Nope Review: Jordan Peele’s Summer Blockbuster That Cinema Was Waiting For
Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea
Director: Jordan Peele
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Nope Review: The interminable wait is over. Jordan Peele’s new Nope is finally making its big screen debut. Much is expected from the director and screenwriter of two milestones such as Get Out and Us. A lot is expected because Jordan Peele has completely renewed the formula of the horror genre by mixing it inextricably with the thriller with writing that reaches the public moving on different levels. The result, at least so far, has always been fun and thick works, involving 360 degrees for the viewer. That’s why we wanted to see Nope, his latest feature film which we will talk about in more detail in our review.
And like when you discard a toy that you have been waiting for a long time, you are afraid that not everything will turn out for the best. In the new film, star Daniel Kaluuya returns, who owes almost everything to Jordan; not just the Oscar nomination for Best Actor, but probably his entire acting career, that career that was about to end if it weren’t for that magnificent role in Get Out. Kaluuya, as we know, is a very expressive actor, an acting characteristic immediately sensed by Peele who fixed the carnal expression of fear on the British actor’s face in the beautiful Get Out. Joining him on the stage this time is the new entry Keke Palmer, new to the cinema of New York director. If you want to know our thoughts, continue reading our Nope review.
Nope Review: The Story
Nope, A mysterious title, which confuses us more if we associate it with the equally mysterious images shown in the trailers. Curiosity and the desire to discover something more have accompanied us all this time. Now is the time to peek into what lies behind the Jordan Peele curtain. We are in America and more precisely in a remote ranch in the parched gorges of California; a place where strange phenomena have been occurring lately. After the death of their father, mysteriously killed by a shower of metallic bodies falling from the sky, Otis James Haywwod (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) become the actual owners of the family ranch.
The Haywoods have been training horses for generations. Some specimens are so magnificent that they are even used in films or commercials. The apparent stillness of the place is however disturbed by strange phenomena that are becoming more and more frequent, starting precisely from the strange circumstances in which the father died. Thanks to the installation of cameras, a cloud is noticed that seems to have been motionless for months. Plus, Otis has the feeling that he has seen a mysterious flying saucer move fast in the skies. Could it be UFO sightings? Is there any connection to the rain of objects that killed your father?
Nope Review and Analysis
Noses and upturned eyes, therefore, as suggested by the characters in the official posters of the film intent on scanning the skies by Jordan Peele. After watching the trailer and the first few minutes we all come to the same question. Is Nope really what it seems? Or a film that goes back over the years to bring us back to a theme now out of fashion like that of the UFO sighting? Does this talk about the latest film born from that same brilliant mind that has churned out films of the caliber of Get Out? No, it can’t be, he must do it on purpose; Peele knows that we are watching a movie of him and that we must expect anything. In fact, in the first half of the story, Peele does nothing but challenge the public.
And so, the first hour of shooting passes in this sort of game between us and the director; a game that begins with the cards face up. The flying saucer exists and is visible in the sky, few questions about it. But our sixth sense tells us from the start that there must be much more behind it. Because precisely it is a Jordan Peele film. This mechanism implicit in our minds means that in the first part every shot, every night sequence, and every dialogue is wrapped in a thin veil of suspense: we know that something very strange can happen at any moment. We are tense, even when in the end nothing happens.
Anyone who knows Jordan Peele knows perfectly well that in his cinema during the ordinariness of real life there is always an extraordinary phenomenon that is not justified in terms of credibility and rationality. It simply exists, it exists, it is part of that world there. The difference is that when this mysterious extraordinary was revealed in films like Get Out and Us, we were in for a big surprise. Which we cannot say has happened for Nope. This is where the New York filmmaker failed this time.
The first half of the story goes far too slowly. It introduces the story and the few protagonists, but the substance is that after almost an hour of the film we feel bored. We understand immediately that with Nope Jordan Peele has taken a different path. We move to the mystery/sci-fi side in a western country setting where the amazement and the fascination of discovery seem to take the place of the exhausting tension and social conflicts that we liked so much in the director’s previous works. Peele sheds his skin, renews the formula and offers something different. But in this latest attempt at evolution, not everything goes as it should. The film is not immediate, it comes less strong.
Personally, when I saw Get Out and Us I thought I was faced with something new when I lie at the level of writing. Seeing Nope, on the other hand, I had a whole series of personal sensations that made me think of an “already seen”. This is not to say that Jordan Peele was inspired by or quoted this or that film; the fact is that he has moved in a field that has already been explored several times and that has been represented in every possible way in the cinematographic field. The fact is that while I was attending the screening in the hall, I did not feel a great surprise because it was constantly thinking about ” here reminds me of Arrival this looks like the war of the worlds ” or even “Wasn’t this thing about horses and noise that attracts enemies in Tremors? “. It seems to see a puzzle made up of many pieces already seen in other contexts and the result is not as amazing as one might expect.
While the writing seems to have taken a step backward, the feeling that thanks to the proceeds obtained with the initial successes we have concentrated more on the technical side become much clearer. The name of Hoyte van Hoyteman, or the direction of the photography of Nolan’s films, was already a clue. But Nope is also commendable at the scenographic and sound level, the latter fundamental to say the least for the success of the main sequences. There was a lot of focus on the visual impact, especially in some key scenes where the result was nothing short of excellent. Nope it also abounds in numerous aerial shots that show the beauty of the chosen settings. Finally, and here comes the touch and weight of a name of the caliber of Hoyte van Hoyteman, spasmodic attention to stage lights, especially natural ones.
Nope Review: The Last Words
After a long wait, but above all a lot of mystery, I expected something more from the latest film written and directed by Jordan Peele. The return to the scene with what seems to be now his fetish actor, Daniel Kaluuya, had not a little stirred up our hopes. Unfortunately, Nope has a very heavy legacy on its shoulders so the expectation when we sit down to see it for the first time is high. It is a film that is deeper than it seems, one of those stories to be seen over and over to capture different details and nuances. Nope is not a simple tale of likely UFO sightings; is a much deeper matter than it seems, something that has to do with the inevitability of destiny, with the courage and the desire to achieve one’s dreams.
