Episode 106 - NOPE (2022)

100 Horrors

Jordan Peele is a director with a problem. In 2017 he released his debut feature film after spending the majority of his career working in comedy, and it was surprisingly BRILLIANT. Get out - a film you can hear us review somewhere in the back catalogue - is a perfect film, and it quite rightly launched Jordan Peele's name past the pile labelled "up and coming" and onto the wall where most horror directors can only dream of finding their names carved in stone. Oddly though, therein lies the problem. The pressure to make sure that any and all future releases hold up to Get Out (and it's critically acclaimed follow up, "US") must be monumental. It really comes as no surprise then, that for film number 3, Peele segwayed out of horror and into Sci-Fi. Moving to Sci-Fi (or at least a Sci-Fi / Horror hybrid) surely helps avoid instant and unfair comparisons to his prior two films, but the shift to science fiction also clearly challenges Peele as a film maker and writer. I won't lie, there's a sense that he's not quite worked out how to make the genre work for him the way he has with the horror genre. UAP and UFO culture is a fascinating one because, lets face it, there's a good chance that it is based entirely on misinterpretaing entirely normal arial phenomenon, and as a result, everything within the sci-fi genre is open to interpretation. What would an alien ship actually look like? Would it carry a sentience within or would the ship itself be sentient? How would the common man react to being stalked by a giant ribbon monster in the sky? These are all questions that Nope explores well, and the result is intriguing, but by no means does that mean that it's good. With a budget of $68 million, Nope is a visually stunning film, but the lead character doesn't feel proactive, and the supporting actors feel too reactive, and the subplot about a chimpanzee called Gordy actually becomes the most intriguing story in the film. It's easy to feel that Nope is flawed, but hard to work out whether that is just due to comparison to Peele's earlier more solid work. Is it only flawed because it's not as good as Get Out? You'll have to watch it and decide for yourself. Let us know what you think lads.