One of the best things I can say about Jordan Peele’s movies is that they are tough to make formulas for. His approach to film feels like he’s doing it in reverse. Most films start with a story then add flavor, details, and side-story over time and drafts. With Peele, he seems to have a bunch of ideas and touchpoints that he then rolls together into a movie. I heard one person describe it is “the random things drawer” approach*. This method works really well for making thought-provoking movies, but it’s a hard way to make a crowd-pleaser. Not impossible; just hard.
*The drawer in the kitchen where people put stuff that doesn’t go anywhere else. The concept of the drawer makes sense, but if you try to sort through it, it’s scattered.
He got “lucky” with Get Out*. Due to it being his first film and a departure from what he was known for, Get Out was fairly focused on getting the horror story right and mixing it with his humor. He had more latitude to experiment with Us. That movie has myriad compelling elements. It takes more digging though to determine if it fully works, and even then, it depends on how you read it. His latest, Nope, continues the trend. It’s a highly ambitious movie that looks incredible, has some dazzling scenes, images, and ideas, and needs to be dug into to decide if it works.
*I really want to stress that I mean lucky in the sense that any movie that works is a minor miracle, and any filmmaker who gets a movie this right on the first try has some luck to go along with great skill.
The trailers did a pretty good job pitching the movie without giving away too much. After their father dies from a mysterious accident, two siblings, OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer), are trying to keep their family Hollywood animal ranch going. They too start running into odd occurrences around the ranch. Odd occurrences from above. And there seems to be a connection to an amusement park opened down the road run by Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Steven Yuen), a former child star who was involved in a grisly accident with a chimp actor on a sitcom he was on years ago. OJ and Emerald become obsessed with documenting these occurrences and employ the assistance of a local electronic store employee (Brandon Perea) and film cinematographer (Michael Wincott) to help.
There’s no point in avoiding the spoilers at this point. It’s aliens and the chimp killed some cast members. The debate since this was released has been why a film about an alien creature has a terrifying side-story about Gordy the chimp killing some castmates. How cleanly you see that link seems to be the difference between finding the movie fun and finding it brilliant.
Personally, I think the link is clunky. I love the Gordy stuff. It’s the most viscerally effective part of the movie. I appreciate how it mirrors the lesson about being unable to tame a wild animal, and how Jupe refuses to learn that lesson. I also think everything with the alien is effective. Jordan Peele really is a master of suspense and tension. Many horror directors mimic what they’ve seen before. He really understands how it works. He uses what’s been done before to make something fresh. It’s why I think I’ll always be excited for his next movie. He might make something that’s too ambitious. I don’t think he’ll ever make something bad.
I do hope this leads to more substantial roles for Keke Palmer. I never see her in something and wish there was less of her. She’s not a revelation in Nope; more like a confirmation. She’s full of charisma, and - most important to this film - she can be funny and terrified without either stepping on the other. That is so important. It’s why horror comedy fails so often. Peele and Palmer work excellently to maintain that balance. Daniel Kaluuya pulls off the same thing but at a lower tone. He’s very dry and laconic. He happily disappears into scenes so Palmer or the other parts of the film can be the star. Brandon Perea is the outright comedic character in the film and a welcome audience surrogate at times. Steven Yeun is a really interesting bit of flavor in the movie. He’s kind of a villain and done in by hubris or possibly vanity. The film leaves room for some debate.
I like Nope. I like when Hollywood leaves some room for a director like Jordan Peele who has the clout to try something different and the ambition to take big swings. I’m so excited to see what he can do as his budgets get bigger. A $90 million budget is not small, but I’ve seen many directors do less with a lot more. Frankly, the most negative thing I can say about Nope is that it’s not a masterpiece. That’s pretty good.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment