Written, Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele
**** (four stars)
RATED R
Clouds certainly do not look the same after seeing this one.
One of my most favorite sequences in Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" (1977) is the alien abduction of 3 year old Barry from his rural home in the middle of the night directly from the safety of his Mother (Melinda Dillion). Even after 45 years, the power of this sequence is untouchable. A swirling array of lights, color, awesome sound, electromagnetic pulses, inanimate objects racing around and operating by themselves while an enraptured Barry persistently approaches the aliens as his Mother furiously strains to keep him...to no avail.
It is a sequence of great terror and astonishment and concluding with these night sky clouds containing the spaceship and hovering away in ethereal foreboding. Those very same "Spielberg-ian" clouds re-appear in his "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" (1982) as well as his own Production (or ghost direction, such as it is ) of Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist" (1982), all three films showcasing the natural mystery, menace and magic of these atmospheric aerosols and whatever elements they contain that can upend the mundane lives in suburbia.
With "Nope," his third directorial feature film, Jordan Peele has extended from the psychological chamber pieces of the outstanding, game changing debut "Get Out" (2017) and the mesmerizing, disturbing "Us" (2019) and has widened his cinematic palate to deliver an experience that feels like a direct descendant of what Steven Spielberg created in the modern summer blockbuster film in "Jaws" (1975) while also firmly expanding his own distinct cinematic universe.
"Nope" is a grander, often sprawling affair yet one that is decidedly artful in its occasional non-linear storytelling, conceptual metaphors, combined with the representational hallmarks that have made Peele's oeuvre as provocatively challenging as they are entertaining. Jordan Peele's "Nope" makes him three for three as his original films have truly become a treasured oasis in our ever widening sea of sequels, prequels, reboots, re-imaginings.
As with his previous films, the less you know about Jordan Peele's "Nope," the better. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as siblings Otis "O.J." Haywood Jr. and Emerald "Em" Haywood, horse wranglers for television and motion pictures, owners of their financially troubled ranch and possibly descendants of the the unnamed African American jockey depicted in Eadweard Muybridge's "The Horse In Motion" (1878), the first assembly of photographs to create a motion picture.
As O.J. has sold many of his horses to Rocky "Jupe" Park (Steven Yeun), owner of the nearby tiny Western theme park, "Jupiter's Claim," the financial straits of the Haywood ranch and business grow dire.
And then...
At the ranch, O.J. and Em soon experience strange electromagnetic pulses, odd inorganic objects falling from the skies, their remaining horses reacting violently and vanishing without a trace and finally, something, hiding and hovering overhead inside the clouds over the ranch.
With a storytelling canvas that incudes, but is not limited to, a late '90s sitcom, a field of tube man skydancer props, outdoor carnivals, analog cameras, music eerily slowed down to half speed, and multiple self-referential nods to film history, Jordan Peele's "Nope" is far and away his broadest, most expansive, widest reaching film. It is also an elusive experience, one where all of the cinematic bread crumbs seem to be leading to differing destinations until they all congregate at the same terrifyingly visceral point.
As previously stated, "Nope" owes much of its DNA to the earlier films of Steven Spielberg--especially with clear and clever open nods to both "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" (in a particularly great visual moment) and especially, "Jaws." Firstly in keeping the mystery within the clouds hidden from view for much of the film, thus increasing the tension and terror, but secondly and notably in a short sequence during which grizzled Cinematographer Antlers Holst (a great, growling Michael Wincott) delivers a grave recitation of a novelty song to both O.J. and Em, clearly echoing the shark hunter Quint's iconic U.S.S. Indianapolis monologue in Spielberg's classic.
"Nope" also finds Jordan Peele expanding his already impressive and immersive visual storytelling as his collaboration alongside Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, Editor Nicholas Monsour and his visual effects team have devised new ways to distill information, provide clues, offer legitimate scares and the cinematic slight of hand by tricking you eyes making you wonder if you saw what you thought you saw...often to gripping your theater seats frightening heights.
But if there is a behind the scenes MVP, it would have to extend firmly to Peele's work with Sound Designer Johnnie Burn, which is so immersive, so primal, so much of a character in and of itself, that it often took me to the same horrific cinematic neighborhoods as M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" (2002), Steven Spielberg's ferociously nightmarish "War Of The Worlds" (2005), and Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival" (2016). For all of its volume and its silence, the sound of "Nope" is exceedingly crucial to its towering success.
For a filmmaker as multi-layered as Jordan Peele has already proven himself to being with just two films prior, "Nope" continues his probing, provocative leanings which quite possibly are linking his filmography together thematically. Again and as always, representation means everything!
With Jordan Peele's "Nope," which is indeed a hybrid of horror, the Western and science fiction, we are seeing Black faces in cinematic arenas in which we are either not seen and definitely not as the leading characters driving the narratives forwards. "Nope" leans into African American cowboy history and culture while also delivering elements of a Western which happens to have Black people at the forefront. Peele also gives places Black people at the beginnings of the history of film itself and the presence of Black owned Haywood ranch feels as essential as anything witnessed in Quentin Tarantino's heartfelt revisionist history as contained in "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" (2019).
Reuniting Peele with Daniel Kaluuya firmly showcases a cinematic pairing that is meant to be. As O.J., so taciturn, so still waters runs deep, Kaluuya's beautifully haunted, expressive eyes (honestly, Kaluuya's eyes alongside Brian Tyree Henry's eyes--of television's "Atlanta"-- are some of the deepest, most expressive I have seen in years) speak more powerfully than any monologues he could have been given. This skill not only allows him to become that classic Western figure, the type seen in John Ford or Howard Hawkes films but one that inexplicably links the concept of Peele's Sunken Place of all three films together in my mind.
For in "Get Out," the Sunken Place partially represented psychological trauma and imprisonment, ad it is seemingly more physical in the subterranean dwellings of "Us," with "Nope" it somehow is woven into our collective need for the spectacle, to own it, to harness it, to obtain the unobtainable and to our own destruction be damned.
And so, what is "Nope" all about? For that, you'd have to see for yourselves and explore it for yourselves and to that end, I deeply appreciate Jordan Peele for giving audiences a film experience that has become exceedingly rare as ready made material with our prefabricated responses are ruling the theaters at the expense of regarding a filmmaker's personal vision.
Clearly, Jordan Peele is asking us to ponder the nature of a spectacle for what else is "Nope" but a spectacle about spectacles and our relationships with them combined with our own sense of voyeurisms, containment and even exploitation as we co-exist in our instant gratification, cellphone camera driven culture where living the experience has taken that backseat to capturing the experience, which ultimately be contributing to our societal spiritual decay for not everything can be owned, and definitely not controlled to meet our expectations.
For all of its surprise, awe, and wonder, Peele never allows us to be firmly lifted or let off of the hook. That underbelly of doom is ever present, serving as warning signs to us all as it simultaneously exists as a superb work of cinematic art.
Jordan Peele's "Nope" is one of the best films of 2022.
