REVIEW: Nope

The people living through the horror films deserve our sympathies. In most cases, they didn't ask to be put through this nightmare. It's us, the viewers, who are the fools. We knew fully well what we were getting into when we bought that ticket.

I had this thought watching Jordan Peele's Nope on the big screen today. I don't necessarily know if it's true, especially since sometimes the characters in these kinds of films can knowingly get themselves into some hairy situations, but it was a sobering thought nonetheless.

In the case of this film, the protagonists definitely seemed to know what they were getting themselves into. When a mysterious entity starts stealing their family's horses in the middle of the night, brother and sister, OJ and Emerald Haywood, are quick to realize their valley is playing host to an extraterrestrial visitor. Their first reaction? Let's get this thing on camera and sell the footage to Oprah.

The elements at play in this film are all somewhat disparate. I don't know what made Peele want to use horror and western ingredients to tell a first encounter story that also exposes society's addiction to spectacle, but the end result only feels more original for it. The film holds up a mirror, for sure, but it would be misleading to call this a "social commentary" in the vein of Peele's previous two films. The focus is less on the evils of social systems and more on our own need to capture the spectacular and mysterious things of the world.

The film is mostly carried by Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya. They play brother and sister who are at complete opposite ends of the energy spectrum. OJ is downbeat and impersonable. With Emerald, I got the impression that Palmer had to swallow a firework before every take. This broad duality gives the story a huge range of emotions to play off of, even as the tension dials up to ten.

I wouldn't call the movie bloodless, but it might relieve some potential viewers to know that this isn't an especially gory film. Peele left the zombie deer and brain surgery in Get Out where they belong. Of course, that means that the tension comes almost exclusively from the atmosphere, which is masterfully orchestrated. Yes, you have your standard "walking down a dark corridor and hear an unearthly noise" segments, but the two sequences that actually had me wonder if I needed to exit the auditorium were both brightly lit. A lot of credit for this goes to the unnerving sound design at work here. The nightmare that worms its way into your ears is more unsettling than anything they could have shown onscreen, and I'd be truly puzzled if the sound team for the film didn't catch some attention come this Oscar's season.

Nope joins the long train of movies that employ dazzling spectacle with the intent of shaming the audience for coming to partake of the spectacle. There are, of course, natural contradictions to this ethos baked into the medium. Even the best of these films have some holes in the equation. I don't know if Nope is going to be the film to close the gap, but it certainly reminds us why we ask the question.

--The Professor

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