NOPE
(July 2022)
“I will cast abominable
filth at you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.”
--Nahum 3:6
“What if I
told you… that in about an hour… you’ll leave here different?”
Just as Us
was a different cinematic animal than Get
Out, so is Jordan Peele's latest, Nope, a different
beast, perhaps even more so.
His assertions regarding “the big summer
blockbuster spectacle film” and “the violence of attention”? Well, he rather
effectively addresses those with Nope…
“Who is gonna
go down there and get the star out of his trailer?”
Even more than his two previous films, Peele’s Nope asks its audience to enter it
knowing as little as possible and with the least amount of preconceived notions.
Which, admittedly, could be a big ask for some
simply because Get Out and Us were so very clearly about Something.
Well, Nope
is about Something too, just not in the same way…
Or, you could look at it as Peele choosing to
interrogate that Something in a different, more subtle way than his previous
efforts.
“We don’t
deserve the impossible.”
So let’s just talk about that cast instead, shall
we?
Not only do we get some strong, noteworthy
performances from the three top billers, Get
Out’s Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer (as the Haywood siblings) and Steven
Yeun, but the fine character writing by Peele extends even to Brandon Perea’s
lovelorn retail jockey, Angel, and to Michael Wincott’s “legendary
cinematographer,” Antlers Holst (particularly to the latter).
And speaking of that cast, we also get familiar ¡Qué horror! face Osgood Perkins*, sadly appearing
all too briefly as Fynn Bachman.
We even get Donna Mills (Knots Landing, yo!) in the package!
“How
exquisitely stupid is that?”
So just trust in the Peele, and go into Nope with as blank a slate as possible,
and simply allow yourself to be dazzled by a genre virtuoso who very clearly
levels up his filmmaking craft with his latest…
“Nobody f*cks
with Haywood, b!tch! Nobody! You hear me?!”
* Peele and Perkins previously worked together on The Twilight Zone’s “You Might Also
Like”.
Perkins, of course, has also appeared ‘round these
parts for The Blackcoat’s Daughter
and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House.
(I really should
get around to catching up on Gretel &
Hansel…)
(Nope key
art courtesy of impawards.com & bloody-disgusting.com)
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