Nope Review: An Old School Alien Film

It takes three unique, memorable and well done films to become an auteur in my book. With three films, you can start to find patterns of the director and ensure it’s not a fluke. Nope establishes Jordan Peele as an auteur, with a unique perspective in telling stories cinematically! Don’t worry folks, if you think you saw the movie in the final trailers, you don’t know what you’re in for. 

OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) heads up the family business after his father passes from a freak accident. As Hollywood animal trainers on a horse ranch in an isolated gulch in California, there is always work to be done. His sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) is a rolling stone who comes by to look through some items at the house. It’s obvious that Em is feeling out if she’s wanted around or not. The likely dramatic history of the family seems thick, but their bond is thicker. 

As odd occurrences start happening around the property, OJ enlists the help of an electronics store employee named Angel (Brandon Perea) to capture it on camera. They’re looking for the money or “Oprah shot” as they call it. A once in a life time, first discovery image that will catapult them in the history books. Their neighbor, Ricky Park (Steven Yeun) runs a poorly attended theme park and he seems to know something is up as well. 

Kaluuya brings a presence to the film that is felt from the first time he appears on screen. Palmer gives a star making performance as the firecracker and comic relief in the film! Emerald has dreams, the gift of gab, past mistakes, and a heart of gold that won’t be denied all in the one bag she came home with. The lesser known, Brandon Perea, is one to watch as the lovelorn camera installer. The overall ensemble works well together.

It’s this desire to see train wrecks, mysterious occurrences or miracles that Peele explores here. It’s innate within us and we can’t seem to turn away, no matter the cost. Peele’s camera work is exquisite. Director of photography, Hoyte Van Hoytema, can take credit there as well. The setting leans to extreme wides that show the beauty of the landscape. Yet, Peele makes sure that we see what he wants us to see. It’s in the choices of using pans rather than cutting to another shot, or making the camera follow something with an obstructed view that builds suspense and tension. Peele’s genius and knowledge of film is on full display in the way that Nope is crafted from a cinematography and sound perspective. Sound and the lack thereof is used beautifully throughout the tale. A picture is worth a thousand words and Peele uses one frame, cuts to the next and then the next to give an intellectual montage that tells us a story while pushing the movie forward seamlessly.

There are some issues with the film. Certain storylines seem to be dead ends when all is said and done, but are mouth watering moments while watching. While this movie harkens back to 80’s and 50’s alien movies in feel, it is not in the same lane as Get Out or Us. However, there’s no question that it demands another viewing as his prior work has done as well. Trying to understand how this world works is part of the fun of being in the hands of an auteur!

Rating: B

"Us" Review: Be Prepared for Nightmares

A little over two years ago, Jordan Peele told us to Get Out.  This time he wants us to look at ourselves in his new movie Us. While this film doesn’t rise to the masterpiece heights of its predecessor, it sure proves that Peele understands cinema and he’s no one hit wonder. Usually I’d say the hype is real, but the truth is true this time around, and Us is the sci-fi/horror truth! 

As a young girl, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) wandered off from her parents at the Santa Cruz beach. The experience left her speechless and in therapy for years. So years later, when her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) decides that her and the kids should go to the same beach for vacation, she begrudgingly goes. They meet up with the Tyler family and Adelaide learns Kitty’s (Elizabeth Moss) secret to dealing with life is booze, while Gabe and Josh (Tim Heidecker) compare boat sizes. 

Once they finally get home and Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) are tucked in, the lights go out and things get weird. A family stands at the edge of the drive way and won’t budge off the property. Once the Wilson family realizes the family is comprised of themselves (called the tethered), a story only Jordan Peele could unveil begins. 

Peele hits every note of suspense in setting up scenes that we as an audience are frightened by and using every element of cinema to capitalize on that fear in a way in which you feel like you are in the situation. He uses sound and the lack thereof to build those fight or flight moments that we experience in real life. He’s not afraid to let a moment breathe and build the tension in a scene like some directors in the genre back away from these days. His blocking of characters shows an understanding of a frame of film and how to use it. In a scene with Adelaide riding shotgun in the foreground on the way to the beach with a look of absolute nervousness and Gabe in the background obliviously happy, he allows the story to be told without a useless back and forth of camera shots. 

Lupita Nyong’o gives a stellar performance as both Adelaide and her tethered, Red. She plays a range of emotions as both characters and is stellar at it. Red’s presence is almost good enough to put her in the top lists of movie villains. The rest of the cast equally play their parts well in such a way that once the story comes together, you’ll have tons to talk about in the parking lot.

You better believe I’m talking around this film so you can go in as blank as possible. Us does have some story issues, but the setup and storytelling more than make up for those issues. See this film with as many black people as possible! It will only enhance your experience because this is definitely a film you may find yourself talking to the screen in throughout its second and third acts. If you don’t know how to do it, sit back and take notes because it might get hilarious in all the right ways. The best part is, the main characters don’t constantly make silly decisions. It’s old fashion horror and sci-fi with all the good twists and turns it seems we will come to expect from a Jordan Peele movie. With this film, it seems we’re on the verge of seeing a new auteur in the suspense thriller genre.

Rating: B+

WATCH MY IN DEPTH REVIEW BELOW:

"Get Out" Review: An Instant Classic

Let’s face the facts, meeting any significant other’s parents for the first time is plain scary! Add in the fact that you’re an interracial couple and it can add a little weight to that. In writer/director Jordan Peele’s Get Out, he takes that premise, a dash of suspense, and real world issues to make a refreshingly original take on meeting the ‘rents.

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is an upcoming photographer who is going to his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) home for the weekend to meet her parents. While the love between the two is strong, there’s no question that Chris is a little anxious to meet her parents, Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener) Armitage. After encountering a deer the hard way, Chris gets his first introduction to Rose’s hometown through the local police. This is where we first see how Peele is telling his horror through real life issues of being black in America. During the exchange, we witness Rose talk back and be confrontational with the officer, while Chris does just the opposite with a smile. Thus, the dichotomy begins.

After arriving at her parent’s home, Chris navigates through the normal awkward attempts to relate with lines like “I would have voted for Obama a third time”, or “my man!” However, it’s Walter (Marcus Henderson) the groundskeeper and Georgina (Betty Gabriel) that make Chris squirm. As he attempts to talk with them, they seem to have no soul, which in this film refers to black culture, in them. Things only get more peculiar as the weekend goes on. Whether it’s a late night hypnosis session that Chris barely remembers, meeting Andrew Logan King (Lakeith Stanfield) who seems familiar, or his cell phone being unplugged at night, it all starts to add up into a horrifying tale.

The key to this film is the manipulation of space and time, framing, sound, and good storytelling. Peele’s pacing of the film is perfect. Things move at just the right pace as to lure you in and speed up once it’s too late to stop. He gives us in your face close-ups that heighten the sense of alarm within the film. Yet it’s his script that’s the backbone of this sure to be instant classic.

Kaluuya and Gabriel give memorable performances in their roles as black people “trapped” in a white world. Their faces say so much more than words. Simultaneously, without the creepy opposition of Williams, Keener, Whitford, and Caleb Landry Jones as Jeremy Armitage, you wouldn’t have the tension that is felt so much throughout the film.

Get Out is a film that you have to see more than once to catch everything that was thrown at you. There’s no doubt that it’s a horror/mystery for this generation! Equipped with the comedy of Chris’s best friend Rod (LilRel Howery) who stands in the gap for the audience who would regularly be yelling at the screen, this film knows what it’s doing and knows what you’re thinking!

Rating: A