Earlier today, I watched Oscar winning director and writer Jordan Peele’s (“Get Out”) newest movie “Nope” starring Keke Palmer (2018’s “Pimp”), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Brandon Perea (Amazon Prime and DC’s “Doom Patrol”), Michael Wincott (“WestWorld”), just to name a few.
This movie is a Horror/Sci-Fi/Mystery/Thriller and is rated R and has a runtime of 2 hours and 10 minutes and was released on July 22nd 2022.
Onto the premise: After random objects falling from the sky result in the death of their father, ranch-owning siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood attempt to capture video evidence of an unidentified flying object with the help of tech salesman Angel Torres and documentarian Antlers Holst.
While “Nope” is a visual spectacle I found that it didn’t sit as well as I would’ve hoped when it came to the story. However, it still manages to reach its goal of entertaining on some level.
The film felt slightly long due to the first and third acts feeling fast and somewhat stuffed with a lot of goings ons while the second act felt very slow and drawn out. The long parts put me into a state of boredom, and even further than that, once the reveal of the antagonist happened, the magic and tension disappeared. Before that tension disappeared I found there was some good tension built up due to the soundtrack, but again, things fell short.
As for the horror parts, I assumed there would be more than just the ones shown in the commercial, and while there was, again a lot of the horror/magic disappeared once the antagonist was shown.
I did find the acting to be very engaging. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer each brought great energy to their roles, and the supporting actors were equally enjoyable.
Overall, a decent film, but if I could go back I would wait to see it on a cheap night. The cinematography was spectacular, but the story, the length of the film, and the antagonist weren’t up to the par I was expecting. I had to watch it twice so I could understand all the symbolism which I liked as a subtle touch along with the metaphors to this movie.
However the plot felt messy. I don’t know if it was a sci-fi, drama, mystery, or something else.
I had a good time. It’s not as scary as Get Out or Us. But the further you get into the film the more you will understand. I’m going to need to watch a YouTube break down because I have a lot of questions. Great direction, acting, and cinematography! Another great Jordan Peele flick
Jordan Peele is in top form with his recent film Nope. I am very pleasantly surprised with how well done this was and how much I enjoyed this film. I had no doubt with Jordan Peele he would do something good but he has set a new bar in the psychological, thriller, horror genre. I have to admit that I normally don’t watch horror movies but when it comes to Jordan Peele I have a soft spot for his work ever since I watched “Get Out”, so many times that I lost count.
I have so many thoughts racing through my brain, so I’ll start simple. Great cinematography this film was beautiful. Great writing and I have to stop to say the writing in this film is superior to the writing in Get Out and Us. Jordan Peele’s writing talent has come a long way since those films. The dialogue and chemistry between actors and characters was so organic, it just felt so natural and nothing feeling forced. Speaking of things not feeling forced the comedy and jokes, all do so well and don’t detract from the serious tone of the film.
Amazing sound design and sound effects, it truly brought the tension and horror to tremendous heights it had me on the edge of my seat!
Now I want to discuss the viewing experience as it has been a long time since a horror film truly had an impact on me. Some genuinely terrifying moments that like I said had me on the edge of my seat. I am not easily scared and jump scares I find them to be cheap and weak but there were some scares here that genuinely made me jump. At one moment I found myself saying “nope, not today Satan” I’m sure there will be a lot of “nope” remarks from audience members haha.
I’ll start wrapping this up as I’m sure some people who saw the amount of text in this review thought “nope, I’m not reading all that” no pun intended. The only real downside of this film for me was it did lose a little steam in the conclusion and I didn’t feel satisfied nor unsatisfied. I still have a lot of questions and would like some more information but perhaps these questions are answered in the film and I missed them even tho I had already seen it twice.
This is my new favorite Jordan Peele flick, dare I say, better than his film “Us” and right up there with “Get Out” while surpassing it. I would say that THE WAIT for this one was definitely worth it and therefore it is “worth a watch”. I just love seeing Keke in a movie, I’ve been a fan of her since “True Jackson” on Nickelodeon, yes I’m old! I love just like seeing more POC-actors on the big screen! I would predict that Jordan will win another Oscar for “Nope”. More on this week’s episode of my Podcast on Sunday, “Movie Reviews With Ceren”. Hear you there “winks”.
Did you know? Jordan won the “Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Award 2022” for “Nope” for “Most Anticipated Film” earlier this year.
Despite being featured prominently in the film, Fry’s Electronics went out of business prior to the film’s release.
Keke Palmer’s introductory scene, in which Emerald delivers her energetic and fast-talking monologue about her family history during a safety meeting on the set of a film shoot, took fourteen takes to shoot. Jordan Peele described each one as “very wildly different.”
Stephen Yeun’s character Jupe has a large pair of metal scissors on his desk which are the same scissors prominently featured in Jordan Peele’s previous film Us (2019).
Jordan Peele cites the “King Kong” and “Jurassic Park” monster films, the sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Signs (2002), and the fantasy film The Wizard of Oz (1939) as an influence on the film. He considers these films as examples of addiction to spectacle, a major theme in the film.
For more information visit-> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10954984/
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