On a Ranch, Horse Trainers Train Their Eyes to the Sky

Daniel Kaluuya in "Nope"
Photo Credit: RotenTomatoes.com

Ever since writer-director Jordan Peele made a killer filmmaking debut with his social-horror thriller, “Get Out,” his movies have become events.  After his big entrance, Peele showed his confidence as a filmmaker and went a little bigger with his second horror film, “Us.”  There’s always a sense of mystery behind his films, so whenever he plans on releasing a new movie, you’re sure to get something that goes beyond the external premise.

With his latest movie, “Nope,” he goes in a science-fiction direction to explore the horror genre.  And, just as with his other two films, you’ll immersed in trying to find the deeper meanings behind his unnerving story.

Out in Agua Dulce, California, Otis Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer), own and operate a horse ranch for the movie/TV industry.  After they get evidence of a possible UFO in their skies, they recruit the help of a tech salesman, Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), and an accomplished cinematographer, Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) to capture footage of the next sighting.

Kaluuya, who starred in “Get Out,” shows a melancholic character who’s been impacted by a tragic loss and the unfavorable direction in which his profession is going.  It’s a performance of a character who once enjoyed his work, but has experienced a turn where he doesn’t find it fulfilling.  Kaluuya brings out his character’s emptiness as he just attempts to get by while trying to figure out what to do next.  He’s able to reveal a lot about his character from Otis’ understated nature, keeping you guessing where his arc will bring him by the film’s end.

Palmer offers much of the film’s humor as Otis’ sister, endearing you to her character right from her fast-talking introduction and carrying that energy throughout the movie.  She exhibits the sense of excitement of discovering an otherworldly phenomenon, doing well in handling the humor to balance out the tightly-wound tension. 

Kaluuya and Palmer, a great dichotomy of spectacle versus subtly, highlighting the film’s theme of the overuse of spectacle in entertainment.  While Kaluuya is very subdued and reacts to big events with passiveness, Palmer offsets that with feelings of surprise.  And, despite the differences in how their characters conduct themselves, you can feel the connection and slight tension that they’ve built over the years as siblings. 

Although the screenplay by Peele feels drawn out in the third act, he manages his usual success in establishing a slow build in the rest of the narrative.  Right from the mysterious and disturbing opening scene, the enigma is set as we start to wonder what kind of nightmare Peele has in store for us.  There’s a sense of complexity as Peele carefully places the pieces in play.  And, even when the plot is set, Peele has a talent for keeping you wondering what could happen next.  The settings that he creates leave us pondering how his characters will be impacted by the strange events and what kind of things are going to unfold. 

Peele’s ability to paint a story with subtle details is tremendous, having you spot things that reflect the overall themes of the story.  He understands the notion of having equal power in both the bigger picture and the smaller details, melding both together in fascinating ways.  This is the type of skill that makes his movies worth rewatching, even if you picked up many of the clues upon your first viewing.

Peele’s main theme this time around is the modern overindulgence of spectacle.  Peele is someone who can create scenarios that generate more tension than big-budget action scenes of most blockbusters, and between the way his story is structured to express his ideas and how is characters are written, Peele offers a clever examination about audiences’ relationships with spectacle.

Peele achieves his larger scope with the help of cinematographer Hoyta van Hoytema.  Having lensed big-budget sci-fi films like Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” and “Interstellar” and James Gray’s “Ad Astra," van Hoytema can capture the expansiveness of any environment he has to frame.  In this case, he offers imposing shots of the sky that has us searching the clouds and stars for any threat that might be there.  And, despite the repetitiveness of the third act, Peele makes full use of van Hoytema’s camerawork to show his growing ambition as a filmmaker in the special effects-driven finale.

Peele has a talent for creating such tension, and in his opening scenes in particular.  In this case, you don’t have any idea how the first scene is going to figure into the rest of the film, but Peele makes it work on both the surface level and thematic level, and it may be one of the most unsettling scenes that he’s shot.  From there, Peele maintains his usual disturbing atmosphere to have us question where he’s leading us.  He uses his thematic focus to make this movie a clever subversion of UFO films, one that has the smarts to use spectacle to not only show a new stage of Peele’s filmmaking ability, but to also point a finger at movies that overuse spectacle in order to attract an audience’s attention.

“Nope” is another film that emphasizes Peele as a singular voice among modern filmmakers and  shows that he may have as many ideas as there are stars in the sky.

Grade: A-