Nope

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🎙️ EPISODE 626: 12.23.22The thing I appreciate most about Jordan Peele, three feature films into his directorial career, is his willingness to challenge the audience. He never feels like he was to spell everything out and his devotion to working this way has been ramped up exponentially with each subsequent movie. Nope is his most difficult to parse work yet and it's in these risks where the greatest rewards lie. There were some clever things I didn't pick up on fully the first time I watched it. This will clearly frustrate some mainstream viewers used to getting everything they need to know spoon-fed to them. But it's, by far, Peel's most admirable quality in my book. Ironically, I felt that the humor in this — maybe the only element present to connect to said masses — was easily the worst part (double ironic when you factor in his comedic roots).

In fact, we've now seen the diminishing returns on this obligatory comic relief intensify over his trio of pictures. From Lil Rel Howery in Get Out (very funny) to Tim Heidecker and others in Us (pretty funny) to the character of Angel, portrayed by Brandon Perea here (meh at best), it makes me wish Peele would just stop trying to shoehorn humor into his stories. If there's a naturally funny moment, that's one thing. But Angel's attempts at LoLZ felt off from the very first beat. It might be the only thing wrong with the movie.

One major pitfall that I feel like Peele ultimately sideswiped here is the thematic unpacking of another BIG IDEA. He tackled race and class, almost exclusively so, with two movies drowning in metaphors and symbolism. What would be the BIG IDEA here? I went in completely cold so I could be surprised. And what I came away with is that Nope is really about a few different ideas, all of various sizes. Sure, it's mainly about society's obsession with spectacle, a fairly big idea. But it's also about the desire to capitalize on tragedy, and ownership of art and art forms (primarily in regards to black performers and artists), among other auxiliary themes. (Not to mention a clear through-line about animals and taming them, which feels like it acts as both its own motif and as symbolic reenforcement for some of the other ideas.) These concepts are more insular, specific, fleeting. And I appreciated his willingness to move in a different direction. Not every film has to be about a BIG IDEA. And, honestly, sticking with that line of thinking feels like a really stifling way to work, imo.

It does feel like Peele is still working towards that perfect, 10/10-tier movie, but the three he's given us have all been excellent. He's firmly among the list of current filmmakers whose work you can't miss.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 625 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 627 ⫸

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Nope (stylized as NOPE) is a 2022 American neo-Western science fiction horror film directed, written, and co-produced by Jordan Peele under his Monkeypaw Productions banner. It stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as horse-wrangling siblings attempting to capture evidence of an unidentified flying object. Appearing in supporting roles are Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, and Keith David. It was released on July 18, 2022.