Some very strange phenomena arise around the quiet, family-run Haywood horse ranch in Nope (★★★★☆), the latest genre-bending feature from Oscar-winning Get Out and Us auteur Jordan Peele.
First, a sudden, lethal downpour rains down on the farm from a peculiar cloud lingering directly above. Voices, screaming in agony, fill the air over the small town of Agua Dulce, California. From there, the film methodically, tantalizingly teases out details of an unexplained presence intent on claiming this remote territory as its own.
The movie opens with a tease, in fact, a harrowing flashback to another sudden, lethal outburst, this time on the set of a ’90s sitcom called Gordy’s Home. We hear, but can see only brief glimpses of the grisly scene as the titular star of the show, a chimpanzee playing “Gordy,” goes on a vicious, bloody rampage that leaves no one standing in that TV studio.
The actual violence doesn’t appear onscreen, just the withering sight of the blood-soaked ape pausing to catch its breath, before pouncing again on a struggling victim that he continues to pound relentlessly. Not only is the visual restraint effective, but the mere sound of flesh and bone being pummeled and torn apart evokes more terror in the imagination than any single onscreen image might accomplish.
Throughout, the film relies on excellent sound design, as much as any visual spectacle, to illustrate the bizarre occurrences at the Haywood ranch. Still, cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar), shooting in IMAX, captures some absolutely arresting tableaux, like one indelible image of blood and carnage raining down on the farmhouse.
Usually, however, it’s the thought of objects and actions unseen that carries the most weight here. Peele is masterful at wielding the power of suggestion, and the art of misdirection, to fuel fear and anticipation. Though, ultimately, anticipation of the mysterious thing hovering over Nope turns out to be more frightening than the thing itself.
But the movie has a field day toying with our anticipation, drawing its characters and the audience into the deepening mystery, weaving disparate genre threads together to depict an epic struggle between the Haywoods and their hostile visitor.
Get Out leading man Daniel Kaluuya, as horse trainer OJ Haywood, who runs Haywood Hollywood Horses with his taciturn dad Otis (Keith David), supplies the steady, determined aura of a decent, hard-working man looking out for his family and their historic horse wrangling business.
Yang to his yin, Keke Palmer plays OJ’s far less responsible little sis, Emerald, the fast-talking, hustling Haywood whose over-the-top reactions to the bizarre goings-on at the ranch are played for solid comedy. The larger personality of the two siblings — and, incidentally, queer — Emerald dominates their interactions the way that Palmer often dominates the screen, through sheer charm and chutzpah.
She’s well-matched in the charm department by Brandon Perea (The OA) in a star-making turn as Angel, a talky tech specialist from the local electronics store where OJ and Emerald buy surveillance equipment to capture visual evidence of the unexplainable.
Capturing the perfect shot on camera becomes a running theme in the movie, which also depicts OJ and Emerald working on the set of a commercial, as well as the aftermath of the terrifying massacre on the set of Gordy’s Home.
In the film’s most intriguing performance, Steven Yeun portrays Ricky “Jupe” Park, a former child actor who survived the Gordy’s Home rampage, and now runs a Wild West theme park in Agua Dulce where danger also lurks. Ricky knows better than anyone how shockingly quickly a pleasant afternoon of fun and make-believe can turn into a ghastly spectacle.
So does Peele. Nope actually references a biblical verse heralding what OJ calls a “bad miracle”: I will cast abominable filth upon you/Make you vile/And make you a spectacle.
Based on the film’s frequent nods to filmmaking, Peele seems keenly aware of audience expectations. So the verse suffices as a horror maker’s mission statement, if not an explanation for the relatively straightforward plot, which seems designed to arouse fear and existential curiosity in equal measure.
Nope is Rated R and is playing in theaters nationwide, including Landmark Theatres. Visit www.landmarktheatres.com.
"I love that you think I have more than one home," laughs Wilson Cruz, settling in at his New York apartment for what will ultimately become a wide-ranging, two-hour Zoom interview. "I am a journeyman actor who has been cobbling together a career for 30 years. That's what I am."
Truth is, Wilson Cruz is much more than that. This is the third time Cruz has been featured on a Metro Weekly cover, and he ensures that a conversation with him feels familiar, like time spent with a best friend. Talking with him is also somewhat of a unique event -- spirited, unbridled, utterly free of artifice. He is warm. He is welcoming. He is wise.
Consistent with Rorschach Theatre’s adventurously immersive productions, the company’s latest, Human Museum by Miyoko Conley, engages audiences in playful conversation with its themes well before the show even begins.
Audiences enter through the titular museum, a hallowed institution operated by robots of Earth in a future where humans are extinct. Created inside the same two-story Connecticut Avenue former retail space where, last fall, Rorschach unleashed Night of the Living Dead Live, the Human Museum passes patrons through galleries filled with artifacts of human existence.
Vengeance is in the air this movie season. Heroes ready and eager to spill blood in pursuit of retribution are currently on the march from the dunes of Arrakis to the London streets of Femme, from Luc Besson’s shaggy Dogman to actor Dev Patel’s stunning directorial debut Monkey Man.
Patel -- a supporting actor Oscar nominee for the 2016 biographical drama Lion -- has worked with a number of accomplished filmmakers, and clearly has honed his own set of skills.
Yet, the film’s hyper-kinetic style definitely calls to mind the director perhaps most influential in the performer’s career, Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle. The Trainspotting auteur’s techno-driven, quick-cut rhythms feel laced into the DNA of Patel’s vigilante thriller.
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