Nope review: Team Jordan Peele-Daniel Kaluuya deliver a dope mystery-thriller... again

4/5

STORY: Their once-glorious ranch is now in a deplorable state, and so, in order to keep the sprawling property up and running, siblings OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) must sell some of their horses to theme parks, rent them out to TV shows, among other morally unacceptable ways animals should NOT be treated. But, both money and morality are the least of their worries now, as strange occurences around the ranch pose bigger questions—is it really the UFO? Or, a monster hovering over their heads? Call me cliche, but Nope is seriously dope!

REVIEW: Trust Jordan Peele (of Oscar-winning Get Out fame; Us) to marry the real and surreal in his scripts seamlessly, and transform them into an immersive experience on screen that lingers on. If Get Out was a shocker that blew your minds with its racial undertone and slow-but-impactful build-up, Nope—underneath all that UFO and flying saucer and supernatural jargon—is essentially a social critique, with recurring themes and motifs serving as metaphors for human inquisitivness and the innate quest to 'find the truth'. Upon closer inspection, you wonder if you are reading between the lines for no real reason at all. Peele, only three-movie-old, has this unique way of questioning the intelligence of his audience without being condescending in his creative process. 

Get Out was a silent slap on society and its treatment of African Americans, Nope, however, makes you question your very existence. Peele, turning out to be a master of slowburns, takes his time to build his central characters OJ and Emerald and portray the stark differences in their personalities: one has a chaotic energy, and the other, certainly not. It is their distinct approach towards problem-solving (and life in general) that nudges them to pick up the camera and capture the supernatural sightings in the sky for a quick buck. Peele's Nope has four heroes: landscape, aliens, animals and humans. Not specifically in that order. 

Outlandish, bizarre dark comedy-thrillers are not for all, thus making Nope worth the while only for a select few. It is such an oddball of a story that not all your plot points will land, and not all conflicts within the story reach acceptable solutions. Having said that, Nope encourages introspection: is humans chasing aliens stranger than aliens chasing humans? Also, is human greed satiable?

A legend in his own right, cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar... to name a few) has stunningly captured the gorgeousness of the open sky and scary humans, of ever-elusive aliens (or whatever the CG department had used) and spectacular animals, and turned the film into a work of art of the highest order. Rendering the desired impact in this film, though, is the heart-pounding sound effects by 'mad genius' Johnnie Burn. 

Daniel Kaluuya, who has worked with Peele in Get Out, does it once again: lacing tragedy with humour, effortlessly. It sure helped that he has a solid rapport with co-star Keke Palmer, and their love-hate sibling relationship is both relatable and 'far removed from reality' at the same time. If you know, you know.

Nope would mean different things to different people; while some may call it grim, I am most certainly going with genius.

VERDICT: If you are someone who is a sucker for dark comedy-thrillers and are exploring the various theories around UFO or questioning the validity of Area 51-stories, Nope is going to heighten your excitement.