Fabian🍿’s review published on Letterboxd:
Based on what we have seen from Peele so far, I thought Nope was going to use the topic of extraterrestrial life, for some grand twist that points out a huge social issue. While Peele definitely critics sensationalism and points out the negligence of people that could be pop cultural icons but are ignored or forgotten because of discrimination, Nope doesn't rely on a huge twist and explanation, like Us did. I'm really glad that Peele doesn't fall into the same trap that M. Night Shyamalan did, where the director isn't associated with a certain quality but simply "it's the guy that has the huge twist at the end". Looking at Shyamalan's filmography or something like the "Saw" franchise, it's clear that this doesn't go well and it's pretty much impossible to hold up the quality that was established in the beginning.
Personally, I wouldn't really put Nope into the standard horror genre. It's reminiscent of something like Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" or movies like "The Thing" or "Jaws". The screenwriter of "Jaws" points out, that they were influenced, to built the suspense up throughout the runtime and fully reveal the animal in the last act. Spielberg utilized this, to show off the great practical effects work and Peele uses it to differentiate the Haywood's motivation from Steven Yeun's character, through the aforementioned sensationalism.
In my opinion, "Get Out" remains Peele's best work so far but Nope is probably his best looking movie. Hoyte van Hoytema is a master of his craft. Nope certainly could have been a bit shorter but I highly recommend it nonetheless, even if it's just to support movies that aren't part of huge franchises.
SPOILER WARNING
Both the Haywood's and Ricky Park grew up in the movie industry. While OJ was involved as a horse trainer, Ricky grew up as a child star. Most prevalent throughout Nope, is the mistreatment of animals but also people in Hollywood. The Haywood's were an integral part of the movie industry, pretty much since the beginning. Despite their involvement, it seems like no one has ever heard of them. OJ's great great grandfather is someone that should be remembered, just like Eadweard Muybridge is but their family is completely forgotten and even when they are working on the set of the commercial, it's pretty clear that they aren't being shown any respect by the crew. OJ is obsessed with the prefect picture, because it could finally catapult his popularity up to the standard he thinks he wants / deservers. This discovery could finally bring him to Oprah, even if he still works as a horse trainer. It's pretty apparent that he enjoys his work with animals more than working with humans. When he has to give the security briefing, he immediately get's a panic attack and he is overall really untalkative and introverted. When Park offers to buy the whole ranch, he right away refuses the offer. On one hand he wants to keep up the family tradition but on the other he is tired of being neglected by the industry. Ironically he probably wouldn't enjoy stardom at all but everyone want's what they can't have.
Like previously mentioned, Ricky Park was a child actor, that played a kid in a popular sitcom, that got canceled because of multiple killings caused by the ape. This incident pretty much resembles a real life accident that involved Travis the chimpanzee, who "Attacked and mauled his owner's friend in Stamford, Connecticut, blinding her, severing several body parts and lacerating her face, before he was shot and killed by a responding police officer." This event not only got the show canceled but obviously traumatized Park for his whole life. After this event, he decided to leave the Hollywood industry and buys a fair in the middle of the desert. His work in the movie or television industry might have brought him fame and probably a good paycheck but destroyed his life. Because of that, he isn't really interested in the fame that might come with a video of the UFO but rather wants to profit off it. He prohibits video footage because he wants audiences to come to his show and pay to see the animal. Obviously there are numerous cases of this happening to children but I'd like to point out the mistreatment of Nickelodeon stars, especially the pretty recently revealed controversy of Dan Schneider. Looking up those stars, it's pretty apparent that none of these children are still actively working in the industry, except for Ariana Grande. Someone like Jennette McCurdy, is pretty outspoken about the psychological problems, that were caused by their treatment.
During the security briefing, OJ gives instructions on how to act around the horse, which gets ignored by the crew and caused the animal to get anxious. Something similar happened before the chimpanzee attack. Both humans and animals are constantly being mistreated and even OJ, who is constantly being shown to care about the right treatment of his horses, decides to bait the UFO with pennants, even though he knows it will cause harm in some form.
Capitalistic motivations make profit eligible by any means necessary
