Review: Nope

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

It's not often that you can describe a movie as a cross between Steven Spielberg (namely, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), "King Kong," a more violent version of M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" and Guy Debord's 1967  work of Marxist critical theory, "The Society of the Spectacle."

Director Jordan Peele follows up his cultural landmark "Get Out," a creepy horror movie that tackled racism, and "Us," which posed the question about who we as a society should fear, with a movie that blends horror and comedy with a sociopolitical message much like his earlier films, but with a theme that might require a little more of a lift from its audience.

This is far from a bad thing. In fact, parsing out what exactly Peele is trying to say in "Nope" is often more fun than some of the set pieces, which - although impressive - come a little too often as well as an ending that feels a little anticlimactic. That being said, the film features some very creepy moments, most of which are aided by the fantastic nighttime photography and the gorgeously desolate location in which it's set.

Most people are familiar with the aforementioned influences, but with Debord's work as the exception. Considered a seminal text of the Situationist movement, "The Society of the Spectacle" depicts a modern society in which authentic social life has been replaced by representation. It is a society in which relations between commodities have replaced relations between people.

"All that was once directly lived has become mere representation," Debord writes, signifying the importance of the image - which has replaced genuine human interaction - in contemporary spectacle-driven society. "The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images." 

Not only does the film air-quote Debord, but it literally quotes during its opening this biblical passage from Nahum 3:6: "I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile and make you a spectacle." Filth is undoubtedly dumped on the home of OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) - a brother-sister team that run a ranch in the middle of the California desert that trains horses for movies, and the descendants of Alistair A. Haywood, the Black man seen riding the horse in the first-ever moving picture - by a mysterious flying object over their home. 

Prior to that, the film opens on a more curious scene. The filming of a late-1990s sitcom in which a family has a pet chimpanzee is disrupted when the chimp goes nuts and either kills or disfigures several of the cast members, while a young actor named Ricky (who grows up to be a character portrayed by Steven Yeun) looks on in horror.

Ricky is currently the proprietor of an amusement park that appears to be the Haywoods' sole neighbor, and both Ricky's past and his present doings lend themselves readily to the film's various themes. For starters, during a scene in which the Haywoods pay Ricky a visit to try to buy back some of the horses they were forced to sell due to economic reasons, Ricky gets the opportunity to discuss being the witness to the chimp attack, and instead of relaying his actual experience, he describes the "Saturday Night Live" skit made about it because, it seems, talking about the representation of the horrific event appears easier than facing the actual thing itself.

Equally as important is the scheme that Ricky has going on in the desert. While the Haywoods - after having discovered the UFO floating in the skies above their home - are attempting to capture the "perfect image" by photographing the object with some fancy cameras they bought and the assistance of an electronics store clerk (Brandon Perea) and an acclaimed cameraman (Michael Wincott, whose character reminded me of the Robert Shaw figure from "Jaws"), Ricky draws crowds to his small amusement park with promises of UFO sightings. But much like the chimp who ran violently wild on the TV show he starred in, there's a lesson to be learned about the dangers of trying to make a deal with - or attempting to tame - a predator.

Although Peele allows his audience to fill in the blanks for themselves without spelling it out too much, one of the more fascinating concepts of "Nope" - from the Haywoods trying to capture the perfect image of the UFO (or is it?) to Ricky's commoditizing his horrors from the TV show set - is how modern society transforms the spectacle into the everyday by capturing and then regurgitating horrific images over and over again until they have become ingrained in our memory - think 9/11, the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, the monk setting himself on fire to protest the Vietnam War and endless other images of chaos and death.

Ricky refers to the UFO as "The Viewers" and tells his audience that they - the aliens or whatever they are - are "watching us." In our spectacle-driven society, being alive means being watched - and when people stop watching you, you no longer exist. Or, in the case of "Nope," you cease to exist when you watch the wrong thing for too long.

There's a lot to unpack in this film, and while some have criticized "Nope" for having too much to say but not following through on it all, that's far from a complaint for me. Considering the various concepts that are thrown around with the kitchen sink makes for some compelling viewing. If anything weakens the film - but only just a little - it's the set pieces that drag on and don't amount to as much as you might expect. "Nope" is a great looking film with a fantastic sound design but, as is often the case, what you don't see is often more effective than what you do, and once the cat is out of the bag in this film there's only so much wonder left to be had.

While Peele's third feature isn't quite as groundbreaking as his first or frightening as his second, it's an interesting new direction for the filmmaker. While his first two pictures were smaller horror movies with sociopolitical messaging, his latest has blockbuster designs, but at the same time incorporates the type of intellectual pursuits you'd never expect from most big budget Hollywood movies. "Nope" may be my No. 3 of Peele's movies so far, but it's still well worth seeing.