NOPE

Writer, producer, and director Jordan Peele is back with his 3rd film. He's rightfully received much praise and admiration for his first two efforts GET OUT and US. GET OUT is a masterpiece and I do need another viewing of US but after seeing it originally, I did not care for it at all and it could not hold a candle to GET OUT in my opinion. After watching NOPE, I can now unfortunately say Jordan Peele is hit-or-miss with me. While I did enjoy this more than US, it again, is nowhere near as good as GET OUT and he could be suffering from the M. Night Shyamalan effect, where his debut was so original and powerful, no other film he does will ever compare to it.

NOPE follows the Haywood family: Otis Sr. (Keith David), OJ or Otis Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya), and Emerald (Keke Palmer). The family owns a horse farm in southern California and the horses are used for TV and film. However, strange occurrences begin to happen as the horses disappear and there's a UFO in the clouds above their house. Broke and with OJ unwilling to sell the family's land, he and Emerald enlist Angel (Brandon Perea) a local Fry's Electronics employee and director Antlers Hoist (Michael Wincott) to capture footage of the UFO to sell. The story works as an original sci-fi/horror piece and reminded me somewhat of John Carpenter's THE THING. It unfolds slowly, with an opening scene that left me wondering if I walked into the wrong theater by mistake but the scene is tied in later in the film. It jumps around and is split into chapters with each title the name of a horse on the farm. It takes place over a 6-month period and during this time OJ begins to learn the habits of the aliens such as what works to avoid being attacked by them but also what's harmful to them. I'm a big fan of Daniel Kaluuya but he appears to be coasting in this film as OJ very rarely shows emotion of any kind and is just matter of fact about everything. The final encounter with the alien will leave you wondering what exactly you're watching as it's somewhat out there. A lot of undertones which audiences have come to expect from Peele but overall, I found this to just be average. 6/10