teasers. I was dead set on seeing it.

Nope Stars Daniel Kaluya and Keke Palmer

 

Nope's premise is relatively simple, two siblings who are horse trainers in Hollywood soon find themselves entangled in a phenomena that results in mysterious deaths. That's as vague as I can keep it without giving away spoilers. The trailers for this film was vague in itself which caused buzz around the internet with what the movie might actually be about be seeing this for yourself I believe is the best way to experience it. That being said it is hard for me to do an actual review on this without talking about the details so just to give you my quick thoughts I did thoroughly enjoyed the film. The beginning part of the film I believe was a little slow. It took a bit for the conflict to arise which I didn't necessarily need it to happen. There was a lot of dialogue in these scenes, but the dialogue wasn't engaging. I feel that Peele could work better on his dialogue delivery. I'm not sure if it was the shots and framing or the dialogue itself, but it didn't keep me engaged. There are other films where I am still engrossed for long stretches without action because of excellent dialogue, but it just didn't hit in most cases in Nope.

When Nope finally got to the main conflict, like with Perfect Blue I was engaged until the end. There were a lot of theories online if this film is dealing with aliens or not, but when it's really revealed what's going on it becomes enticing. This film is definitely meant to be seen in theaters. It was shot in IMAX and the visuals were so nice and crisp in the theater. The sound design was also enhanced by this. I'm sure all of the action packed and creepy moments wouldn't hit as well on my television. Definitely go see this in theaters.

SPOILERS BELOW! SPOILERS BELOW!

 

 

 

So partway in it is revealed in Nope that the threat in the movie is aliens, well actually an alien. The thing that killed OJ's father at the beginning of the movie was the flying saucer alien. It had presumably just eaten and spit out the non-organic objects it sucked up one of which was a key that eviscerated OJ's dad's eye and lodged into his horse. The object in the sky being an actual creature instead of a ship like we usually see in science fiction is actually refreshing and nothing I actually considered. When the UFO or UAP is first discovered OJ's sister Em has the idea to catch it on film to become rich and famous and this film becomes sort of a capture film while still being horrifying.

I liked seeing them set up the equipment and getting the set ready to capture the beast on film. The chase was suspenseful and was thoroughly worried if these characters would be successful in their capture especially after the white guy fucked everything up and then Em and OJ nearly got killed themselves. I did get a bit confused at the end. I wasn't sure if the alien changed form or if it had sucked in a tent or something. I will definitely have to see this again. Em performing the Akira slide in the finale was doubly hype. By the end I was wanting more. I stayed until the end credits to see if there was any indication of where these characters would end up. Would that photo be sufficient proof? But Em did kill it so there is physical evidence with its corpse. The family seem like they went through it so they deserve money.

After going home and watching other reviews there's a side of the film I didn't even think about. The Gordy the chimp scenes was reflecting a theme with the characters. Ricky who was portrayed by Steven Yun was on this sitcom where this trained ape was used for entertainment and spectacle and one day when the balloon popped and set it off it went on a killing rampage. Later in the movie it appears that Ricky already knew about this alien and was using it for shows, but then something goes wrong, he looks directly at it and he and his audience were killed. It was Gordy all over again. I heard from these reviewers that it confused audiences, but I myself wasn't really thinking about it at all. I don't like using this term, but I guess you could say I had my brain turned off through most of the film so I was just enjoying the moment and not really thinking about where this all ties in, but after hearing this I appreciate the film more. I definitely want to see it again. I just wish it had stronger dialogue in it's slower paced scenes. If they were good I would put this film at a 9/10. Still excellent and I support black creatives putting out diverse stories like this. Go see it please!