Old Man Angelo’s review published on Letterboxd:
Nope is yet another banger by Jordan Peele. This one you could call his Signs, or Close Encounters of the Third Kind and it’s just as good as those. There’s a whole lot about this movie to unpack that’s best suited with time and multiple viewings.
Nope is a much slower burn than Peele’s first two outings but for me I was really invested in it. Some of it, like Steven Yuens backstory feels a little superfluous but I feel like there’s a lot more to it for me to absorb on further viewings. I think there’s definitely something that connects Gordy and Jean Jacket thematically and I’ll get to the bottom of it.
Beyond all that pretentious shit (on my behalf not Peele) the movie is simply a great “UFO” story. Despite its slow pace it’s got a very consistent tension and has me wanting to see more of its mystery unfold.
The cast is uniformly great, but it’s really the duo of Kaluuya and Palmer that really tie the whole film together. They’re bloody fantastic. Kaluuya has a very introverted role, and as someone who has experienced tragedy first hand that zero energy foggy apathy towards even the most extraordinary circumstances makes him one of the most realistic horror protagonists.
So that gives Keke Palmer the opportunity to really command the screen. She’s electric, like boba fide movie star megawatt charm. I really hope she gets her own mega budget star vehicles because she can absolutely handle that.
As for Jordan Peele, right now it seems like he can do no wrong and I think it’ll be a long time before he sets a foot wrong for me even if I see critics and film twitter turning against him sooner than later. To me he’s a master film maker now.
