Nope (2022)

 'Nope' is the 3rd feature from comedian turned horror auture Jordan Peele (I loved 'Get Out' but haven't seen 'Us'). Daniel Kaluuye and Keke Palmer are brother and sister, the family business for generations has been training horses for the movies, with changes in the industry and the death of their father its unclear how much longer that way of life can be sustained. But strange happenings around the ranch may mean that a new, potentially more lucrative opportunity has arrived at their doorstep.

Kaluuye and Palmer are joined by gravely voiced cinematographer Micheal Wincott and  curious Fry's Electonics employee Brandon Perea, in a plan to capture footage of a increasingly agreesive UFO before it kills them or others beat them to it. Steven Yeun is their neighbor, a former child actor turned family amusement entrepreneur who also has his eyes on the phenomena in the local sky's. This seemingly disjointed bunch of characters are on course to startling encounters and lots of subtext.

'Nope' borders on, but isn't quite, a horror parody, its much more. The movie has one of the strongest, most intricate screenplays I've seen in a long time, it is doing an awful lot. The movie is full of ruminations and has plenty of points it wants to make, it does an artful job of making them. 'Nope' reflects on genera trops of the sci-fi, horror, western and Hollywood navel gazing genras. It's about how Hollywood will chew you up and spit you out, how not all wild animals can be tamed, and the seduction of spectical and the prospects of easy stardom. It is about not learning your lesson, the ubiquity of cameras and the quest for "the impossible shot". It is about blood and found family and trying to save the dead. It is electric.

'Nope' sucked me in, offering a sense of awe and mystery of a most satisfying sort. I can't say enough about how well constructed this movie is, how it's many moving parts work together in  ways that at first seem halting and obscure, but which gain focus as they revel more and more. I  regret not seeing this on the big screen, though there is something to be said for watching it alone at home in the dark. As much as I enjoyed 'Get Out' you can really see Jordan Peele's growth as a filmmaker in this, he evokes flavors of feelings in his work that are idocenticly his own and yet made universal. Needless to say I am sold.****