Nope [2022]
“Yeah, nah nah nah.”
Nope, the third film by Jordan Peele, features some very nice cinematography, some vaguely interesting plot points, a questionable [maybe intentionally silly?] score, and, in typical Peele fashion… an ending you won’t soon forget... because you’ll never have remembered it in the first place.
In Nope we follow OJ Haywood as he struggles to maintain the family business of training and showcasing horses for films, TV, and commercials. While doing his best to make ends meet, something sinister begins to visit his farm… and it turns out that maybe it’s been around a lot longer than he originally thought.
The long short of this review is, if you like Peele’s other films, you’re going to like this one. His work fits nicely into a box of wanting to say something, but losing the thread as the film runs on. Nope is a movie about our addiction to awe and how we can’t turn away from a spectacle; be it a car crash or a circus performance. We’re addicted to the strange, the new, and the dangerous. What happens though, when that spectacle looks back at us? If you think that’s an interesting premise… I’m sorry for enticing you, because you won’t find a satisfactory answer here.
Plot points are either tenuously connected to each other or so convenient that they don’t need any grounding in the story whatsoever. The music is at times interesting and, at other times, strange-bordering-on-inappropriate. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
Jordan Peele has great vision and creativity, but he should be making TV. When he’s given the reins of an entire film’s runtime, he stretches Twilight Zone-esque plots far beyond their 30-minute lifespan.
Those [fairly major] things aside, Nope features some excellent production. The cinematography is crisp and mostly interesting to look at, something Peele consistently does well. The performances are excellent… as they are across all of his films. I think that, despite my complaints, this is still my favorite film of his to date. It has the least goofy narrative and the least silly twist. It feels less like a Shyamalan and more like a proper thriller… I just wish it had more for me to chew on.
I find that Peele’s films are consistently falling into the realm of, “If you want to find meaning, you will.” There’s a million elements in this film that, if one were so inclined, they could ascribe some deep, cultural, metaphysical, or otherwise portentous meaning to. However, like the 2020 film Hunter Hunter, a film is not good simply because something “could” be meaningful after you write an essay dissecting it. I liked Hunter Hunter, but that film varies wildly between a 5ish and an 8ish depending on how I interpret events. It’s one that, similar to this, isn’t much at face value, so you have to be REALLY invested to want to “look deeper” and “find” the “hidden” meaning behind things. But… is it really there? Or do you just want it to be?
Like I mentioned above: If you like Jordan Peele’s other work, Nope will be right up your alley, though the consensus seems to be that you probably won’t like it as much as Us or Get Out. If you don’t like his other stuff… this certainly isn’t going to convince you. As for me… I’m still holding out hope and will continue to watch his films and support his vision. I just hope he can focus it in and make something I think is worth my time.
“You'll be getting a call from my supervisor asking how my service was.”
