Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on the kid’s television.
I’ve been in St. Louis since last Saturday. Like last year, I’m pet sitting my daughter’s dog while she is on vacation with her boyfriend’s family. I’ve been watching sitcoms mostly for the week while I’ve been grading papers, but now that I’m pretty much done with my papers for the week, it was time to sit back with a movie. Naturally I brought some discs with me, and I figured this would be as good a time as any to finally catch up with Nope, Jordan Peele’s third film.
Musicians often have a sophomore slump because all of their best songs that they’ve worked on for years go on the first album, and the second one ends up feeling rushed. Movies tend to drop off in the third film these days—think of all of the trilogies you can. With rare exceptions like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the third movie tends to be where things drop off. It’s true of most genres, goes back at least as far as the Star Wars trilogy, and is true of unconventional trilogies like Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy. It’s also true of Jordan Peele’s first three movies.
We’re going to spend most of our time with the Haywood family, who train horses for movies and television shows. As the film starts, Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) is struck by something from out of the sky and killed. The film picks up six months later with his son Otis Jr., who goes by OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) carrying on the family business with the help of his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer). When one of their horses reacts badly on a set, the Haywoods find themselves in financial trouble, and make ends meet by selling some of their horses to Jupe Park (Steven Yeun), a former child star who runs a Western-themed park. Jupe is a survivor of an ill-fated television show that featured a chimpanzee that went berserk on set, maiming most of his costars.
It is slowly revealed that what is hovering over the area is a very large UFO that hides in a cloud that is noticeable mainly because it doesn’t move. The Haywoods recruit Angel (Brandon Perea) to set up cameras around their ranch, and what they find is a lot more disturbing and sinister than a simple alien invasion. I won’t spoil where this goes without putting it under a spoiler tag.
There are some really good ideas in Nope. What Jordan Peele does in terms of the reality of the alien is a lot more interesting than it could have been, and it’s surprisingly inventive as an idea. It does go to a sort of natural conclusion, but the film is smart enough to give us a few surprises along the way, especially with how the various characters interact with what is living in the cloud. And, of course, it’s cast really well. Kaluuya is the presumed star of the film, but it’s Keke Palmer who seems to be having the most fun of everyone involved.
It's not a perfect film, though. For one thing, Nope takes a very long time to get going. Aside from the interesting opening, we’re not really getting a lot more than just hints at mystery for the first hour or so of the film. Similarly, the entire section dealing with Jupe Park and the chimpanzee seems to be there merely for spectacle and doesn’t have a tremendous amount to do with the actual story. Yes, there’s some allegory here, but we spend a lot of time on this that probably didn’t need to be spent this way. There is one thing I want to talk about that requires a spoiler tag, though, so if you haven’t seen Nope, you’ll want to skip a bit.
* * * NOPE NOPE NOPE * * *
One of the bigger issues is what happens with the alien. We learn what the alien is, of course, and its appearance as essentially a flying saucer kind of makes sense, even if it requires a little bit of squinting to get there. It does feel very gossamer, though, not unlike the Rover beach balls from The Prisoner television show. And eventually, it goes through a sort of Pokemon evolution that really isn’t explained. It looks pretty, but it doesn’t make any sense.
* * * YEP YEP YEP * * *
Ultimately, Nope is fine, but it doesn’t live up to the promise of Peele’s first two films. It’s clearly in third place, and by a lot. I hoped for better.
Why to watch Nope: It’s better than Cowboys and Aliens.
Why not to watch: It won’t create a rush on science fiction Westerns.
