"Jordan Peele"

2022 · Jordan Peele · 131 min · Sci-Fi / Horror

Nope is Jordan Peele's biggest and most visually ambitious film, and also his most uneven. The central creature design is wildly original, the IMAX cinematography is stunning, and Keke Palmer delivers a performance that deserves to launch her into a different tier of stardom. When the film focuses on the Haywood siblings trying to capture evidence of something impossible in the sky above their ranch, it's thrilling and funny and unlike anything else in recent horror. But Peele is juggling too many thematic plates at once, the Gordy subplot never fully connects to the main story, and the pacing lurches between stretches of dead air and bursts of intensity. It's a film with extraordinary individual sequences that doesn't quite cohere into the unified statement Peele seems to be reaching for.

2019 · Jordan Peele · 116 min · Horror, Thriller

Us is a bold, unsettling film that works better as an experience than as a puzzle. Lupita Nyong'o delivers one of the most committed dual performances horror has seen in years, and Peele demonstrates a genuine gift for sustained dread. The mythology doesn't survive close inspection, and the third act asks a lot of patience, but the film's images and ideas linger far longer than its plot holes. For audiences willing to meet it on its own terms, it's a disturbing, ambitious ride.