Jordan Peele is back to serving up twists, turns and thrills with his latest offering, sci-fi horror-thriller “Nope.” Despite not premiering until July 22, 2022, its tight-lid promotional materials and Peele’s penchant for the bizarre have already spawned several fan theories and online predictions.
Set in the dusty desert outside of Hollywood, “Nope” primarily follows siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood (played by Peele darling Daniel Kaluuya and the sorely underrated Keke Palmer, respectively) as they confront an otherworldly threat assaulting their family’s failing horse farm.
They are joined by Brandon Perea’s Angel, a neurotic tech guy whose character exists as the comedic foil to Kaluuya’s curt and reserved OJ. Rounding out the main cast is eccentric theme park owner Ricky “Jupe” Park, played by “The Walking Dead” veteran Steven Yeun.
A parallel plot runs alongside the main story. It centers on Jupe Park, who is a former child star cashing in on the fame generated after he survived a deadly chimpanzee rampage on the set of one of his shows. The violent mauling is shown in a couple of flashbacks throughout the movie.
With all this starpower at the film’s helm, it is disappointing that each character feels somewhat one-dimensional. Each embodies a handful of superficial character traits, and they stay static the whole movie. Audiences are drip-fed bits of backstory and background information, but none of it gets explored in any meaningful way.
Also contributing to the film’s feeling of hollowness is its relatively light treatment of its social commentary. Both of Peele’s previous works, “Get Out” and “Us,” played heavily and overtly with themes of racism and oppression. “Nope” does address racism somewhat, as the Haywood siblings are descendants of the nameless Black jockey in Eadweard Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion,” thought to be one of the first motion pictures ever created. This motif is picked up at the beginning of the film, but it is not revisited until the end of the film as OJ rides his horse to goad the threat into revealing itself. There are some other scattered references to race and racism, but it is a clear departure from Peele’s other films.
The film also critiques the modern-day obsession with filming everything. Characters are quick to whip out their cell phones and cameras to capture the strange phenomenon happening around them. A reporter for sensationalist tabloid TMZ travels to the ranch and braves death to attempt to capture the happenings on tape. This trope is overdone and a plague in today’s film and television. It might have been fresh a decade ago, but now, every other film coming out has some sage wisdom about the dangers of social media and cell phones.
Despite these criticisms, “Nope” is not a bad film by any means. In fact, if one pushes away expectations of what a Peele-directed film ought to be, it is a super enjoyable summer monster flick. It is absolutely a head-scratcher, but it has superb scares and a delightfully eerie atmosphere. It is a beautifully-shot movie, thanks in large part to Peele bringing in “Dunkirk” and “Tenet” cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema. The sound design is also top-notch and sure to raise goosebumps.
“Nope” is playing in theaters now. It is rated R, primarily for language and the surprising amount of gore. As of writing, no plans for streaming have yet been announced.
Rating: 3/5 torches
