A moment of silence for the integrity of Universal Studios. Jordan Peele's Us was a masterpiece, a final farewell swan song for the studios' ventures into Gothic Horror before the company lost its soul to contemporary gimmickry like Leigh Whanell's terrible Invisible Man remake. It seems even Peele himself was not insusceptible to Universal's radioactive dulling of creative expression, because Nope is one of the worst films of the year.

The best way I can describe it is Signs without any of the humanity, leaving only mind numbing stupidity without the emotional meaning to transcend its logistical oversights. It's a pointlessly cruel and aggressively stupid exercise in nihilism and doesn't even feel like a Jordan Peele film at all. While the humor in Us and Get Out was balanced out with likable and rich characters, Nope is entirely a film based around concept. Garbage bin allegory doesn't even begin to describe the film's monster, I can't believe somebody found a way to make Parallax from the Green Lantern movie even lamer, but they pulled it off here.

Keke Palmer is...Fine, but far from great. Put her up against Nyong'o in Us or Kaluuya in Get Out and it's not even a comparison, she's nowhere near as excellent and you all know it. This movie needed exceptional performances if it was going to get anywhere and "just fine" doesn't even come close to compensating for this worthless script and cynical direction.

Nope is the kind of awful, dumb movie that gives me pause for thought on just how it even exists. I guess it takes a mind as brilliant as Peele's to make a mess this disasturous.