Film On Second Thoughts, Sure, Why Not? (Spoiler free)
Nope is the much anticipated, third horror-comedy from Jordan Peele. It follows two Californian horse ranchers who find their struggling business is being visited by some sort of UFO. To say a single other thing about this plot would, much like with the previous Peele movies, be massive spoilers and defeat the whole point of watching it.
Speaking more vaguely, Nope is a bit more action orientated than Us and Get Out. That's somewhat appropriate considering the subject matter; our horse wrangler heroes provide animals for movies and adverts, and there are few things quite as cinematic as a horse at full gallop. Whilst we're comparing, the politics and themes are a lot more muted than Peele's last films. There are still elements of race and class strife (our protagonists remark that the first movie star and stunt man was an unrecognized, unnamed black jockey: only the camera inventor and horse are named), but they aren't the central theme. Instead it talks about man's attempt to tame the untamable, leading into something that resembles Jaws. It's less weighty and more conventional, which might feel like a bit of a let down to some Peele fans.
There is also the fact that Peele centers his horror around black people, the novelty of which makes his films far more interesting to watch. Whereas most horror follows generic middleclass white families exploring giant, haunted mansions in the dark, Peele here explores daylight horror in wide open spaces, with original protagonists who aren't stupid or boring. Our leads are OJ and Em. OJ has gumption and is overwhelmingly sensible, but he's no people person. He leaves that to the sister, a fast talker who is prone to unrealistic and oversized ideas. The two of them represent unsung heroes of Hollywood; them and their animals, which are often regarded for their utility and parts of the production, but not actual living things.
I enjoyed Nope a lot, even in spite of its lessened bite and satire. It is still both a funny and scary film in equal parts, and one that keeps you wondering what is going on right up until the climax.
Film A blockbuster sci-fi film with a sharp ethos.
By this point, we know Jordan Peele's wheelhouse— sharp social commentary mixed into the framework of a horror film genre. Here, he continues in a new direction: the sci-fi summer blockbuster.
Otis Jr. (OJ) and Emerald Haywood have worked with horses in Hollywood for a long time, but are struggling after the bizarre death of the expert Otis Sr. When strange disturbances arise in the sky, OJ and Em figure they can secure their futures with documentation of an alien phenomenon.
The central theme of the film is desensitization to tragedy/brutality and how humans take every opportunity to market a spectacle and forget the human pain involved. Married to that theme is the idea of the error in anthropomorphizing what cannot ever really be human, and how getting arrogant and neglectful and failing to respect other creatures on their immovable terms will lead to tragedy...which gets turned into entertainment by a public who wants money and can't let themselves face the darkness. The satire gets pretty on-the-nose in places, but still believably so.
The film is very layered in how it incorporates these themes, sometimes to very surprising effect, but it maintains a strong core by not committing the sins it criticizes. Brutality is super key to the film's storytelling, but it's either not graphic, not in-camera, not gawked at by the camera, or framed as sad and truly horrific. The dark stuff in the film is scaled back into the mundane painfulness it truly is, and there's a moral neutrality to the aggressors in the film that's essential to the message of anti-anthropomorphism. The film also takes care not to commit the acts of exploitation it warns viewers about. Scenes with an animal that anchor the themes were performed with a motion-captured human.
In terms of craft, the film is excellent, with great iconography, visuals, and sound design. When there's a true sense of cool spectacle in the film, it feels like awe at the right things. The performances were great, too, and the film has some pretty sharp and silly jokes as well.
Nope is maybe the sci-fi horror film for me. It gets realistic about an alien presence while also really saying something about how people would react to it as a reflection of wider societal blindspots.