Peculiarly shaped mirrors, Jordan Peele’s movies harness genre conventions, in varying degrees of success, to package ideological inquiries in exciting narrative vehicles where collective fears and biases are projected. To look into his intellectually adventurous pop confections means to confront those scary reflections while being utterly entertained. “Nope,” the writer-director’s latest broad-appealing, but never less than intriguing production, unfurls as a mostly clever potpourri of science fiction influences and diverse references dealing with meetings between humans and the unknown. Peele’s characters, however, apply terrestrial tactics and experiences to deal with their celestial boogeyman.
Following the mysterious death of his father, OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) takes over the family business: Haywood Hollywood Horses, the product of a dynasty of horse trainers for the screen that dates back to the dawn of cinema. The luminous Keke Palmer plays OJ’s spirited sister Emerald Haywood, a young woman with aspirations beyond the ranch and willing to go the distance for her Oprah moment. As it has done to countless Black pioneers, history tried to strip their ancestors of their contributions to the performing arts, but, thankfully, their legacy has endured for generations. Peele pays tribute to Gilbert Domm, the Black jockey in Eadweard Muybridge’s “Sallie Gardner at a Gallop” photographic experiment shot in Palo Alto, California in 1878.
One of the thematic threads in “Nope” seems to focus on our obsession to tame and exploit unpredictable beings for the sake of our amusement. But in trying to establish our species’ superiority, we often come to the realization that animals and other sentient life forms don’t always operate by our standards. Furthermore, even when tragedy strikes in these relationships, humans remain fascinated with the gory details of preventable violence.
Together in the arid landscapes surrounding the Los Angeles metropolitan area—substantially removed from the bustle of the city—the siblings first hear and then witness evidence of what appears to be a classically designed UFO, a flying saucer. In the quiet of night, haunting sounds alert them to the disappearance of their horses. Each chapter, save for the last one, bears the name of one of their stallions.
Peele’s frames exhibit impeccable attention to rich detail in an inconspicuously sumptuous manner often solely reserved for those Hollywood directors with far more storied careers. While only in his third outing, his world-building appears on par with how the likes of Christopher Nolan or Guillermo del Toro operate. “Nope” boasts superlative filmmaking visible in the craft behind the production design and costumes that hide small kernels of biting commentary in nearly every shot. One, however, would hope that the accumulation of these nods and more overt theme discussions amounted to a better-congealed resolution with less elusive and more substantial meaning.
To build clever jump scares that hinge on the marriage between our expectations and the point of view the camera provides, Peele enlisted the large-canvas talents of cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (Christopher Nolan’s preferred DP). Shot using IMAX cameras, scenes against the starry night sky feature dreamlike lighting and dynamic movement looking up into the heavens and back down to earth concealing the “spaceship.”
One early sequence fools us into believing Peele will take the “Signs” approach to alien life only to turn around and refute that after a sharply conceived “sighting.” Though in an exponentially larger league, “Nope” calls to mind “The Vast of Night,” a recent indie, period sci-fi that gets by not on what it shows but in the atmosphere it evokes. To immerse us in its terror, “Nope” relies on how the score by Peele’s regular composer Michael Abels disrupts the silence at precise instances in a sonic choreography with the sound design—truly one of the most accomplished below-the-line elements on display.
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As with his previous works, particularly in “Get Out,” Peele handles tone with singular agility, traversing in “Nope” a wide spectrum between the truly horrifying and the undeniably hilarious. Palmer, already a star simply broadening her reach here, carries the brother-sister dynamic with a nonchalant magnetism that both nails the comedic timing and her character’s determination to capture footage of the floating being. Her underlying motivation, and in turn OJ’s, is to not let others erase them from their own story. If there are extraterrestrial forces lurking, they’ll make sure to be the ones to document it and benefit from the acclaim and financial rewards. Nevertheless, their construction as characters lacks depth outside of this goal and even in regard to the implications of what achieving it might mean to them and the world at large.
In the periphery of the Haywoods’ mission is child-actor-turned-amusement-park-owner Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (a charming Steven Yeun). He’s also made contact with the entity in the sky, and though in gruesome flashbacks we learn of his first encounter with savage behavior, he still believes he can manipulate those forces for personal gain. Then there’s broken-hearted and tech-savvy Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), a standout supporting character who proves memorable for his line delivery. Once whatever is taunting them reveals itself thanks to OJ’s smart ploy, they enlist filmmaker Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), who we understand is infatuated by the destructive power of wildlife, to capture it on film. All of them swirl around the “elephant in the sky” wishing to possess its image.
On the surface, “Nope” is a thrilling time with extraordinary craft behind it and embellished with a myriad of curious homages to movies like “Akira” or even “The Scorpion King.” But for all that there is to admire in “Nope,” and in Peele’s grand ambition to make a one-of-a-kind entry into the sci-fi canon, the impact of impressive set pieces is ultimately undercut because it can’t land its collection of concepts.
Though far from an irredeemable misstep, “Nope” feels like getting to the end of a puzzle and discovering that the pieces don’t form a solid whole. The problem isn’t that this is not “Get Out” or “Us,” but that unlike those two films (for the most part), “Nope” seems to buckle under the pressure of forming something cohesive out of the questions it poses and the material it provides us with to examine them. In the end, it renders it a bit anticlimactic.
While in its final act many of the narrative seeds planted bloom into compelling plot twists to drive the invigorating action forward, the director seems to lose track of the essential notions that presumably prompted his interest in a story of this kind, precisely the ethics of our very love of spectacle and the elements that comprise it, whether fictional or real.
Though philosophically unsatisfying in the sum of its parts—it’s a murky mirror—“Nope” remains thoroughly exhilarating as further proof of Peele’s affinity for pushing the increasingly narrow limits of commercial cinema. It’s imperfectly refreshing. [B-]
“Nope” arrives in theaters on July 22.