Acclaimed writer/director/producer, Jordan Peele, burst onto the scene with his Academy Award winning film, GET OUT. Peele’s body swap masterpiece had fans and critics calling him the Hitchcock of our time. Peele’s next film, US, was another box office smash, but split audiences with a choppy storyline. Peele then wrote and produced a spiritual sequel to the iconic Candyman franchise. CANDYMAN 2021 was a modest financial success, however the film was lambasted by fans of the franchise for abandoning the original saga plot in exchange for a more modern social commentary. Peele turns his eyes to the sky with his latest film, NOPE, an extraterrestrial tale of terror. Is NOPE a much-needed rebound film that cements Peele’s status as a filmmaking icon, or will this be another downtick tale that puts the talented director on a slippery slope toward mediocrity?
Otis Haywood (Daniel Klauuya) inherits his family’s historic horse ranch after his father suffers an unexpected death. Left with substantial debt, Otis attempts to return to the world of screen and television where the horses have been used for decades. Without his father’s connections and personality, Otis and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) contemplate selling the ranch and starting over. After several odd events occur, the siblings are convinced that their desolate area of land is a hot bed for a U.F.O. Emerald, obsessed with fame and fortune, convinces her brother to get video documentation of these events to set them up financially for life. After recruiting a tech obsessed store clerk and a legendary filmmaker, the group of four swallow their fear in desperate attempt to capture the shot of a lifetime.
Peele presents a perfectly shot, aesthetically gorgeous, mundane film. While there is no questioning Peele’s brilliant filmmaking, questions must be asked of his writing and storytelling abilities. NOPE is a simple summer popcorn film. Nothing wrong with that, except for the writer/director being heralded as an artist of his age. Gone is any deep thought-provoking social commentary, the film only vague touches on a culture obsessed with fame and fortune. Apart from Keke Palmer’s spirited performance, gone is also any characters that will be remembered five minutes after the last frame. Any extraterrestrial film will always be noted for what outer space creature or object the story produces. While the starry star of the show is slightly original, any Lovecraftian fan will make quick reference to a Cthulhu style creature in the sky. The plot and pace are enjoyable at times but stagnant and irrelevant at others. NOPE appears to be caught in two different films. One wants to be a simple humans vs. space creature saga, the other desperately attempts to give deeper sub-text to a story that in no way requires it to be. Many feel that as Peele’s popularity rises, the critics take more harsh shots at his work. Two very important facts support the fact that this talented artist work declines with each production. While GET OUT continuously is discussed five years after its release, both US and CANDYMAN were quickly forgotten. Peele’s first two films were box office smashes that combined grossed over a half billion dollars. CANDYMAN turned only a slight profit and one week after release, NOPE has yet to recoup its original budget. With a fantastic shooting style, perhaps it is time Peele adapts someone else’s original screenplay or literary work, and just concentrate on directing, because this is three written works in a row that could have easily been mistaken for direct to video films.
Scream Score: 6.7/10