Rod and Karen review Jordan Peele’s latest movie “Nope.” We also discuss some movie trailers and your comments on our latest reviews.
Spoiled Reviews: (Protected Content)
SMR 403: Nope
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Hi Rod & Karen!
II’m writing my feedback before I listen because I just finished watching this movie. I liked it. It wasn’t as scary as the other two films. However I thought it was cleaver to merge an alien movie with a “when animals attack†movie. Loved seeing Black people on horses, loved that JP uses darker skinned people in his work. The lighting choices make it beautiful and eerie. Liked that as the movie continued the alien became more and more organic looking. I can agree that some of the parts with the chimp could have been cut down. But if you’ve ever seen the movie “Orcaâ€, this movie reminds me of “Jaws†and “Orcaâ€.
My only question is that I could have sworn in one scene that filmmaker guy was missing an eye, then the next he’s not. Did anyone else see that?
Love y’all
Iman
Can I say that I really appreciate the discussion from the premium listeners. & Rod & Karen. THAT right there, is why I love the way you two talk about movies. Most film critic podcast wouldn’t do what y’all did here for this film. Constructive, fair & reasonable. I really liked Nope. It’s probably my least favorite Peele film, but like Get Out & Us, becomes as timely & poignant as those films were. I actually get the arguments you guys raised with Jupe. Should he have been a bad guy? Maybe, but I think his lack of foresight is a clever take on someone who’s out of his depth. Anyway, I liked how the connection with him & Gordy panned out. Didn’t understand it on the first viewing but resonated with it on the second viewing. Even Emerald & OJ. It’s not as family-heavy as the other two films, so I admit that, I felt their differing juxtaposition from one another, as subtle as it is.
I love the cinematography from Hoyte Van Hoytema & Michael Abels’s enriching, scary score. I really dug this.
I have a simpler theory. Humans that try to profit off things they don’t understand will eventually get got. The horse getting angry at the commercial set, Gordy, and the alien. Otis Sr even said it, some things just can’t be trained.
Rod & Karen,
Going back to the previews maybe its just the skeptic in me but the Sterling K. and Regina Hall trailer kind of gave me the vibe that it may take unexpected dark turn at some point in the movie. I also was confused as hell by that last trailer thought the movie started and was like where are the black people?!
Hey again Rod and Karen,
I forgot to mention what I liked about the erasure and fame themes. I love that the movie explored that. OJ and Em inherited an unsung legacy in Hollywood built by an ancestor who was erased from monumental Hollywood history-just like black folks have been erased (or not recognized as much as they should be) from the history of horse training and racing. I think with their father dying and the business failing, they wanted to get back on top in Hollywood, secure their family legacy, and be recognized by getting the impossible shot of that alien.
Ricky and Gordy were also used and erased. Gordy was shot and the shows were sent to the vault. Ricky’s costar was literally erased. The chimp tore off her face. She had to wear a shirt with her childhood picture on it for people to even know who she was, and neither she nor Ricky was able to draw a crowd to that jacked-up park.
Ricky had to have a hidden display of props from his old show. It looks like his promising career suffered to the point where he was running a goofy theme park in the middle of nowhere. Before he got ate, I think Ricky was in the act of erasing OJ and Em’s “contribution” of horses that he was using to attract the alien. Whatever his plans were, I doubt he was going to mention using their horses or their ranch if he were able to buy it.
I love Jordan Peele’s movies and what he is doing for the culture and I love that you two are two Black film critics out here doing your thing!
Thank you!
Angela
Hey Rod and Karen,
I lurved this movie. I loved the deliberate pacing, the Hitchcockian and Jaws “shout-outs”. I think a couple of this movie’s themes were about exploitation and erasure. I thought the chimp related to the plot in that Ricky was a child actor which can be an exploitative, personality-warping, and traumatic experience in itself. But despite that experience, he still hadn’t learned his lesson and leaned into exploiting the alien/ufo and the horses. No respect for or understanding of either.
Animals and people in Hollywood can be exploited and not cared for well. Chimps were often seen as fun “toddlers” and closest to us, but those buggers can rip you apart. Often, folks don’t have enough respect and fear of them, leading to underestimating the whoop-ass they can bring. I lived in CT when that pet chimp tore off a lady’s face. She was just visiting the owner of the chimp. The chimp got territorial and went off.
OJ said you have to have an agreement with an animal you train. Ricky even said the chimp had reached his limit. I think he or maybe his wife said something about how they shouldn’t have stopped broadcasting the show (more exploitation despite horrible consequences for the humans and the chimp). Ricky kind of repeated the same mistake in trying to exploit the ufo/alien. My Negro senses would have told me to be afraid first, but Ricky thought he knew and had everything and everybody under his control.
.
I also loved the white folks’ reaction to OJ’s name and how Emerald yelled, “Run, OJ, run!” I can’t with Jordan Peele-lol.
Love your spoiled movie reviews! Thanks for the great conversation and show!
xo,
Angela
Hello Rod and Karen,
I agree that this movie is a C, possibly elevated to a B- at best based on the Cinematography. I too felt the scenes with the chimpanzee felt disconnected and served no purpose other than making the film unnecessarily long. As for the seeming lack of reaction to the father’s bizarre death, wanting to get the creature for killing their dad would have helped make the film resonate more, at least for me.
Speaking of the father, they explained in the first scene where we saw KeKe Palmer that OJ was doing the on camera work because the father was killed by something falling out of the sky 6 months before. This is the reason none of the set people seemed too thrilled to be working with OJ. It also explained why OJ, who clearly was uncomfortable interacting with others was there and so anxious for Emerald to arrive.
Hi Rod and Karen,
I went to see Nope a second time, and I want to change my initial meh reaction. With the exception of still agreeing that the film was a little too long, knowing what’s coming, I was now able to go, “Oh! That’s why that is in there!†(Insert Weebey GIF). Now elevated to a B+. This change might prove true for others if they give it a second chance. If not, I get it since it is not easy to give something a second chance if it did not wow you the first time around.
FYI
After the rewatch, I listened to your review again.
1. Emerald didn’t have kids. When she is saying things like “Baby girl,†and “Little girl,†she is talking about her girlfriends. She mentioned sleeping with a female therapist and she was coming onto the woman who walked past her in the Best Buy.
2. People were so willing to believe because they mentioned the people who have been vanishing from the area over the past six months. (It’s unfortunate that Steven Yuen’s character didn’t pay attention because he might have realized that merely feeding the horses to the creature was not satisfying its hunger.) Of course, that makes the lack of police presence following the mass vanishing all the more peculiar.
P.S. They did mention a couple of times that it had been 6 months since the passing but it was so fast it was easily missed. I also give this C.
Good morning,
I think the point of the chimpanzee subplot was that Ricky DID make a connection with the chimp. The chimp reached out to exploding fist-bump the kid.
That connection gave him the idea and the confidence to try to interact with the alien creature rather than running theeee fuck away.
Unrelated: I think you needed someone like Keith David to give such a big impact in a couple of minutes. You can see what a huge presence he had and why the kids are flailing around and don’t quite know what to do with themselves. Seeing blood squirting out of his eye was the first moment of pure horror, because what are they going to do without him??
Loved the movie, love you guys.
Lauren in Pittsburgh
Hi Rod & Karen, I’m just here to say that I agree with Lauren’s comments. Thanks yall! Karena aka TootieTaurus