NOPE: Jordan Peele Once Again Proves He Is One Of Hollywood's Best Directors
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Jordan Peele is back with his third movie!
Two siblings who run a California horse ranch discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon. (via MovieRankings.net)
JeffDLowe (92/100): Jordan Peele is fucking insanely good at making movies.
With his third movie, another fantastic original concept, Jordan Peele solidifies himself as one of Hollywood's top directors. 'Nope' is straightforward on the surface but can be peeled back like an onion to reveal endless depth and meaning, all laid out there by Peele for audiences to pick apart on their own.
As expected, this movie is packed with fantastic performances up and down the cast list. It should surprise nobody that Daniel Kaluuya was awesome, but the same can be said for Keke Palmer, Steven Yuen, Brandon Perea, and Michael Wincott. Built around the cast is yet another wonderfully fleshed-out world by Jordan Peele, with everything vibrant, alive, and radiating off of the screen. You can just feel the joy Peele gets in making a movie and story that he loves and believes in, it's infectious inside of a theater. The 'Jaws' parallels are also great, without getting too heavy into spoilers, and the Spielberg comparisons as a whole are also fully justified.
To have a movie with a wholly original, creative, and inventive idea, also feel like such a big blockbuster, is an outstanding feeling. I've seen 'Nope' in theaters a few times, and truly appreciate getting a chance to experience something so fresh on the big screen.
The message of this movie can really be described as "messages," as there are many different things Jordan Peele is trying to say with 'Nope'. But the thing is, and this is a big reason as to why the movie works so well, what Peele does with this story is allow the viewer to take something unique from it. What I view as a takeaway, may be different from your takeaway, but I do know that there are a ton of various ways to look at 'Nope' and what it is trying to say. We went more in-depth in our podcast (link at the bottom) but the following things stuck out to me when it comes to "meanings" of the movie 'Nope': grief, trauma, craving the "spectacle," entertainment industry problems, race, taming predators, and animal cruelty. The ideas of grief and trauma stuck out to me on my repeated viewings the most, and I found a pretty solid emotional connection to the idea as someone who suddenly lost their father just a few months ago. I won't spoil much here, but there are plenty of different ways to view this movie, and it just hammers home for me why Jordan Peele is so great at crafting a story and movie.
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In terms of negatives with the movie, there really aren't many for me. Could the movie have been tighter, especially in the back half of the story? Probably, but that's nitpicking, essentially, and this movie was fairly flawless, especially in the spots that it needed to be. Some may be upset this isn't a full-on horror movie, but that comes down to expectations, and the genre-bending from Peele with 'Nope' is far more intriguing to me, personally.
We live in a world where everyone yells for more creative and original ideas, but while that noise continues to echo loud, Jordan Peele is off in the corner pumping out everything we should be celebrating about the movies. Love, hate, or do whatever you want with his movies, but it is impossible to deny Peele's ability to release something that has people dissecting and discussing his take on the art form that is the cinema.
EDIT: The early-2000s movie reference with Kaluuya's main character is absolutely perfect.
EDIT II: Damn!
Fantastic stuff.
KenJac (92/100):
I think this is a movie that is best put into a pro and con list.
Pros:
The whole cast crushed it top-to-bottom. Keke Palmer was definitely the standout, but everybody did their job to perfection.
It felt like a sci-fi western version of JAWS which is a huge compliment. I was very frustrated when I made that comparison only to find out that it was the same conclusion every critic came to.
The creature design was really original and looked GREAT. They (maybe) borrowed one of my favorite UFO movie techniques from ‘War of the Worlds’. I also just loved the idea of the alien just being a predator here to eat people
I love how it was paced out.
Cons
I understand the chimp thing, but it felt like that would have been a much cooler part of a different movie
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I think I would have liked it more continuous instead of broken up into parts based on the animal
I think a little more laser focus on the objective would have benefited the movie more. Like With the JAWS comp, it makes me think of how that relationship between the 3 guys on the ship could have been beneficial to the characterization of OJ, Emerald, and Angel
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The movie is Officially Buttered, and you can hear a much better breakdown when you head to Lights Camera Barstool right here to listen to our latest episode where we discussed the movie at length.
Until next time, enjoy some movies, and make sure to check out MovieRankings.net.