PREMISE
The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.
THE GOOD STUFF
JORDAN PEELE- The one thing that you can say about Peele is his absolutely flawless ability to subvert expectations in the best ways possible. Its not that he does unconventional horror stuff youve never seen before, its that you find yourself wondering why the unconventional stuff he does isn’t done more often.
Nope it’s an awfully hard film to review at length because literally everything in the third act goes against the grain of what this movie advertised itself to be, and is undoubted spoiler territory. And ultimately, that unconventional batshit crazy left turn that all of his movies tend to take in the 3rd act is the magic of what he does… And this is a very very hard left turn indeed. He has mastered the art of making his audience wait for bad s*** to happen to people.
KALUUYA, PALMER, AND PEREA- The heart of this film really lies between the three heavily contrasting performances of Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Brandon Perea. The film isn’t necessarily about any one of them as much as it is the three of them being a easy to root for Ghostbusters-like trio. Kaluuya is the strong and silent type, stoic and monotone. Palmer is the high energy livewire that speaks in exclamation points at all times. Perea essentially plays the “wtf” voice of the audience. They make for a charismatic trio, each with their own individual moments to shine.
The Steven Yeun storyline– I was very conflicted on if this worked for me or not. Yeun’s character seems to be going through a different movie than the rest of the cast, and it’s noticeable to see. I got to admit that annoyed me when I left the theater. Certain aspects of his side of this story are so vaguely explained and deliberately symbolic that it might be the focal point of a repeat viewing giving the fact that one can get lost in what everything tends to mean.
However, (and I say this endearingly) it is his flashback sequence that is the most disturbing part about this movie by far. Disturbing yet very impressive.
THE BAD STUFF
MICHAEL WINCOTT and KEITH DAVID USAGE- Michael Wincott and Keith David are character actors that have been around forever. Because of their distinctive voices and characteristics they’ve often been paired as villainous roles in very small to mid sized films and shows scattered throughout the decades. It was in fact nice to see both of these men in a project as big as this. And yes, Wincott does get a moment or two to show what he can do, but in both of these cases they feel underused. Given the story and how it plays out, it feels as if they both could have been used more. A wasted opportunity.
THE UGLY STUFF
Absolutely nothing.
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I don’t necessarily know what to say that hasn’t already been said ad nauseam about how electrifying a talent Peele is in this genre. He’s only made three movies so far, and because the lack of credits, I’ve always been one to tell people to calm down when exclaiming plaudits for the things that he does. Not out of hate for the man, but I’ve always felt that the expectations shoot to the moon literally every time a Jordan Peele film comes around.
That being said…The hype train has arrived at my station, and I’m all aboard.
I am hard-pressed to think of a particular time in the history of mainstream horror that has been this exciting. Directors such as Peele, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Scott Derrickson, and Alex Garland have hit the genre with a long needed EKG. And no disrespect to those other gentlemen… it is in fact Jordan Peele that stands out as the foremost director of this genre. Jordan Peele films are event level films right now. And nope is no exception.
NOPE is playing in theatres now
