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★★★★☆
As a ride-or-die Key & Peele fan, seeing the words “From the mind of Jordan Peele” appearing on film posters used to be a bit of a novelty - but Jordan Peele’s borderline random reputation as a modern horror maestro has been well and truly earned by now. From very successful routes in sketch comedy, Peele has emerged as one of the most exciting directorial names in horror cinema (and cinema as a whole), crafting very engaging films that are unmistakably his and unapologetically unique.
If you’ve seen any of his previous films, 2018’s Get Out, or 2020’s Us, you will know what to expect from Peele. Meticulously-crafted horror stories, with strong performances across the board, a healthy dose of cutting socio-political commentary, and genuinely effective humour spread throughout. So, does Nope follow up on this mission statement and deliver the goods? The short answer is yes; it’s not without its flaws, but Nope is a blast from start to finish, a thoroughly creepy, often funny, and always entertaining horror film from a talented director on top of his game. You might be wondering “what exactly is Nope even about?”.
If you haven’t seen the trailer, which does an excellent job at not giving much away, Nope follows siblings OJ and Em Haywood, who inherit their father’s ranch and business; training horses for film and TV productions. Their father died in very suspicious circumstances (a falling nickel from the sky that struck him in the eye), which become relevant later, as the siblings begin to suspect that their ranch and horses are being terrorised by some kind of UFO presence. Motivated by a desire for fame and fortune, the two plot to capture evidence of the mysterious entity on camera, with the help of a conspiracy-obsessed electronics store employee and a zany Hollywood cinematographer.
While all this is going on, Nope also follows the story of Ricky “Jupe” Park, a former child star who runs a small western theme park that neighbours the Haywood ranch. Jupe has a troubled past, having survived a traumatic event from his time as a child actor, during which a trained chimp on a cheesy 90s shit-com went feral, attacking, maiming, and killing many of Jupe’s co-stars. In the present day, Jupe is both bolstered and traumatised by his experience, and the film sees him attempting to buy the Haywood ranch, and profit off of both his past trauma and the UFO itself, with some creepy, exhibitionist live shows at his park.
Even writing this out, this seems like a lot for one movie. Is Nope a mess? Nearly. The film covers an insane amount of ground in terms of story moments, characters, subplots, themes, and even genres. In my opinion, however, the film and its script mostly pulls all of these story and character beats together to form a cohesive whole; mainly down to the strength of the themes, the performances, Peele’s confident direction, and some excellent production and audio design.
In my opinion, the only place to start when reviewing Nope is with the subtext and the themes, as the film is positively swimming in both. Simply “having themes” doesn’t make a movie good, of course, but the way Peele’s screenplay handles a wide variety of interesting ideas and wider commentaries, is one of the main strengths of Nope. One such theme is the idea of spectacle, exploitation, and how we as people tend to view and treat situations of notoriety and trauma.
Our first spoiler is relevant to this film, as it segues neatly into the prevalent idea of animal exploitation. The UFO of Nope is not exactly a UFO in the traditional sense of the word; it is instead a giant, territorial, and terrifying creature of unknown origin. The UFO (christened Jean Jacket by the Haywoods) isn’t so much abducting people, it’s eating them. Throughout the film, we are shown a rather grim and uncompromising view of the relationship we as humans have with animals, particularly within a setting of entertainment. Peele shows us the naivety with which we (and certain characters within the film) view and understand wild animals.
OJ and Em are fired from a commercial at the beginning of the film due to the incompetence of the crew in handling one of their horses. The entire cast of Gordy’s House, apart from Steven Yeun’s Jupe, underestimates and are viciously mauled by Gordy the Chimp. And an adult Jupe, towards the end of the second act of the film, attempts to exploit and then massively underestimates Jean Jacket, and is eaten for his troubles. Our heroes, horse trainers OJ and Em, recognise that these wild animals are worthy of respect and wariness alike, and it is these qualities that allow them to survive the events of the movie, and these ideas are threaded throughout Nope in a very engaging and satisfying way.
Another prominent theme of the movie is the erasure of black contributions to art, and the arrogance of Hollywood. Through OJ, we see the struggles of the production crew that glue together most Hollywood productions, through the lens of a “lowly”, introverted horse trainer. He is treated poorly by his industry peers whenever a scene is shared between them, but emerges as the badass action hero by the end of the film, drawing Jean Jacket away from the others like a knight on horseback. Nope often feels like Jordan Peele’s love letter to film crews, and the unsung work they do that contributes towards a film’s success, and OJ even wears a neon orange hoodie with the word “CREW” emblazoned on the back. Very subtle, Jordan!
Through OJ’s sister Em, I’d argue that we see the struggles of the black artist. Em is determined to find fame and success for not just her own talents, but for her ancestors too. Throughout Nope, Em makes the claim that her ancestor was the unnamed star of Plate 626; one of the earliest examples of a film in history. Erasure of black contributions to art and to Hollywood are another motif running in the background of Nope, and these ideas are a huge driving force behind Keke Palmer’s charismatic Em Haywood. Em’s arc and her hussle culminates in her successfully getting the priceless photograph of the UFO, and presumably all the money and fame that comes with it, in what is an unusually triumphant, but well-earned, climax for a Jordan Peele movie.
And finally, the arrogance of Hollywood and our spectacle-obsessed culture is skewered efficiently by the characters of Jupe and Holst (the cinematographer the Haywood’s end up working with). Jupe is in my opinion the best and most interesting character of the whole film by far, constructed thoughtfully by Peele to have layers of repressed trauma, hidden underneath the thin veneer of a hackneyed, capitalist, snake oil salesman. Jupe clearly never processed the brutal events of the Gordy incident properly, and believes himself to have a special kind of kinship with animals. This applies not only to Gordy, but to Jean Jacket too (right before he is promptly eaten by the creature). You could almost interpret Jupe as representing the banal, mainstream, sellout side of Hollywood. He draws in crowds to his tacky theme park with cheap live shows and silly effects, attempts to buyout and monopolise the land around him, and even attempts to control and profit off the UFO itself. Holst, on the flipside, could represent the pretentious side of Hollywood, as he would rather sacrifice his actual life to Jean Jacket to achieve the perfect shot of the creature.
Moving away from the themes and the subtext, what is the actual film like? If I could choose one word to describe Nope, it would be cool. It stands out as a real movie-lovers movie, with clear inspiration taken from Spielbergian classics like Jaws. The production design of the film is stellar, with Jean Jacket standing out as one of the most creative and interesting monster designs since Clover, and Gordy the Chimp standing out as an unexpectedly horrifying element of the film. Nope whips around from crisp, eerie night-time scares, to enthralling, dusty, desert chase scenes without skipping a beat, and everything looks as good as it is scary.
I’d have to give a special shout out to the sound design; the way Jean Jacket moves throughout the sky is ominous and unnerving, accompanied by the screams of its victims as they are slowly digested in its gut. It makes for an effect that is both horrifying and badass in equal measure! Nope is in fact chock-full of effective scares, genuine laughs, and nice character moments. In short, the film looks, sounds, and plays out very confidently, with excellent direction and cinematography making it stand out as a film that is both exciting, terrifying, and even comedic in places.
The acting is a hit too, with Daniel Kaluya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun all putting in engaging performances that match the confidence and range of Peele’s direction. A standout for me was relative newcomer Brendan Perea as Angel the electronics-store employee; he delivers a wide-eyed, comedic, and often fearful performance that stands out amongst seasoned actors.
In terms of criticisms, there are many out there that would argue that the film loses itself in its subtext. Youtuber and controversy-magnet Logan Paul even outed himself rather humorously, as having watched the entirety of the film go over his head in his viral review of the movie. I wouldn’t agree with these criticisms personally, though I would say that the film is juggling a lot of disparate ideas, and while it succeeds in being a mostly engaging watch, the scattergun approach to including all these ideas can make for a somewhat muddled screenplay. If you’re not onboard with absorbing a lot of messaging and meta-textual ideas, you may find this one to be a bit confusing and even disappointing as a pure, horror-tinged summer blockbuster.
I did also find the third act of the film to be a little disappointing personally, purely based on the merits of the first two acts. Nope has a very creepy slow burn approach to revealing the secrets of the UFO and what’s really going on, culminating in an exceptionally chilling sequence which sees Jupe and a crowd of onlookers all eaten by the creature. This is followed up by our other main characters trying desperately to evade the UFO on the ranch after the sun has set. The tone of all of this is, like I said, very much horror, packed with tension and scares. The third act, however, takes on an almost action-adventure vibe, as our crew attempt to document Jean Jacket’s existence. It makes sense narratively, and is executed well enough, but I found myself missing the scares and the vibe of the previous hour. Tonally, the film is all over the place, hopping from idea to idea, genre to genre; it just about makes it work, but I couldn’t help feeling as though Peele had missed out on making a very special, purely horror-focused sci-fi masterpiece.
Sticking with the third act, there are also a few events and character moments that are straight-up goofy. A TMZ reporter inexplicably shows up to interrupt their efforts to film the creature, in a scene that serves a metaphorical purpose, but does nothing but bring the film’s momentum to a screeching halt and raise eyebrows in the audience. I would also question Holst’s (the cinematographer helping the Haywoods) decision to sacrifice himself to the creature as being ludicrous to the point of brain damage. I get that artists will put themselves through the ringer for their art, but again, it took me entirely out of the movie, and just seemed like a flimsy reason to make the film keep on going.The entire character of Holst is shallow to the point of caricature, and genuinely quite dull and uninspired when compared to everyone else.
Ultimately, would I recommend Nope as a good watch? If you’re someone that truly doesn’t care for subtext and themes within art, then you may well find Nope to be, overall, muddled, plodding, and odd. You’ll probably be asking yourself “what the hell was up with that monkey?” too. If you’re someone that does appreciate these aspects of filmmaking, however, then I think you’ll get a lot out of Nope. The occasional misstep aside, Nope is a movie with a lot of interesting things to say about the Hollywood machine, race, exploitation, spectacle, trauma, and the pursuit of art. And Peele manages to say all of this within a package that is, for the most part, an absolute joy to watch. Nope is one of the most interesting films I’ve seen in quite some time, a definite palette cleanser from the usual shite being pumped out, and a film that I would thoroughly recommend!
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