T. L. Willis' Notes on ... Nope!

 

I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how so many people can find Nope to be so boring, monotonous, and just plain bad.  Nope is one of the recent horror/sci-fi films to truly engage me and reach something deeper than just entertainment value, in the same vein I put Hereditary.  Horror can truly be more than just blood guts and boobs, just like they put it in the movie X, “It is possible to make a good dirty movie” and I think Jordan Peele’s sensibilities as a director proves that more than most.

From the beginning he has shown himself to have a complete grasp of the medium and how to tell an effective story.  Even though I find Us to be his weakest there’s not much in there that you can point at as being bad or even mediocre.  I believe Nope to be his greatest achievement as a director although he did win an Oscar for his screenplay with Get Out which is hard to top, Nope calls back to the OG blockbuster in

Jaws in more ways than one.  There’s plenty of articles written about it, and much more thoroughly than I can do here, but that alone is enough to make me question anyone who loves Jaws and looks at Nope as some boring and plodding film.

Jordan Peele isn’t trying to pull the wool over the audience’s eyes with the themeology within, he lays everything out as plainly as possible so you can place everything together as you go. 

“But what about the MONKEY???”

That’s easily explained with the opening frame of the film when we see the Bible verse explaining exactly what it’s all about.  Spectacle and exploitation.  We as humans have exploited animals and humans for entertainment and spectacle for generations and generations.  So going from that directly into the tragedy that happens with Gordy it puts it plain as day.  Even Gordy almost breaking the fourth wall to look at the audience before cutting to the opening credits plays into what OJ says later in the film.  “Don’t look it in the eyes,” treating these animals and creatures with respect and honor instead of antagonizing them, and putting them in positions where anything could flip in the blink of an eye.

Having our main character be a horse trainer that knows how to respect and treat animals puts everything into perspective when later we see characters either treating animals poorly, or even insinuating such.  As the film goes on the main character OJ learns to respect the main “monster,” noticing its behavior is more like a wild animal than some extraterrestrial being.  Switching his perspective from it being an Alien monster they have to deal with to seeing it as an equal and treating it as such is such a fresh take on it and only adds to how compelling this film is.

The journey of every character moving from looking for glory and fame, or trying to save their ranch, to understanding and respecting these animals is one that sticks with me as someone who has always had a soft spot for animals. 

The whole movie turns from a straight up Jaws-like horror film into an almost modern Western in the 3^rd act and you don’t even notice it until after.  That to me is a mark of a masterful director, and Jordan Peele in my mind is one of the smartest directors out there right now.  Every line of his scripts, every frame of his shots, every edit put into place, it all has meaning and contributes to the overall picture and theme he means to speak about.

I know themes and deeper meaning aren’t always everyone's cup of tea but Nope to me is a perfect example of a horror film that is fun and exhilarating while also saying something and saying it brilliantly.  Peele doesn’t let his themes and messages bog down the film and lets them breathe.  He knows how to balance a film and to me that’s what makes him one of the best directors out there.

I could genuinely talk and write about this film for an eternity.  This is less of a review and more so just me gushing about how much I love this movie and it kills me that so many of my friends and family members to whom I recommend it, find it to be a bad film.  I get it but at the same time I don’t really get it.  After watching it how can you not have that feeling like you just witnessed a modern epic tale?  I’m not going to say Jordan Peele himself would be disappointed, but I definitely would be.

Nope definitely has its fans, but from my experience I’ve seen far more that dislike than like. That's just a travesty to me, man. Its smartly written, masterfully shot, acted perfectly, hilarious, scary, engaging, and so many other adjectives I could use. Hopefully, though, this encourages anyone to go back and give it another shot with a new mindset and outlook on it. Maybe give it the RESPECT it deserves.