Nope Review: Jordan Peele's oeuvre is outlandish yet engaging

Director: Jordan Peele

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Barbie Ferreira and others

Where: In theatres near you

Rating: 3 stars

Oscar-winning writer-director Jordan Peele’s latest oeuvre Nope will not appeal to everyone. For his fans and those stimulated by offbeat sci-fi thrillers, this film is a treat, for it is grand in scope, mysterious in its revelation, and rarely boring. Yes, even when the parts of the film don’t jell, it is a pleasure to watch. But for others, this film would be a bit outlandish, eccentric and indigestible, especially with the design and finish of the big reveal, and with the incorporation of the various themes, the plot tries to communicate.

The film is packed with witty imagery and a narrative premise that does not have a satisfying thought-out plot. It has tracks of Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr (Daniel Kaluuya), his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer), and Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), which merge and digress at the same time.

The siblings are horse wranglers who run a ranch in the Santa Clarita Valley in California, supplying horses for films and TV productions. Their ranch is immersed in history. Theirs is the oldest black-owned horse training centre in Hollywood.

Jupe is a former child actor and now the owner and operator of the theme park that serves as Haywood’s neighbour in their vicinity.

The Haywood siblings, after their father’s death in a strange accident, reunite to sell their inherited business. They visit Jupe to sell one of their trained horses. While there, Emerald derails the meeting by scanning one of the souvenirs from Jupe’s acting career littered around the office, and Jupe excitedly recalls the traumatic event on the set of his show. He makes them aware of how he monetized his trauma.

Taking a cue from this, when OJ and his sister encounter an uncanny force with mysterious signs in the sky, they suspect that there are aliens above their ranch, and thus- believing it to be an unexpected opportunity, they set out to capture the spectacle on film. They rope in Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), an Electronics store employee, and Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), a Cinematographer, in their endeavour.

Without any jump scares or regular gore, Nope is an unusual sort of horror film. It concerns not with vanquishing an extra-terrestrial enemy but with photographing it. The narrative juggles between resembling a Buddy film, a Westerner, and an action-adventure, which is punctured with scathing barbs of social commentary about race, celebrity, and our entitled attitude towards the animal kingdom.

Despite its uniqueness, the film draws on a wide range of influences from filmmakers; Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters and Jaws, M Night Shyamalan’s Signs and The Happening, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and even Ron Underwood’s Tremors.

On the performance front, Daniel Kaluuya does wonders with his character, who primarily communicates with his eyes. His expressive penetrating stares are impressive in their emotional range. He is aptly supported by Keke Palmer, who delivers a high voltage act.

Perea, Yeun, and Wincott have their moments of on-screen glory, and they deliver nuanced performances.

The film boasts of excellent production design by Ruth De Jong, which is aesthetically captured by Hoyte Van Hoytema’s immersing cinematography and brought to life by Michael Abel’s energetic score.