Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun, Wrenn Schmidt, Keith David, Devon Graye, Terry Notary, Barbie Ferreira, Donna Mills, Oz Perkins, Eddie Jemison, Jacob Kim, Sophia Coto, Jennifer Lafleur, Andrew Patrick Ralston, Lincoln Lambert, Pierce Kang, Roman Gross, Alex-Hyde White, Hetty Chang, Liza Treyger, Ryan W. Garcia, Courtney Elizabeth.
There may be many inspirations behind Jordan Peele’s latest cinematic offering, a whole wardrobe stuffed full of motivations and muse like stimuli, but in the end, it has to be observed what a sizeable contribution to the world of mystery and suspense the talented director has brought to the screens in the pulsating Nope.
Jordan Peels’s work ethic speaks for itself, his design and essence within film making has few equals, and as the man responsible for films such as the superb BlacKkKlansman, Us, and the astonishing Get Out untangles another facet of the conscious desire from within to push the boundary of acknowledgement of alienation and struggle to a point where cinema lovers will finally understand that film, like any other art, should do more to show humanity from every angle possible.
Nope reunites the remarkable acting talent of Daniel Kaluuya with the writer/director and having caused seismic tremors of excitement in Get Out, the pair once more bring out the absolute best in each other as the tale of impending fear in the shape of an unseen menace unfolds.
Crucially Jordan Peele inverts the tale by comparing it within the same space with that of the use of a chimpanzee who acts on compulsion to maim and harm the sitcom family he has been placed within. It is this element that drives the narrative of looking into the eyes of what makes us feel horror and alarm, and accepting that we are less for that judgement, we are the ones to whom should be accepting, even shouldering the blame that we are nothing more than our own impulse by not acknowledging the danger that lays before us.
The film within the film serves the audience well, it gives greater meaning to the desired effect on the nerves, and when Daniel Kaluuya’s OJ Haywood and Keke Palmer’s Em begin to fight back, when they see the terror for what it is and what it represents, and more importantly as with the undercurrent of all the films, how to win by destroying the fabric of the issue from the inside out.
A sublime film, one with its fair few inspirations, but nonetheless a classic from the mind with one of the most engaging film makers of our time.
Ian D. Hall