Nope

Get Out revealed Jordan Peele a talented director who could jolt people out of their seats (when I saw it in 2017, a guy a row up from me jumped out of his seat, thudding to the floor) and tell a story with humor. Us, released two years later, seemed to me well made in spots, but it was dragged out and the deeper meanings Peele inserted didn’t add much. With his third effort, Nope, he does a better job with the hidden connotations, but while I enjoyed some aspects of it, I left the movie theater partly exhilarated and partly disappointed.

In this sci-fi horror film, horse ranch owner Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) is killed when a nickle falls out of the sky and strikes him. His children, Otis Jr. (Daniel Kaluula), commonly called “OJ,” and “Em,” as in Emerald (Keke Palmer), inherit the ranch. Six months later, however, financially struggling OJ sells horses to Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), a former child actor who runs Jupiter’s Claim, a Western theme park adjacent to the Haywood ranch. OJ and Em notice a UFO shaped like a flying saucer and hope to take a picture of the flying saucer. They enlist tech salesman Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) to assist with surveillance cameras and notable cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) to help capture visual evidence of the thing, which turns out to not be a spaceship but a creature.

Let’s go back to Jupe, once known as Ricky Park, who was on a television sitcom called Gordy’s Home that featured a chimpanzee. One day on set, the chimp mauls multiple people. Jupe hides under the table and fearfully watches the attacks. The chimp spots Jupe and goes over to him. As the two are about to bump fists, the police arrive and shoot the chimp dead.

A primary theme in Nope is the danger of spectacle. There’s a Bible quote at the beginning, as in Us. Nahum 3:6 says, “I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.” Our culture burns to see the next big thing, to experience it and, by doing so, be a part of it. That’s the case with OJ, Em, and Jupe. OJ and Em see the alien and hope to get what Em calls “the Oprah shot.” Why? To be a part of an event and to possibly get rich. Jupe witnessed his co-stars being assaulted, yet rather than learn from the experience (that animals and, in this case, a creature can be dangerous) he incorporates the alien into his Jupiter’s Claim show. Jupe’s desire to create a spectacle causes a tragedy.

Another motivation for why OJ and Em want to create splashy headlines is because of the sense that a part of them has been forgotten by history. They claim their great-great-great grandfather was a jockey on a horse in the first assembly of photographs used to create a motion picture. Since people don’t remember their ancestor, the two main characters feel the sense that the Haywood family never got proper credit for being a significant part of movie history. So, when an alien is in the sky not far from the Haywood ranch, OJ and Em feel impelled to get a photograph that will bring the family fame and money. Had Peele been a character in the movie who was asked if the Haywoods should get involved in this spectacle, his answer no doubt would have been, “Nope.”

There are other attractions. Hoyte van Hoytena’s cinematography is masterful. I love his framing of the sky, sometimes when the alien visible and sometimes when viewers look for to see if it’s there. The colors are extraordinary, especially the landscapes, which are various shades of tan. Credit should also go to the outstanding sound design. The balloon popping in the chimp-gets-violent sequence accentuates the horror. The people’s screams while they’re inside the creature are also startling. The sounds of material falling from the sky are eerie and mysterious. Michael Abels provides a highly enjoyable, exuberant score that’s as high-flying as the action late in the movie.

Nope seems like a mixture of Signs (where people run from a largely unseen force) and Jaws. Unfortunately, it’s not as fulfilling as either. Most of the first half, for instance, is uneventful and dull. OJ and Em talk in an electronics store, and there’s more talk when they see Angel there. OJ and Em go to see Jupe at Jupiter’s Claim and speak to him there. While I knew the creature would eventually get the focus it deserves and Peele establishes his themes through talk, I was restless in the first hour. Peele pokes fun at jump scares, like when a co-worker walks up Angel, but it struck me as annoying because so little happens. It’s as though Peele is toying with the audience, but since I was bored by that point, I was starved for something “real.” The final third is much better because there’s much more going on. OJ, Em, and their team trying to stay alive while getting a photo of the creature, presently called Jean Jacket, is very exciting and exceptionally well directed by Peele, who maintains interest for the entire third act. (Spoilers) Still, I was let down by the helium balloon that destroys Jean Jacket. It would be like seeing a blow-up doll defeating Jaws. It diminishes the creature as a villain and doesn’t feel satisfying. Peele has said when he sees a creature in some horror movies, he’s disappointed. It takes nearly the entire length of Nope to see the whole of Jean Jacket, and when I did, my reaction was the same.

Although the acting is generally good, there’s a problem there too. Keke Palmer has an electric personality, allowing her to easily fill her part and then some. I don’t think Daniel Kaluuya is as successful as OJ. He doesn’t seem naturally impassive. He looks away from many people and Jean Jacket (a characteristic that likely saves his life), but, to me anyway, that seems more like an actor’s choice than a character being who he is. Brandon Perea provides some fun as the pleasurably loquacious Angel, and Michael Wincott portrays the grizzled, intimidating Antlers Holst plausibly. Steven Yeun, as Jupe, acts ably, illustrating an emcee’s joy of performing and proving a lively conversationalist when the Haywood’s come to visit. These are personality performances, which is itself isn’t bad, but I wished I knew more about OJ and Em. They’re shallowly drawn and don’t develop intriguingly. I suppose the same could be said about some old Cary Grant characters in some Hitchcock movies, like John Robie in To Catch a Thief and Roger O. Thornhill in North by Northwest. The difference is Hitchcock had these characters deal with so much drama, it was impossible for me not to cheer for them. I felt a bit distant from OJ and Em because they don’t encounter the difficulties that would make me feel as close to them as I wanted to.

I have heard and read comparisons between Peele and M. Night Shyamalan by some who disliked Nope. But that’s unfair. Shyalmalan made three mostly solid thrillers with TheSixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. Although The Village initially interested me, it ultimately proves more aggravating than entertaining. Monstrosities such as Lady in the Water, The Happening, and The Last Airbender followed. Get Out remains for me the best movie Peele has made. Us and Nope are decent. If you have a similar opinion and you just want to judge the downward trajectory, Shyamalan comes to mind. Yet Peele has no terrible movies to his name, and it’s not like he’s made four crummy movies in a row. He’ll have more chances to make very good movies. Let’s see.