Riot’s Movie Reviews: Nope
How does one compose a spoiler-free review for a writer/director who’s become notorious for films that have the most shocking twists since M. Night Shyamalan? It’s easy, you simply spoil everything! Just kidding folks. As always, I’ll provide my honest opinions and let y’all sort it out for yourselves. The pre-context information for my review of Nope, the latest horror/thriller (there doesn’t seem to be any online consensus on which category this film falls into) in Jordan Peele’s cinematic catalog, are three-fold. First, I’ve only seen Get Out. Second, I have been ever-so-slightly swayed by public opinion of his sophomore work, US. I mean this only to the extent that most people I know were very disappointed in the film and also very vocal about it. Third, I am by no means a horror/thriller buff. It’s not that I don’t enjoy them but given the choice between a horror flick or action, I’m typically leaning toward fight scenes and explosions. Also, when your spouse/movie partner hates horror films, you don’t see horror films. (Happy wife, happy life!) For this particular venture, ol’ Riot went solo, which was actually a first-time experience! So, how was it going to a presumptive horror film, by myself, in an empty theater that only had two other similarly single-seated dudes in it? Best I can say is that I’m simply middle of the road and left the theater far more confused than scared.
Nope, as a cinematic whole, falls victim to the same pitfalls that many Disney productions are dealing with: far too much messaging getting in the way of storytelling. There are certainly other critics out there that are reveling in this (see here and here but be warned, they are not spoiler free), but this is a sensation that seems to be very specific to Jordan Peele, who consistently uses the horror genre to open up commentary on social issues. While I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, if the depths to which these other reviewers are digging is what should be common for horror films, I’m not interested. Outside of personal preference though, there is little to no character development to be seen (I mean, is character development in horror really a thing?) and the plot holes are bigger than the antagonist of the story. (The antagonist is a spoiler btw, so I’m forced to leave it at that). The film also deeply struggles with pacing; a characteristic that seems to be pretty common these days. As it stands, this seems to be the biggest complaint I’ve seen online, coupled with the plot issues I spoke of before. Nope’s commentary very much centers around Hollywood and its history, something that I am admittedly fairly ignorant of and I would venture a bet that the average person has a similar grasp on the subject that I do. Unfortunately, I think this will only serve to create a distance in the viewers’ experience. Left without much to root for, it felt like the audience is really left out to dry and simply made observer of events. Since they come at you fairly slowly/methodically, the average observer is going to turn into an average sleeper quickly.
So what are the good points of Nope? First of all, performances. Daniel Kaluuya (OJ Haywood) delivers another convincing portrayal for Peele, in significantly more contrasting ways than Get Out. His stoic/cerebral demeanor is pretty atypical for the horror genre and is refreshing to see when all of the s*** really hits the fan. Keke Palmer (Emerald Haywood), in turn, provides all of the flamboyance and comedic relief that you could need for necessary breaks in tension. Finally, (my personal favorite) the brilliant performance of Michael Wincott (Antlers Holst), who’s never ceased to amaze me since his over-the-top villainy in The Crow, was a fantastic surprise. I’d pay to watch that dude read an Encyclopedia. The cinematography was also a gold star and created so much with so very little. I mean, desert hills, clouds, a single house, and inflatable men aren’t a lot to work with. The special effects for the antagonist were also quite something, although they bordered on the asinine as the movie progressed. As far as the messaging goes, I didn’t really mind it, focusing on Hollywood’s issues with race and tokenism is more than fine, especially in today’s society. Jordan Peele is clearly at the forefront of this, trying to blend it into a media that isn’t typically seen as a place to do so. A final, super unimportant thing I enjoyed was catching a marketing spot for Kirin Ichiban and also finding a delightful nod to the Akira bike slide.
I guess another little bit of helpful context was that my particular movie theater has a sound mixing flaw which made the viewing border on the unbearable. The speaker responsible for dialogue was tuned far too low, which made any conversation between characters almost impossible to understand at times. I’ve heard that mixes for horror films are made this way intentionally, so that jump scares and shifts in music pace have a greater effect on the audience. But considering this was still the case with my viewing of Thor: Love and Thunder, I realized it’s more of a theater problem than anything else. Lesson here is, if the sound is bad, let your theater know; nicely. Besides a couple recurring scenes involving a monkey (yikes), Nope was pretty far from horrific or thrilling. Audiences are meant to be involved in the story and it felt like the movie was doing all it could to force you to the sidelines. If a significant time is spent meticulously building up a commentary, it doesn’t serve the purpose of the film when all the “rules” that took an hour and a half to establish go all to hell in the final thirty minutes. I will say though, you will certainly think twice about suspicious clouds from now on. All in all, if you’ve watched the first two Jordan Peele films, there’s probably nothing that will stop you from seeing Nope.Would I recommend it for the average viewer? I think you know my answer.
*inserts wink face emoji
Riot’s Rating: 6.7/10
Comments