Nope

• Written, Directed, and Produced by Jordan Peele
• July 18, 2022 (Los Angeles) / July 22, 2022 (US)

Siblings try to capture evidence of a UFO.

In full disclosure, I’m not a big fan of Jordan Peele. I think he has a very good public relations team that knows how to sell him but overall he’s not that creative. Jordan Peele is a director that attempts to insert a message into his films. Nothing wrong with that but often message comes first with narrative being second and that’s where he tends to suffer. That and he often rips off other material and does very minimal effort to repackage it in a changed way. Peele claimed King Kong, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, and The Wizard of Oz as inspirations. I can certainly see Signs but also heavy hints of The Vast of Night as well. The others not so much.

I am convinced based on what I have seen of his serious works, that he simply takes previously existing material and does the bare minimum at repackaging. It’s one thing to borrow ideas and then to put a new spin on it, but he barely does that. This takes elements of Signs and The Vast of Night with a helping of the pilot episode of TNG.

And then there is that message he has. Several are present. Here it seems to be that Hollywood is racist. African-American trailblazers are forgotten. And those working in the in the industry in the present face bigotry and just general poor treatment. I guess the other axe to grind with Hollywood is the use of animals. One of the characters is a former child star who worked on a sitcom with a trained monkey, and one day the monkey went crazy and started killing the cast. Seriously. What the exact connection to the main narrative is not clear. It is just one more message crammed into this.

The story of Nope focuses (I use that word loosely) on Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald “Em” Haywood (Keke Palmer) and their failing ranch. It’s definitely a chilly relationship. I am not sure why she is even there or talking to her brother. She has little interest in the ranch, lives on her own, and they barely get along.

There’s a great deal of talking and it’s all about the past and again it doesn’t look like the people really like each other. They seem to have a grudge over something when it comes to the other and again you’re wondering why they’re even talking. The ranch certainly doesn’t seem to be a financial bonanza for them so greed is not keeping them together. 

And all this dialogue rarely moves anything forward. I’m not against dialogue heavy movies, but the dialogue needs to move the story forward and this really does it. It’s just talking and talking and talking and talking and talking. It doesn’t set a mood. It doesn’t set a tone. It just continuously reaffirms these people have issues.

Strange things happen like an entire tourist trap full of people disappearing. Apparently this UFO is a creature and is snacking. In light of this knowledge and desperate to get cash and save their ranch our main characters are out in the desert trying to get pictures because the technology does not exist to fake photographs and commit hoaxes in the present. Photographic evidence ain’t what it once was. Anywho…

While doing so a random stranger they encounter who is hyped to get his own proof gets eaten. The thing is nobody seems to be really bothered that this dude got eaten in front of them or even acknowledges that it happened. I’m not expecting the characters to mourn the stranger, but rather a notation of what just occurred would be expected.

And during the climax of Nope I’m struck that apparently the police after sealing up the tourist trap left the closing time announcement running. Why? From the P.O.V. of Peele it certainly makes things weird but if you take a moment to think it makes no sense at all. Then again when you focus on your message rather than a good story to deliver that message, you make mistakes like that.

And this goes to Peele’s shortcomings. You need to tell a good story before you can tell a good moral or make a good point. While Jordan Peele isn’t the only filmmaker putting message before story as it is a common trend these days. Unfortunately, it’s a trend that is causing entertainment to suffer. In order get their point across they do not proceed from any set of rules based upon their fictional universe.

But is Nope bad? Nope. Is it good? Nope. It’s mediocre which is pretty much what Jordan Peele is on a good day. It’s quality Jordan Peele, but mediocre for film in general. There are good ideas here poorly handled. He has something to say but does not know how to do it well.

While Nope isn’t horribly disappointing it’s not terribly exciting either. It’s just okay. It’s not a disappointment nor is it thrilling. I don’t think you’ll necessarily be disappointed but it certainly does not live up to the hype. Don’t pay to see this but rather if it’s included with your subscription on a streaming service, take it in then. Otherwise skip.