Jordan Peele’s Nope Feels Like Tremors For a New Generation
Jordan Peele has been consistently knocking films out of the park, quickly elevating him to one of the kings of horror, with a healthy lashing of social commentary on top. Nope is not one of those movies, but it’s still great in its own right.
It stars Daniel Kaluuya (Black Panther, Queen & Slim) as the strong silent protagonist, a rare sight these days alongside his fast talking sister played by Keke Palmer (Hustlers). The two make a good pair, and almost single handedly carry the film alongside the CGI beastie which I won’t be divulging any details about. Kaluuya’s character runs a Californian horse ranch training horses for Hollywood. After his dad passes away from a suspicious freak accident, he begrudgingly takes over the family business. Then things hit the fan.
Surprisingly, you get to see the antagonist quite early in the film. A ballsy move in a movie that was presumably a horror. It’s hard to keep the fear factor going after you’ve had a good look at what you’re dealing with. Peele realizes this, playing it as hard as he can before changing gear and changing the movie into quite an empowering trip, much the same way Tremors did, which suddenly makes me miss those sorts of films quite a bit. Prey got me in the same mood.
To keep the tempo up, Steven Yeun playing a child-star-turned-theme-park entrepreneur has his own parallel storyline which never quite ties up in a satisfying way. In fact, this is probably the weakest part of the film, despite its visceral horror elements and tension which dissolves any chance of second act lag. Coming out of the theatre, I heard multiple people asking each other, “What was up with the monkey? Did that get a conclusion?”
The film is full to the brim with film references, and has the distinct vibe of the Hollywood love letter film all directors need to make for themselves at some point. It even has the classic Akira motorbike slide shot.
Our resident professional with an opinion, Matt thought it was, “A bit slow to get going, I feel like it should have gone harder with either the comedy or the tension.”
I disagree with the beginning of his statement, and personally believe he should have punched up either the comedy or the tension of that statement.
It’s big screen fun, expect plenty of rich and heavy tension, incredible shots of a dusty valley, and sound design to die for. It looked incredible at IMAX. I’m definitely going to watch it again once it’s on the small screen.