The meteoric rise of Jordan Peele in the film world
brings to mind the same rise that M. Night Shyamalan experienced. While
Shyamlan’s directorial debut (
Wide Awake) was an absolute bomb, his next
three films (
The Sixth Sense,
Unbreakable, and
Signs) were
widely acclaimed and box office successes. Plus,
The Sixth Sense
garnered a couple of Oscar nominations for Shyamalan. Similarly, Peele’s first
two films (
Get Out and
Us) were widely acclaimed, box office
successes, and
Get Out was nominated for some Oscars. Continuing in
Shyamalan’s footsteps, Peele’s third movie,
Nope, dives into aliens and
UFOs.
In case you are getting concerned about this parallel,
you can probably relax. There are plenty of differences between him and
Shyamalan to indicate Peele won’t fall off a cliff into a pile of his own
shitty movies. For starters, Peele’s films are far better at weaving social
issues into the broader narrative of the films. In fact, it’s tough to argue
that Shyamalan’s films include social issues at all, let alone deep commentary
on them. They also come from very different film backgrounds. Shyamalan has
always been a director/producer/writer. I’d include actor, but his various
cameos show he has no business being on the lens side of the camera. Conversely,
Peele came up doing years of sketch comedy (Mad TV, Key & Peele)
before breaking out as a director/writer/producer with Get Out. On that
note, while Shyamalan did not win any awards for The Sixth Sense, Peele
won Best Original Screenplay for Get Out.
Like with Us,
I’m going to talk about some stuff in Nope without spoiling anything
major for you. The point here is to get you even more excited and intrigued to
see Nope than you already should be. And, you already should be. The
initial preview was excellent, though you definitely want to stay away from the
other previews that have been released. I accidentally saw one before the
latest Jurassic World movie and I was afraid that much of Nope
had been spoiled for me (it turned out okay). My point is...aliens.
Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) is struggling to
keep his family’s Hollywood horse wrangling business afloat (they train horses
to work in TV and film). His father, Otis Sr. (Keith David), was very
well-regarded in the industry, but was killed six months earlier by debris
falling from the sky. After a commercial shoot goes bad, OJ is forced to admit
to his sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer), that he has been selling horses to a
local carnival owner, Jupe (Steven Yeun), to keep paying the bills. One day, OJ
sees something strange causing his horses to go wild, eventually telling
Emerald that he saw a UFO. Always looking to make a quick buck, Emerald hatches
a plan to take a picture of the UFO, believing this is their chance to get
rich. While OJ is on board with the plan, he is far more down-to-Earth in his
reactions. Eventually, they get some help from Angel (Brandon Perea), a local
Fry’s Electronics technician / alien conspiracy theorist, and Antlers Holst
(Michael Wincott), a famous cinematographer. No, seriously, those are the
characters’ names.
Rather than a deep commentary on a serious social issue,
Peele takes aim at the UFO debate by playing with many of the tropes associated
with UFOs and providing answers to the questions posed by those tropes. Animal
mutilations, abductions, sucking people up with a tractor beam, electrical
interference, the shape and movement of UFOs, people trying to profit off UFOs,
and even the idea that people never see UFOs directly - all are given
explanations in the film. Peele even addresses the fact that UFOs are now
referred to as UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) and why the term was
changed. It’s a brilliant take on the aliens-are-among-us topic that is one
part horror, one part curious, one part playful, and one part satire. It’s so
well-portrayed that even people who truly believe aliens are here could see the
movie as a slap in the face or a legitimate explanation confirming their
belief.
If there is one flaw with Nope, it’s a subplot
involving Jupe’s childhood that doesn’t seem to tie into the greater plot.
Given Peele’s attention to detail, another viewing of the film might reveal the
connection, but I just couldn’t figure out how a chimpanzee killing everyone on
the set of a TV show (except Jupe) tied into the rest of the film. It didn’t
even seem to do much to develop Jupe’s character. He just seemed to be another
guy Hollywood spit out. Good thing this movie is good enough for me to want to
watch again to find that connection.
And I really must stress how good Nope is. I can list off all the components
as being good to great (and I will say the acting was great), but it’s better
to just tell you that you won’t blink during the film. You’ll be watching the
sky along with OJ, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever is there. You won’t
want to miss the little details of foreshadowing Peele loves to incorporate
throughout his films. You’ll be breathing as lightly as possible, trying to
hear something when all falls silent at OJ’s ranch. You’ll be unable to pull
your eyes away from something your brain never considered as a possible
explanation for UFOs. And you will greatly appreciate every time a character
says “nope” when confronted with a standard horror movie decision and choosing
not to be “that guy.”
Besides Shyamalan, there is another director that Peele
seems to be paralleling. Another director who burst onto the Hollywood scene
almost immediately upon his debut, whose first three films were all extremely
well-received, one of which won some Oscars and the third of which is about
aliens visiting Earth. Another director who, had you not known Peele directed Nope,
you might have guessed directed Nope and who several people cited
immediately when asked what they thought of Nope. If I’m right about
Peele’s trajectory, we can look forward to the next Spielberg rather than the
next Shyamalan.
Rating: Yep - worth your entire family’s ticket cost.
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