Nope
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.