It’s a staggering technical achievement in a movie already full of them, and a testament to the fact that a great director can only soar as high as his collaborators will allow. The film weaves seamlessly between quiet moments of intimacy and grotesque setpieces, like the mesmerizing “blood umbrella” scene where the brutal UFO rains carnage down over the Haywood ranch house.
Instead, it’s incredible to see how confident and evocative Peele’s direction has become over just three movies. There are so many moving parts that, in the hands of a less seasoned director, Nope would fall apart in spectacular fashion. On the flip side, Steven Yeun’s brief but unforgettable turn as Ricky “Jupe” Park, a former child star who survived a brutal chimp attack on the set of a late ‘90s sitcom, is a fascinating look at our obsession with the sensationalization of celebrity trauma.Īlbeit in the context of angry monkey attacks. Helping them document the unfilmable are a host of eccentric and lively side characters, from the overfamiliar and easily excitable Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), to the gravelly voice and shrewd eyes of seasoned and secretive cinematographer Antlers Holst. Emerald and OJ are the lonely nomad the looming loss of their childhood ranch means their mission to document evidence of the alien phenomena in the area is really a mission to lay roots in a tangible future. Palmer is frenetic and high-spirited, while Kaluuya is brooding and soft-spoken, but their relationship is effortlessly earnest and reflective of one of the Wild West’s most persistent archetypes. As descendants of the Black jockey in the seminal “The Horse in Motion,” Emerald (Keke Palmer) and OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) should be film royalty, yet the unexplained passing of their father leaves them saddled with the debts of his Hollywood horse training business. It also carries the spirit of the Hollywood western in its humble adventurers. It’s a movie that feels fresh despite wearing influences like Jaws on its sleeve. The idea of a sinister alien presence sucking unwitting horses and humans into the sky above Agua Dulce, California feels like it could be the premise of an old EC Comics story, yet Peele’s sharp pen grounds the entire affair in the richness of human drama.
Nope runs two of pop culture’s neverending fascinations through a post-modern meatgrinder: UFOs and the American West.
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