review by ERIC LINDBOM
As it dropped two Thursdays ago, feel the statute of spoiler limitations has passed on Jordan Peele’s enticing sci-fi/action/thriller “Nope.” This crammed genre label hardly envelopes the traffic jam of themes writer/director Peele shrewdly explores while avoiding gridlock. Okay, I have sig alerts on the brain since Agua Dulce, 40 miles north of LA, will make impatient drivers yearn while giving an expansive canvas of wide open (desert) spaces for Peele.
“Get Out’s” Daniel Kaluuya, a black cowpoke with the “Boy Named Sue” name of OJ, is a man of few words whose eyeballs speak volumes. He runs a horse ranch for moviedom along with his eager sister Em (an energized, emotive Keke Palmer). Rick “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun) a corny emcee at Jupiter’s Claim (a cowboy tourist town lovingly mounted by production designer Ruth De Jong) wants to buy off some of their stock. All three have flying saucer sightings over the desert. Jupe leverages the aliens as a sideshow attraction and he and his audience get hoovered skyward from the bleachers.
The story (rife with Spielberg allusions including ”ET” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) then takes a “Jaws” turn as Em, Kike are joined by a UFO obsessed Frye’s Electronics geek (funny Brandon Perea) and a balls of steel cinematographer Antlers (Michael Wincott). All chase the elusive money shot for fame and bucks (including a TMZ biker in a Daft Punk/”Phantom of the Paradise” helmet).
Peele has said he examined “humanity’s addiction to spectacle” and the “insidious nature of attention.” He also essays Hollywood animal cruelty with a spooked horse on a green screen shoot and a harrowing, bloody flashback of a sitcom chimp who goes rogue on set. (The child actor survivor is Jupe who side hustles a memorabilia room for death kitsch cultists).
That’s a lot to unpack and there’s plenty more sci-fi easter eggs and cans of worms to debate. Is “Nope” an acronym for “Not of This Earth” and/or just O.J.’s initial smart response to not wanting to get his ass in danger?
Since our US government often excused away many UFOs as weather balloons, did that inspire the saucer to resemble one at feeding time and/or spur the glut of inflatable balloon dolls beloved by car dealers that dot the landscape?
For some, all this ballooning spells hot air. Two talented writer pals who admire tight scripts found the plot wanting despite the game cast. Admittedly, the 131-minute running time could use a prune.
After “Get Out” Peele bore the brunt of living up to his relevant Zeitgeist horror brand. Second act jitters could have stymied him like M. Night Shyamalan who, after the brilliantly scripted “The Sixth Sense” got more obsessed with twists than Chubby Checker. Peele’s follow up, the Doppelganger puzzle “US” was easier to chew on than digest, Nope is a fearless step forward since Peele has grown as a filmmaker. He delivers on the effects front and the always startling sound design warrants the ever-steep IMAX price tag.
Eric Lindbom is a hardcore horror buff with a strong stomach, weened on the Universal classics from the ’30s and ’40s. He’s written film and/or music reviews for City Pages, Twin Cities Reader, LA WEEKLY, Request magazine and Netflix. He co-edits triggerwarningshortfiction.com, a site specializing in horror, fantasy and crime short stories with illustrations by co-editor John Skewes. He lives in Los Angeles.
