Review of Nope (2022) by Moviemitch96 — 24 Jul 2022

From writer/director Jordan Peele, the brother and sister residents of a ranch in Northern California (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) find themselves dealing with what appears to be a mysterious extraterrestrial force that terrorizes and threatens their horses and the various other townsfolk and visitors of a nearby theme park.

Peele is a rather unique director to say the least. Several of his ideas are pretty wild and far out, and they don't always stick the landing in my opinion. I found 'Get Out' to be a clever and promising, albeit slightly overhyped directorial debut, and his sophomore follow-up film 'Us' I found rather confusing, clumsily executed, and just overall forgettable, so I went into this one with only modest expectations.

And while I found this to be a bit more of a self-assured step in the right direction for Peele, I still don't quite find him to be the next big great director that several others would have you believe he is.

I found it to be a slight step above 'Us', but I still believe 'Get Out' remains his best film, but again, this isn't saying much, since I only merely liked it and didn't love it like several others did.

However, I can honestly say that this might just be his most tense, whack, and unsettling film yet too for better or worse. There are some genuinely eerie and disturbing moments and images in the film whenever it isn't being bogged down with a slightly excessive amount of set-up and exposition in the first half.

One sequence towards the middle of the film involving dozens of theme park-goers being "abducted" has particularly been stuck in my head and haunting me all day long, it was that disturbing and unsettling to me.

As for the performances, Kaluuya (who also starred in 'Get Out') gives a bold and confident leading man performance here once again, as does Palmer, whom I've missed seeing in films lately. Steven Yeun is also worth mentioning here as the runner of the theme park with a haunting and troubled past trying to cope with it the only way he knows how: by running a theme park to exploit and profit off of said past.

The visuals are also worth a shout-out here, as some are very impressive, while others are pulled off in a more practical way. But overall, between Peele's bonkers screenplay/story, the at times ambitious scope and visuals, and solid performances from all involved, it all comes together to form another confident directorial effort from a flourishing auteur in the making, but also one whose reach exceeds his grasp and lands squarely in "good but not great" territory.