Review: Nope

*I’m traveling this week so no images, unfortunately. Blogging on phones is fun*

OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) runs a horse farm with his father. They loan their horses out to Hollywood studios. After his father dies a mysterious death, he and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) are hard up for cash when OJ spots a UFO. They have the bright idea to get it on video and sell it to solve all their financial woes.

All I need to see is Jordan Peele’s name on a movie for it to be sold to me. Nope has been one my most highly anticipated films of the year and after a string of lukewarm reviews I read, I was worried. 

Lucky for me I loved this. Sure, like Us it has some questionable holes you think of after the fact but it was so tense and funny and exactly what I needed it to be. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the vague trailer and that made me even more excited for where it went. Kaluuya and Palmer give great performances. They’re very different from each other, and that made them a great pair to watch.

Without going into spoiler territory, I want to speak vaguely on the “Gordy” story line, which will make sense if you’ve seen it. I know a lot of the complaints about this film are about that piece and how it stops the main story to shine the light on a side character (in this case, Steven Yeun’s) And imma let you finish…but I thought it was brilliant. Sure, it could’ve been woven in a different way but the visual was so striking and I’ve read so many stories similar to what happens and it’s absolutely horrifying. I’m glad it’s in there. I’d watch an entire movie based on that incident to be honest.

So is this for you? If you’re a fan of Jordan Peele’s work, sci fi adventures, and the perfect use of the word “nope” then it sure is.

Grade: A