Nope

Film Review

Jordan peele’s latest film, Nope, is not very good. And the reasons for this are complex, to put it mildly. Nope is Peele’s third major cinematic release, and of the three it’s easily the worst. 

His first film, Get Out, is arguably in the top 5 films of the last ten years, possibly the best horror film of the 21st century. It’s a tour de force, especially for a “novice”. It blends comedy, horror, and social commentary in perfect balance. It has a message but never preaches, it always seeks to entertain rather than educate which actually gives a more powerful platform for its message. The script was thoughtful and provocative, and the performances were pitch perfect. The cherry on top? It was a massive hit, commercially and critically, which is rare for genre films. 

His follow up, Us, was a step down in terms of script, but a far more complex project overall demonstrating that Jordan can handle increased complexity. The story overall was far less satisfying, and the message took higher priority over making a compelling film. The performances also increased in depth and power, but overall it felt like maybe a bit of a sophomore slump. Us is a fine film, especially impressive from a technical perspective. But it’s simply not in the same league as Get Out. More artistic, with moments that grasp for genuine artistic genius but in many ways lacking. 

Unfortunately Nope continues right down this slippery slope. The writing continues to falter while the spectacle increases, which, to put it mildly, is not a great sign. Peele is proving that he is increasingly capable of managing complexity, while also showing that he probably needs a writing partner. Or rather a rewriting partner. 

It’s slightly reminiscent of Orson Welles. While they’re very different filmmakers, Welles was ultimately a technician not a storyteller. Most of his movies are watched today not because they are compellingly rewatchable classics, but because they are historical master classes in the technical aspects of cinema. My personal favorite of Welles’ films, The Lady from Shanghai, being a notable exception. As Ebert put it Citizen Kane is a masterpiece, just a hollow one. It’s a great film with little soul. 

If Nope is indicative of where he’s going then Peele is headed towards a similar fate, except without the same level of historical importance. The things he’s doing can be seen in other filmmakers. If his films aren’t enjoyable or compelling they will be relegated and forgotten. The incredible writing of Get Out is mostly gone.

It’s hard to sum up what Nope is even about, especially without spoilers. From the ad campaign this looked like some kind of UFO movie, possibly in the tradition of Spielberg’s close encounters. It is nothing of the sort. Yes there is a “flying saucer” in the movie, but in many ways that’s almost incidental.

The film begins by quoting the Jewish prophet Nahum:

“And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a spectacle.” -Nahum 3:6

Much of the little book attributed to Nahum is dedicated to the fall of Nineveh, the Capital of the Assyrian empire. It’s deeply unclear how this passage relates to the rest of the film except insofar that it creates an air of foreboding, something bad is coming. The key is probably the concept of spectacle. In our context spectacle often connotes good things, as in the Marvel cinematic universe is an incomparable spectacle. But traditionally it means something much more negative, as in when Kim Kardashian’s sex tape was revealed she became a spectacle. Spectacles are things to be derided and gawked at, not admired or enjoyed. 

This is seen most powerfully in the minor character of Jupe played by Steven Yeun. The film’s centerpiece isn’t anything in the sky, but rather something that happened in the 90s. Jupe was a child actor on a show with a chimpanzee, this is an obvious parody of the way sitcoms from the 80s in particular had a centralizing gag. Small Wonder was a robot, Alf was an Alien etc. So this show had a chimp character named Gordy, and one day the chimp actor playing Gordy loses his mind and begins killing people on set. Jupe witnesses the massacre first hand, but instead of shying away from the event he actually has created a museum to the disaster that he charges exhibition for. 

This part of the film is never fully explained, but it is by far the most compelling and disturbing part of the movie. In fact it’s so much better than the rest of the movie that I suspect this sequence is what the rest of the film was built around, a ham fisted attempt to turn a great idea into a cinematic spectacle. But the “UFO” stuff feels unnecessary and mostly nonsensical. Jordan might not have been able to formulate a feature length script around the bizarre incident, so the UFO stuff was added on to flesh out this central concept. 

Or the inverse might be true. It might be that Peele realized the UFO stuff just wasn’t working that well on its own, so he tried to find an emotional anchor for the film in this sub plot. Either way the film just doesn't work in totality, the different gears, while well made, are grinding against each other.

If you listen to the big picture podcast episode on nope I think there’s a few unstated things that become obvious, no one, not even Peele (who is interviewed in the episode) really knows what this film is or why it’s not very good, but it’s difficult to admit that Peele has become a progressively worse filmmaker with each outing. Sean Fennessy, the host of the pod and editor of the ringer, is trying his best to sound like he likes the movie by defending it as “challenging.” This is a nice way of saying it isn’t very good but someday future cinephiles may reappraise it. Calling mainstream media entertainment challenging, might be the worst possible label. 

Peele is capable of being a very good filmmaker but his job is primarily to entertain. Lawrence of Arabia is challenging due to its run time I suppose, but what’s on screen is riveting from moment to moment. Nope is only riveting and compelling when the Gordy subplot is involved. Nope is challenging to watch, because it isn’t very good. Not because it’s forcing the viewer into uncomfortable places, but because it’s confusing and dull. 

Get Out was such a high debut that it's not that surprising, but it is disappointing to see Peele not replicate that level of success. My guess is Peele has cart Blanche now and it hasn’t helped him become a better writer, despite the film’s impressive technical qualities. His current career trajectory reminds me of another, very different contemporary. Robert Eggers’ film debut was 2015’s The Witch. Written and directed by one man, just like Get Out. Both are part of a new era of Horror cinema. High concept, high production horror, genuine filmmaking outside of the gutter that horror usually resides in. Both debuts were instant genre classics. The main difference being that Peele’s was a massive hit, and The Witch was a sleeper. Also Get Out is genuinely fun and The Witch is unrelenting art house fair.  

But interestingly Peele has followed Eggers trajectory in terms of quality. They’ve both released three films now and each one has decreased in overall quality, while becoming more technically impressive. The Viking was Eggers latest, and similar to Nope it’s in many ways dissatisfying  while being technically brilliant. The Viking is a much better film because of its tonal coherence, and its thematic coherence within the director’s work so far. Eggers is doing something that no one else is right now, creating historically accurate myth where the beliefs of the past are made real on screen.   

Peele and Eggers are at least doing something with cinema, trying to produce interesting films. That’s saying something in the era of disasters like Jurassic park 6. Where studios are making products designed to appeal to audiences as disparate as America and China. We do need filmmakers like Peele and Eggers, but we also need them to hone their craft and attempt to become better. Hitchcock felt that if the audiences didn’t respond, he had failed. They aren’t failures but they need to find their voices in this noisy era.

I look forward to Peele’s next film, and probably always will. Even if Nope isn’t good, its a very interesting bad film. In some ways that makes it better than many of the movies being made today. Trying to do something and failing often belies real genius.