[7.9/10] *Nope* is a film of tremendous spectacle. Writer/director/producer Jordan Peele has not lost the slightest of steps in crafting evocative sequences with his team. He elicits tension as heroes and bystanders alike flee the giant specter lurking through the sky, ready to suck them up. He captures the balletic grace of a ribbony jellyfish creature floating through the clouds and gobbling up what it finds. He gets the heart pumping as his new age cowboy races through the western skyline, dust whipping in his wake, as the creature sharply pursues. To see it on the big screen is to be awed by it.

But at the same time, it is a film about that spectacle, the lengths filmmakers go to capture it, profit from it, take credit for it. It’s hard to know how to take that. There’s a recursive quality to the film, a movie rife with impossible images about the cost and peril, moral and otherwise, about committing those images to film. At the very least, it speaks to one of Peele’s recurring narrative motifs, those overlooked or underappreciated, who nonetheless contribute to that which is beautiful and even transcendent, even as they’re appropriated or forgotten.

Here, he extends that franchise to the animals made to perform for Hollywood productions. From Gordy, the sitcom chimp who goes on a rampage, to the horses on the Haywood family ranch loaned out for television and film, to Jean Jacket, the living UFO who feeds on whatever flesh he finds in the great loping west, *Nope* is suffused with an inherent respect and fear for the wild animals made to perform for our amusement.

The subtext of the story suggests that these animals should not be treated as just another prop, but rather respected and treated like the fellow souls they are. They possess a power, one that requires us to meet them on their level to be able to forge a working relationship with them, lest we be subject to the parts of them that remain wild, the parts we cannot control, no matter how much we think we have them cowed.

The themes, as always, are potent. *Nope* lingers in the mind and the heart, in its reflections on the creatures made to perform, the urge to wrangle such heart-stopping images, and those who are disregarded and overlooked in both efforts. But the film’s characters are some of Peele’s most inaccessible. Their decisions are often strange, their reactions stranger. Their motivations vary, but often come down to the need for wealth or fame or both. They are some of the director’s most colorful figures, but in a way that can obscure the sense of an inner life beyond the ideas and motifs they signify. It makes the movie a hard one to warm to at times, with the players more sketched than defined.

And yet, in those quieter undefined spaces, Daniel Kaluuya shines once again. It’s hard to discern whether his character -- O.J. Haywood, the inheritor of his father’s Hollywood horse ranch -- is meant to be neurodivergent or simply the archetypal strong silent type. Regardless, he is a man of few words, and Kaluuya makes a meal out of the meaningful looks and body language that convey his bearing and demeanor despite that.

He is reserved, if not outright shy, full of determination, if only to carry on the barrier-breaking legacy his father built, and he is made of steely, steady, stuff. Those qualities make him someone who understands animals better than people, and combine to make him the perfect soul to respect, comprehend, and even commune with this being from the beyond.

Peele and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema also understand how to shoot him. *Nope* is filled with any number of eerie, low-light scenes where OJ, his more extraverted sister Em, and their handful of neighbors and allies investigated the strangeness hovering above their doorstep. Peele and his collaborators still know how to evoke a sense of dread in these moments, with obscured visions, suggestions of something ominous, and blank spaces for the viewers to fill in with god knows what.

But there’s also great attention to the detail in the lighting, bringing out Kaluuya’s complexion and definition even in darkness, highlighting his expressive eyes, that allows his performance to take center stage even amid the building horror and eerie tone. There’s an interiority to O.J. in particular, and sharp choices in lighting and composition help draw it out to the audience’s wavelength.

Peele and company also do well to set up rules for Jean Jacket that both speak to the movie’s themes while creating practical challenges for the main characters to overcome. The flying beast deadens anything electrical in its wake, something that stops vehicles in their tracks, permits the sound team to chill the audience with waning audio, and makes filming it that much more challenging. The alien creature can only consume organic matter, with rains of discarded metal and other leavings that make it sick creating both a practical danger and frightening imagery. And as with the horses the Haywood family trains, it is provoked through making eye-contact with it as it roams the skies above, turning the horror flick into a reverse “the floor is lava” game of staying shielded from view. These qualities are cinematic, while also creating pragmatic challenges that the main players must be clever and determined to overcome.

In that, the movie’s creative team crafts some of the stunning horror that already defines Peele’s budding filmography. The title drop comes when O.J. witnesses the magnitude and power of this cloud-hopping behemoth, “nopes out” of doing anything to get in its way, as the same imposing figure prompts the audience to do the same. It’s a film as steeped in feelings as it is in thoughts, and the sense of abject terror as something that cannot be controlled, or tamed, only accommodated, imposes its will on those brave or foolhardy enough to try to use it for notoriety, riches, or entertainment.

*Nope* uses it for those ends too. It’s hard to tell whether the filmmakers want us to feel complicit in this, to speak out against animal cruelty in Holywood, to recognize the below-the-line workers who make the impossible into the real, or simply to experience the same terror and triumph its players do. But in this alternating languid and exhilarating movie, the spectacle, and the awe, overwhelm, as Peele conveys his signature incredible images, through his characters striving to do the same.

Another banger from mr. Peele. He’s challenging himself and the audience once again with his latest effort, this time focussing on themes such as [spoiler] the relationship between humans and animals, consumerism, grief and fame through the lens of exploitation [/spoiler]. It’s probably his most technically proficient, truly excellent cinematography and music. The characters and actors all hit their mark, the tension’s very well built up, it’s genre bending and unique; the man knows what he’s doing. I have some minor problems with the writing though. The Daniel Kaluuya character figures out a pretty major twist during the second act, which is a major turning point for the story ([spoiler] the ufo is an animal, and you shouldn’t look at it [/spoiler]), but I’m a bit fuzzy on how he arrived at that conclusion. It sort of makes sense if you consider his profession, but I still thought it was a little thin. There are also a few characters that show up in the third act that feel either unnecessary, or share the same purpose in the story. For example, you could’ve cut the tmz journalist (who by the way looks a lot like one of the Daft Punk robots) out entirely, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Still, my quibbles with this are pretty minor, mr. Peele has a great trilogy under his belt now. A trilogy of auteur driven studio films, quite the rarity in the current Hollywood system. Is he the new Denis Villeneuve/Chris Nolan? Time will tell, but I wouldn’t bet against the guy at this point.

8/10

Nope is a movie of two equally great but disparate halves. The first is a harrowing examination of what we do when faced with ‘bad miracles’. Keke Palmer’s effortlessly charming Em wants to get hers, get the fame and money and recognition she and her family have fought for by explaining the terrible unknown. Perea’s Angel just doesn’t want to be left out of something this big. Steven Yuen’s Jupe is haunted by one from his past and looks to wrangle a new one as a way to understand and come to terms with it, give it meaning, And Daniel Kaluuya’s OJ does what black people have always had to do; weather the storm, stare it down, and know when to Nope the fuck out. This first half sets up that while Get Out reckoned with the horrors of the past that reverberate, and Us dealt with the monsters within us, especially the ones that don’t look like we expect, Nope will tackle the horrifically miraculous. The one in a million, can’t be explained but must be lived through natural tragedies.

The second half is a thrilling spectacle, a homage to both classic Spielberg fate like Jaws and old school schlock in the best ways. It plays like a fusion between a monster movie and disaster fare like Twister. It’s a heartening example of what blockbuster films can be with a director who truly has a vision and is allowed to execute it, as opposed to the ‘house style’ of the MCU.

Again, both of these halves are good, great even. And they are of equal quality. But they don’t quite mesh into one complete film like Peele intends. Still, it’s impossible not to recommend. The cast is fantastic. The things Daniel Kaluuya can do with his eyes are still unmatched, and Steven Yuen has a stare that feels nearly as impossible in length as it does masterful in conveying his character. Peele has fantastic shots, the naturalistic design of the monster unsettling while keying in on the core themes of the movie, and it has Keith David! It feels like a nod to one of Peele’s biggest influences, John Carpenter, cause there’s a good amount of overlap in theme and motivation of The Thing and the creature of Nope. There’s two great halves of two different movies that had they been paired with their matching half, could’ve created an amazing one. But it’s still no reason to Nope out of seeing this one.

Loved the opening sequence. Loved Daniel Kaluuya's performance. Loved the almost Tarantino-esque backstory behind Steven Yeun's character. Loved Brandon Perea as the conspiracy theory Fry's employee and Michael Wincott as the auteur cinematographer, who both are worthwhile sidekicks to the Haywoods. I was a little less enthused with Keke Palmer's character, although her frustrating qualities were mostly intentional and therefore well performed. Regarding the plot, while I was totally on board for the ride, I didn't end up loving the way things played out in the end. The movie tries to set up and pull off a big reversal/reveal ([spoiler]the fact that it was an alien animal rather than a UFO[/spoiler]), but it didn't really work for me because: (1) it felt contradictory to what we had already learned ([spoiler]how does an animal generate a cloud that holds **perfectly** still? And how does it knock out all electricity? Definitely sounds like something tech based, not organic[/spoiler]); and (2) it just didn't seem to practically matter all that much to the story, with the attempts to thematically tie things together coming across as superficial/forced ([spoiler]i.e. the whole taming/breaking discussion and the idea that not looking at a creature that doesn't even have discernible eyes would somehow change its behavior[/spoiler]). This carries over into the spectacle/visual reveal during the finale, which also fell flat for me. When something is so out of left field that that audience couldn't possibly have predicted it, then the specifics start to matter less and less.

All of that said, I still had a good time. The filmmaking is expectedly excellent, and while the storytelling decisions didn't all land for me, they were still well executed, with plenty of highlight moments.

Premise - 13/20 - The trailer made the movie seem pretty confusing. Aliens, maybe? Horses, and Glen from The Walking Dead? Not sure what's happening, but interesting enough to get me in the door.
Cast/characters - 12/20 - I liked Steven Yeun, his back story, and understanding his folly. I've seen Daniel Kaluuya around and he seems like a good actor, but I didn't like him in this. Smart, but unlikable. Keke Palmer was funny and an unlikely hero. The actors were OK, I guess, but I never invested any emotion in the characters.
Story - 15/20 - Original, as I'd expect from Jordan Peele. A great storyteller. Tangential scenes from Steven Yeun's past were interesting and yet vital to his character's psychology. A bit of a slow burn and convoluted ending, but from front to back it was mostly enjoyable.
Dialogue - 17/20 - The movie incorporated a "show, don't tell" philosophy that I enjoy, but the dialogue was able to let the viewer know the mindset of the characters and help develop relationships.
World-building - 15/20 - The setting wasn't that riveting, but I liked the connection established between the UFO's, the characters, and the ranch.

72/100 - 3.5/5 stars - Good, not great. Kudos for originality, bummer to the lack of interesting characters. Plus to the side plot with "Gordy's Home", minus to the subplot of the ranch and the family history. Watch it once to say you did, but it wasn't re-watchable.