Review: NOPE

OJ runs the horse wrangling business with his sister Emerald after their father died in what was thought to be a freak accident when objects like coins and keys rained through the clouds as though dropped from a plane. Ok, local western showman Ricky Jupe Park believed from a strange experience as a child star on a sitcom that he has control over animals. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, OJ is noticing strange lights at night and then sees a flying saucer dart through the clouds. Emerald soon sees it, too. She hits on the idea of getting video of a real alien craft and involves the local help desk guy at the tech store who's a wire wiz and a ufologist. Together, they can make history and money in the face of slow ruin form their business slowing down. Got all that? It's just the first act of Jordan Peele's new movie Nope.

Unlike the psychological thriller of Get Out or the social horror of US, Peele has taken on the sweeping scope of a Spielbergian sci-fi blockbuster. So, he puts in effortless world building, seamless action and big visual effects and a muscular score to wash them down with, some constantly clever commentary on the state of cinema at the moment, and a host of ingenious tropes and character epiphanies. This film is packed. So why don't I care about it?

Full disclosure, I've never been particularly impressed with Spielbergian cinema where the long introduction leads to the big action finish and the dazzle of it all is meant to impress. I was a naysayer on that kind of movie to extent of boorishness back it its day and haven't grown that soft on it since. The presentation of this story is for the majority of cinemagoers who loved the Jurassic Parks and Close Encounters. But even with Peele leaving out the schmalz of the Big Steve this still rings hollow, for all its clear merit: I just don't like the influence. To me it doesn't feel authentic, it just feels long.

That means that, while I am not in a hurry to see it again and won't be grabbing the eventual 4K discorama version, that you shouldn't be interested in it. This is neither of Peele's earlier films and is definitely not attempting to be. Daniel Kaluuya is deliberately a quieter and more introverted figure in opposition to his magnetic turn in Get Out. Keke Palmer's Emerald makes up for that and her development is credible and welcome. Michael Wilcott's turn as the cinematographer Holst is a pleasing leathery cinema veteran in the style of Clint Eastwood's John Huston in White Hunter Black Heart. The thing they call Jeanjacket is strongly realised and provides a genuine dread. It's not what I want in a movie but I think that anyone who had problems with Peele's first two, whether at the perceived preaching of Get Out or the plot holes of the high concept US, might well find this one easier to love. Me, I just want my Jordan Peele funnier, nastier and more disturbing. But that's me.