Nope (2022) Review
One of the things that I like about Jordan Peele’s direction is the way he subverts the horror genre and made it uniquely his own. And he has already proved that in his first two movies including Get Out (2017) and Us (2019), even though the latter didn’t quite reach the creative height seen in his directorial debut.
His third movie, Nope continues Peele’s obsession with the horror genre but with an added sci-fi trope this time around. It boasts a bigger budget too with a reported US$68 million to make and if that’s not enough, Nope made cinematic history as the first horror movie shot with IMAX cameras.
As for the plot, here’s what you need to know: Nope follows Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald “Em” Haywood (Keke Palmer), both brother and sister who oversee their late father’s (Keith David) horse ranch in Agua Dulce, California. A series of unexplained events happen including a mysterious flying object in the sky, which leads the siblings to try to capture it using security cameras.
This is the kind of movie that falls into the “less you know the better” category and after finally watching Nope in IMAX, I have to say the words “mixed feelings” are best described in this movie. But first, here are what I liked about Nope. Peele made the right choice by enlisting Hoyte van Hoytema, the acclaimed cinematographer who shot Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017) and Tenet (2020) with IMAX cameras. Not only the IMAX cinematography in Nope brings a majestic scope to the wide-open space of Agua Dulce but also a visceral sense of looming threat in the sky above. The special effects are seamless and Peele’s technical know-how in staging suspenseful and thrilling set pieces has once again proved why he’s among the best in the business. Cases in point include the eerie opening scene and another one involves OJ’s creepy encounter in a barn.
But I particularly enjoyed the shockingly tense and violent moment that features Steven Yeun’s younger character of Ricky “Jupe” Park (played by Jacob Kim) witnessing a massacre on a live television set. The scene may have been uncomfortably graphic but Peele has a knack for showing us just enough of what we need to see without making everything look gratuitous. No doubt a great example that some things are better left to the imagination, which in turn, helps to heighten the sense of terror.
Nope may have been a triumph in every technical aspect and not to forget, Michael Abels’ ominous score and the movie’s haunting sound design that makes the IMAX experience all the more cinematic. And yet, Peele’s latest movie is surprisingly a letdown in terms of his enigmatic storytelling and character arcs. Nope sure feels overlong and erratic in its pacing, where the 130-minute length could have used a tighter edit. Peele’s Twilight Zone-style sci-fi horror screenplay tries so hard to be ambitious and thought-provoking, only to end up with more questions than answers about the whole mysterious thing that happens to the Haywood siblings.
It sure reminded me of J.J. Abrams’ Lost series — not the plot but more on how Abrams and Peele open promisingly with an intriguing and attention-grabbing mystery that keeps us wondering all the whats, whys and hows. But as the story progresses further that leads to the finale, the payoff is rather underwhelming and I would even say a cop-out as well.
For instance, I can’t help but feel the whole subplot involving Steven Yeun’s character as Ricky “Jupe” Park, the owner of an Old West-style theme park called Jupiter’s Claim is like a narrative misdirection that leads to nowhere. Sure, his character involves what happened to his traumatic past as a former child star is a gripping piece of storytelling. And although Peele does try to connect the dots between Ricky and the Haywood siblings, whatever loose ends that he attempts to tie up remains murky and frankly, disjointed.
Peele’s Get Out and even the otherwise heavy-handed Us manage to fascinate me with his now-familiar brand of cerebral and metaphor-heavy storytelling, which are designed for debates and interpretations. He tries to repeat the same feat with Nope but too bad Peele’s screenplay comes across as overly self-indulgent rather than giving us the right balance between subverting the genre(s) and bringing together all the intriguing ideas into a cohesive whole.
Nope also surprises me with the lacklustre cast — something that Peele did well in his first two movies. He may reunite with Daniel Kaluuya, where the latter did an impressive job in Get Out. But Nope sees Kaluuya being reduced to a charisma-free performance as OJ. While I understand his character is meant to be emotionally reserved but why Peele needs to make him so unsympathetic? This, in turn, made me hardly care about the so-called struggles that he’s been through between keeping his late father’s horse-wrangling business afloat and the mysterious flying object that terrorise him and his sister. Kaluuya is a talented actor and he clearly deserves better than this.
The rest of the cast, in the meantime, is a mixed bag. Keke Palmer’s spunky turn as Emerald delivers decent support while Steven Yeun is equally effective as Ricky “Jupe” Park. It’s just a pity that Yeun’s otherwise sufficient supporting turn is defeated by a scattered storytelling arc. Brandon Perea gives a worthwhile performance as tech salesman Angel but it’s rather disappointing to see Michael Wincott’s eccentric turn as a cinematographer who ends up helping the Haywood siblings to capture the flying object in films is being wasted here. Let’s just say the introduction as well as the subsequent fate of his character feels like a senseless filler.
I really wish Nope would end up in one of my Top 10 best movies list of 2022. But despite Peele’s masterful direction in the IMAX-worthy technical areas, he sadly failed what equally matters as well — engaging character arcs and storytelling.
