Rent Nope (2022)

Nope (aka NOPE) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Jordan Peele’s Nope continues the director’s devotion to surreal social horror. There’s grander ambition placed in this film that mixes so much together. It swirls together genres of horror, science fiction, and westerns into quite the picture. It also taps into a sense of control and perception, where the big monster of this film is literally a giant eye that needs to be both entertained and fed. In terms of a film trying to turn the mirror on the audience, Peele’s picture finds far more than munching aliens to appease the public with an already high standard for his chilling works.

The mystery builds spectacularly through this narrative. Daniel Kaluuya plays OJ Haywood, the owner of a historic ranch for Hollywood horses. He inherits the ranch after his father who dies in a manner that seems odd. The freak accident haunts him, hoping there was some better reason for such a loss of life. OJ is a reserved individual, far different from his top client of former child actor Ricky (Steven Yeun) and his eccentric/accidental sister Emerald (Keke Palmer). While others find themselves distracted by the allure of Westerns for their desert region, OJ tries to keep his focus on maintaining the ranch.

Or at least he tries to before becoming distracted by something far bigger. When the horses of the ranch go missing, he happens upon a UFO. Emerald believes him, as does a bored electronics employee, Angel (Brandon Perea). All of their team up to capture footage of this mysterious alien ship. But they may not be ready for what they discover. Perhaps it’s not even a ship but a mysterious organic being. Perhaps it’s also hungry.

Compared to Peele’s other films, there’s certainly a subdued nature to Nope. There’s a slower build-up to the inevitable moments of violence and terror that such a film guarantees. There’s a reason the marketing has been so coy for such a picture. It’s that peeling back of the layers that reveal something more. It also helps flesh out the characters enough so that we care about whether or not they get munched on by aliens. Everybody performs admirably but Kaluuya and Palmer have such amazing chemistry. I loved how Kaluuya is restrained and dead-pan while Palmer is brimming with enthusiasm.

The commentary within Nope is wonderfully meta for harping on both audiences and control. There’s a desire to tame the wild, to force creatures to not only bend to our whim but do our bidding. This becomes most apparent when divulging the pasts of the characters and having a firm focus on the nature of the camera’s capturing the soul. It's a premise that is not only strong enough to be thoughtful but playful enough for great humor. This leads to the perfect opportunity for such a film to live up to its title and use its refusal to play with the horror at just the right moment.

Nope is so brilliant for being a surreal tapestry of questioning our own desires. It’s by far Peele’s highest concept to date with some of the most amazing cinematography. It plays around with so many genres and conventions that there’s rarely a dull moment as the mystery unfolds. Despite seeming so epic, the film still manages to house the pitch-perfect comedy and believable behavior that makes Peele’s films so effortless with character and comedy. The allegory never becomes so blunt that the audience grasps it immediately nor do the ideas grow so heavy that you can’t appreciate the scene of Keke Palmer doing the AKIRA motorcycle slide. What a fantastic picture and another example of how Peele continues to be a stellar horror director, making me all the more excited for his next production.