Nope (2022)

Being a fan of Jordan Peele meant I was going to see Nope but to try and explain what the film is about is quite tricky. The closest I can manage is that OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) have a ranch when they discover that an alien spaceship or something is above them in the clouds.

I have always been a fan of Kaluuya since I first saw him in an episode of Black Mirror and in Get Out he was amazing. In this there is a hint of just being miserable but given what is happening you can understand why OJ is not exactly a barrel of laughs. I did find Emerald annoying at first but by the second half of the film I thought she had developed into someone who helped to the success of the film instead of being a distraction. She has some smart ideas including letting a balloon rise so it can get the aliens' attention and using a wishing well’s flash to get the attention as well. Normally horror films make people come across as stupid but Peele writes better than that. 

There is a running theme about the love of cinema. There is a thing about OJ and Emerald being the descendants of the rider of a horse on some footage from the dawn of cinema and the second half of the film sees the cinematographer that we meet at the beginning of the film and brings an old style camera to try and capture what is in the clouds. It’s a great moment and the second half of the film is by far the stronger half because it's when things start happening. 

The effects of the alien ship both inside and out are very good. It doesn't look like your typical spaceship and it could only come from someone who didn't want the alien spaceships to look cliched or like anything we had ever seen before. From a cinematography point of view this film is stunning. Pretty much every shot outside is great and the isolated setting helps create the atmosphere. I didn't think it was possible to make brown dust and dirt look amazing but Hoyte Van Hoytema manages it. I really like this film but I think it's largely down to the central performances from Kaluuya, Palmer and Yeun who all help maintain the mystery even if it's unclear really what's happening. I would like to have seen more from Yeun but what we got was I don't think it's the best Jordan Peele but he manages to make confusing stuff seem interesting and entertaining. He doesn't do stupid horror, he does horror films that have an idea about them and is creative with what he does. 


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