Seth Lukas Hynes
Nope
Starring Keke Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun
M
4/5
Nope is an absorbing, disquieting science fiction horror film by talented writer-director Jordan Peele.
After a series of strange occurrences, siblings Emerald (Keke Palmer) and OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) are determined to film a UFO prowling their ranch.
Nope is a tense, witty tribute to classic moviemaking and UFO urban mythology.
Nope is upfront about the UFO being alien in nature, so much of the narrative is an eerie yet fascinating journey of Emerald and OJ figuring out how the UFO behaves, what it wants and how to film it. The stark, wide desert cinematography frames mundane imagery in deeply unsettling ways, and distorted bursts put you on edge in the quiet sound design, implying that the UFO is mimicking its prey to communicate.
Emerald and OJ train horses for film productions, and this experience aids in studying and surviving the UFO. The film treats the UFO less like a ship and more like a hungry, territorial animal, which yields a brilliant note of irony: for all their efforts to capture proof of the UFO, the main characters can’t look directly at it without antagonising it.
Disappearances and random objects raining from the sky gain a new morbid significance through the UFO’s activities, and as digital technology fails in the craft’s wake, the group uses low-fi ingenuity, including an ancient hand-crank camera, to monitor the UFO. The film also has a sobering subplot of Jupe (Steven Yeun), a former child actor, attempting to tame and profit from the UFO.
Nope may be the least of Peele’s films thus far, lacking the perfect pacing of Get Out or the tour-de-force acting showcase in Us, but is still a compelling science fiction mystery with a slow but steady build of dread and discovery, and is screening in most Victorian cinemas.
