Jordan Peele’s Nope is yet another hit from the innovative horror director. This time he takes his skills in horror to the skies to wonderful results. Far more ambitious in scope than his previous two projects, Nope feels like a spectacle, and witnessing this on the biggest screen possibly is the right way to see it. Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography gorgeously captures Peele’s deranged visions but even more impressively, he captures mundanity and very plain environments and objects with such an understated beauty that it’s hard to pull your eyes away from the screen. Every single shot, whether it’s simple scene setting shots, or the “money shots”, forces you to sit down and bear witness to the spectacle on screen.
Seeing this in IMAX also had a bevy of other benefits, one of which was experiencing the sheer beauty of the sound design. There are sounds of screams that are burned into my mind due to their vitriol and tangibility, it sounds weird to call it beautiful, but it is, it’s horrifyingly beautiful. It’s not only these complex sounds that are impressive but just the way everything was crafted so intentionally that despite most of the film being devoid of loud noises, you notice every single detail.
Accompanying the exquisite sound design was sadly a disappointing score, comparatively to other Jordan Peele outings. The underscore is serviceable but doesn’t really do an awful lot to build the tension, which the film manages to achieve fine in the more horror filled scenes, but it would’ve just added that extra element that was missing. However, when the film goes full action/adventure the score really shines, kicking into this bombastic score that is reminiscent of many classic Hollywood blockbusters.
As we’ve come to expect with Peele films, the performances are simply incredible. Kaluuya, to no one’s surprise, delivers such a well-intentioned and delicate performance. Most of his character is very understated and reserved but what Kaluuya manages to do with this is give the audience a very nuanced character that you’re not only unpacking on screen but also in your own head. Someone who needs no introduction though is Keke Palmer. WOW. Palmer is a star and I’m so glad she’s getting her time in the spotlight. Her character is the opposite to Kaluuya’s, you know what’s on her mind cause she’s expressing it at all times. She gives the film a much-needed sense of levity and has some incredible comedic moments. It’s impressive how well these two bounce of each other and are simultaneously hilarious in completely different ways. They have this undeniable bond that instantly lets you know they’re siblings. Also, Brandon Perea was phenomenal, not a character that I expected to be in the film as much as he was but was on the same level as the aforementioned actors which is a hard feat to do.
Unlike his previous two endeavours, Nope is very dense. Get Out was layered in its symbolism, but ultimately was all contributing to one central idea. Us had a bit more going on with its themes but was tackled more explicitly. Nope on the surface could simply be taken as a spectacle, something you don’t need to look at deeper if you don’t want to, you could enjoy it for the adventure/horror it is but there’s so much to unpack if you want to. I think I might do a video essay on this, so I won’t get into it too much, but this creates problems for the film. There are far too many ideas going on here: the exploitation of people in filmmaking, the taming of animals, the pervasive nature of humans, the fascination with tragedy, our obsession with capturing images and the connection between exploitation and consumption. All fun to analyse and break down but with all this going on, it dilutes the experience as there’s just too much, and the ending just results in a lot of this becoming incoherent and messy. Still an impressively achievement in filmmaking but sloppier that his previous films.
★★★★
