Nope (2022)
In Nope, director Jordan Peele’s third feature film, a California horse farm is visited by an otherworldly presence. O.J. Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya, who starred in Peele’s first film Get Out) and his sister Em (Keke Palmer) inherit the farm after their father passes away.
The siblings are experiencing financial problems, so they sell some of their horses to Jupe Park (Steven Yuen from The Walking Dead), a sleazy showman and former child actor who runs a nearby western theme park.
In the ’90s, Park had been the young star of a popular sitcom. The show was canceled after a chimp animal actor went berserk while the cast was filming in front of a live audience. In a flashback that is much creepier than any of the movie’s UFO scenes, the bloodthirsty primate brutalizes and slaughters the cast while Jupe hides in the background. As an adult, Park gleefully exploits the incident for fame and financial gain.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Haywood siblings are befuddled by electrical problems and the mysterious disappearances of some of their horses. One day they witness an enormous flying saucer overhead. They realize that the aliens are capturing and abducting the ranch’s horses.
O.J. and Em are obsessed with capturing photographic proof of the UFO’s existence. They enlist the help of Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) a tech salesman at Fry’s. Meanwhile, Jupe has his own plans for the UFO. He uses a horse that he bought from the Haywoods as bait in order to entice the UFO into appearing at his theme park. But his scheme backfires spectacularly.
Nope is a critique of sensationalism and exploitation. The siblings’ obsession with recording the UFO, and to a greater extent Jupe’s exploitation of his tragic past, are perhaps intended as a critique of modern true crime documentaries and podcasts. A great film could have been made about this theme. Unfortunately, Nope falls well short of greatness.
This movie *should* work, but it is damaged by a lack of captivating characters. All of the people in it are pretty bland. You can throw all the noise and craziness you want on the screen, but if we don’t care about the characters, nobody is going to give a damn.
Jordan Peele’s previous films Get Out and Us had their share of captivating characters. Nope unfortunately doesn’t. The filmmakers put lots of effort into creating the bizarre shapeshifting UFO monster, but didn’t devote enough time into developing the protagonists.
Rating
Nope has some interesting ideas and one truly great horror scene (the chimp attack), but the film’s lack of compelling characters keeps it from ascending to the heights of Jordan Peele’s previous films.
Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 6
