“Nope” is, a wildly inventive ride. This movie is filled to the brim with, subtext, and visual thrill. Jordan Peel has been able to craft out a career of making films that are his complete vision. Watching Studios give him the tools to do such inventive work has been fascinating.
Aspects of this film show me how much Peel has grown as a visual storyteller. It has sweeping shots that are reminiscent of Classic Adventure-Horror films. Like Peel's freshman and sophomore films, this contains subtext that informs every scene. Sometimes, all of those elements come together and create some of the best filmmaking I have seen Jordan Peele exercise. I am genuinely excited to see what he does next. The criticisms I have for the film lie in the way plots unfold.
Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya work very well together. They have a chemistry that works and their characters are very much opposed to each other. Kahlua plays a more subdued character that has a bit of melancholy. The Pair plays siblings and their interactions do prove to be pretty amusing most of the time. Steven Yeun Is great as an amusement park owner and Former Child Star. That plays into the story in a very pivotal way. His character also allows him to perform some theatrics. Separately these characters work very well it's when they come together or lack thereof where the movie Loses a little steam.
The movie is broken up into chapters but it is also really broken up into two separate plots that eventually meet each other. It is within this meeting that I think Jordan's writing falls a little flat. It by no means ruins the film. It does however make the connective tissue of these plots not very evident. The connective tissue is really All subtext. Meaning the audience would have to interpret how these two stories connect. Which I think is exactly what Jordan Peele was going for. I think it might leave some audience members lost.
The third Act of this film abandons sub-plots and gets to the meat of the story. And it works. Some of the most inventive and terrifying imagery I have seen. I give nope an 8.5 out of 10
