By Gilberto Campa
In today’s film landscape with many pundits, critics, and fans having discourse’s about what kind of movies are being put out and what those movies should be, the one thing that filmmakers and fans agree on is the unanimous want for “Spectacle”. Jordan Peele who has now become somewhat of a household name Director, Producer, and Writer continues to push the envelope on what film could be. With his latest project entitled “NOPE,” Peele presents his trademark comedy, suspense, social commentary, and horror elements, with something more.
Initially producing the story during the pandemic, Peele like everyone else was pondering what the future of cinema was going to look like and crafted up a script that he felt everyone could enjoy. One aspect about Jordan Peele is the mystery of his stories, at this stage of his career people will always count on him to deliver something truly unique with many homages to films and stories that he grew up with. A couple of things are different this time around as first is the increased budget (his first of five films for Universal Pictures), the overall spectacle, and cinematography which was shot beautifully by Hoyte Van Hoytema (Spectre, Dunkirk, Tenet, The Fighter) and the overall tone. Without going into many details as its best to go into this without any knowledge of what happens, it has elements of The Wizard of Oz, Signs, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of The Third Kind, just to name a few.
The movie does a great job of balancing different tones without feeling out of place or forced which is not easy to do and easier said than done. The suspenseful moments are well done as the sound design is at its absolute best, there are some moments in the movie that will deliver the scares but there are moments of levity and humor that helped to carry things along. The movie really does feel like a huge step up in scope, feel and atmosphere which has much to do with the setting of the story.
The cast this time around is stellar as Keke Palmer who hasn’t had the big career-breaking role, really does a good job of being the heart of the story. While Daniel Kaluuya plays a more lowkey, subdued role compared to what he has done recently but is a lot more layered than his previous collaboration with Peele. And Steven Yeun who has proven he can deliver the acting chops and carry a film gets to carry a lot of weight in this story in more ways than one. What impressed me was the level of cross-genre that was present in the film that fit at the right parts, I would argue that the three acts of the film can be looked at as (Drama, Horror, and Western). NOPE has one of the best third acts that I’ve seen in a while and was very enthralling to experience as it took full advantage of the IMAX screen. Don’t go into this movie looking for anything because it will take away from the overall experience, not to say that there isn’t anything to unpack. But one thing is for sure, you won’t look at clouds the same way anymore. Go and seek this movie out and experience what going to the movies is all about, in the most compelling way possible.
The Verdict: