Nope (2022)

 Nope is the third film of Jordan Peele, one of the most expected this year- and I must say it is that impressive. Peele's best and accomplished film, and the best film I've seen so far in the cinemas this year. (excluding Nightmare Alley, which was a 2021 theatrical release). 

To be seen in Theaters.  And it works for multiple viewings as well.

In IMAX if possible, as it was shot completly with IMAX cameras. And by the virtuoso Hoyte Van Hoytema (Nolan's DOP on Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, and now on Oppenheimer, so a specialist in shooting in IMAX  narrative film if there ever was one),  There are a lot of references on the visual medium during the film, with cameras being present, from surveillance cameras to Panavision to IMAX or digital 4K. 

Also because of the sound and the great sound design. 

Terrific in a theatre with good sound.

And the music, by Michael Abels, on his third collaboration with Peele, after Get Out and Us. With a function of its own, and references of classic scores, from Hitchcock, to Spielberg to Sergio Leone.

Also a great soundtrack too. With twists on the sound of songs (Jodie Foster!, Dionne Warwick, Corey Hart)

spoiler: the title can be read an acronym of Not of Planet Earth :)

It's a film about Spectacle, showbiz, exploitation (they shoot horses, don”t they), television, cinema and voyeurism, a visual methaphor and a warning of  what not do do (see the biblical opening quote): "Nahum 3:6: I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.", 

a clear shot at Hollywood and its self destructive spell/doom.

References in the film (for film buffs only): Close Encounters of Third Kind, E.T., 2001, The Wizard of Oz, Alien, Predator, Akira, Jurassic Park, Signs. Even The Shining.There is a lot of Spielberg in Peele's vision, as it is the early M. Night Shyamalan (as he was compared then with Spielberg too).  Also the first image on film ever shot, in 1888, a horse riding with a black jockey. 

Great cast: Daniel Kaluuya (his third with Peele), Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun...There's Keith David (with a Bunuelian nod:), via John Carpenter's The Thing and They Live..

and then there's a great Michael Wincott performance, as my buddy said when he shows up, ¬Wow, that's Moxica!!!¬ Wincott also sings his own rendition of  1954's ¬The Purple People Eater¬ by Sheb Wooley 

oh, yeah, and ¬Here comes¬Gordy....

********

My score: 4 out of Five, 8 out of Ten.

"Come ride through Jupiter's Claim, as seen in Nope, at Universal Studios Hollywood, only on the World-Famous Studio Tour" 

RIP Wolfgang Petersen

He reinvented Hollywood action film. He was brought there after the huuuge succes of DAS BOOT, the most ambitious German film of the 80's, also turned into a TV mine series. His 1st English language film was The NeverEnding Story, based on the book by Michael Ende., Unendliche Gesichte. Then he did Enemy Mine in Hollywood, then the thriller Shattered. IMO In the Line of Fire (1993) might be his best Hollywood effort. He continued on the huge scale blockbuster, with uneven results, from Air Force One to The Perfect Storm, Outbreak, Troy, and the crap remake of Poseidon (2006). His last film was back in Germany ten years later, the heist comedy Vier Gegen die Bank, which I havent seen or even heard of before writing this.

Wolfgang Petersen was 81 when he died in Hollywood, on August 12th 2022.