A Vile Spectacle
I just got done watching Jordan Peele's latest cinematic excursion Nope, which focuses on two siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood, played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer respectively, with this being Kaluuya's second collaboration with Peele following his 2017 film debut Get Out. In "Nope" the Haywood sibs are forced to band together after the unexpected and tragic death of their father "Pops" Haywood played by Keith David, after he's struck and killed by a falling object from the sky that lodges into his skull and causes him to die of what appears to be a brain hemorrhage. However the ultimate cause of why the object fell from the sky and where it came from is left unexplained, at least at first.
In addition to the main plot focusing on The Haywoods, who are notable for being the only black horse trainers working in Hollywood, the film also follows Ricky "Jupe" Park played by Steven Yeun, a former child actor and owner of a Western themed amusement park nearby called "Jupiter's Claim" who witnessed a horrific and tragic incident in his childhood while working on a sitcom called "Gordy's Home" and in the present day is focused on creating a public "spectacle" in one of his newest attractions being hyped up called The Star Lasso Experience. In an attempt to keep this review spoiler free I won't delve any deeper into the plot except to say that while I overall enjoyed the film, and was legitimately frightened in several scenes, several aspects kept me from giving it a full 10 star or even 9 star review, and that is some of the characters came off as very annoying or unlikable, and others felt either underdeveloped or fulfilling no real purpose to the overall plot, with the strongest performance in my opinion coming from Daniel Kaluuya as the more quiet and subdued Haywood sibling who comes off almost as a heroic character out of an old time Western flick.
A lot of the imagery and sound design was exceptionally well done, and I liked how it was divided into chapters based on the names of several animals which appear in the film, I also really liked the end reveal of the cause of what's going on and did not see it coming, but ultimately I feel the film could have used a bit of fine tuning to make it a true cinematic spectacle.
In addition to the main plot focusing on The Haywoods, who are notable for being the only black horse trainers working in Hollywood, the film also follows Ricky "Jupe" Park played by Steven Yeun, a former child actor and owner of a Western themed amusement park nearby called "Jupiter's Claim" who witnessed a horrific and tragic incident in his childhood while working on a sitcom called "Gordy's Home" and in the present day is focused on creating a public "spectacle" in one of his newest attractions being hyped up called The Star Lasso Experience. In an attempt to keep this review spoiler free I won't delve any deeper into the plot except to say that while I overall enjoyed the film, and was legitimately frightened in several scenes, several aspects kept me from giving it a full 10 star or even 9 star review, and that is some of the characters came off as very annoying or unlikable, and others felt either underdeveloped or fulfilling no real purpose to the overall plot, with the strongest performance in my opinion coming from Daniel Kaluuya as the more quiet and subdued Haywood sibling who comes off almost as a heroic character out of an old time Western flick.
A lot of the imagery and sound design was exceptionally well done, and I liked how it was divided into chapters based on the names of several animals which appear in the film, I also really liked the end reveal of the cause of what's going on and did not see it coming, but ultimately I feel the film could have used a bit of fine tuning to make it a true cinematic spectacle.
- gatheringsnow
- Jul 21, 2022