Nope (2022)

★★½
Capsule Review

I'd like to believe Jordan Peele is the newest innovative horror movie director on the scene, and perhaps when he has a larger body of work, we can recognize him as such and acknowledge a few weaknesses along the way. It's not like John Carpenter and Wes Craven always knocked it out of the park. His latest film, Nope, is a little bit of sci-fi and a little bit of horror. It involves a U.F.O. that hovers over a Southern California horse ranch and the owners (brother and sister played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) who try to record it. The Haywood siblings are also dealing with the negative fallout from the death of their father and a nearby Old West theme park owner who wants to buy their land. The players are all in some way involved with the mysterious U.F.O., which has certain rules that don't seem to be followed consistently enough to get a good grasp of how it works. Uneven pacing takes momentum out of the movie. It's an okay effort that doesn't match the ominous dread of Peele's debut Get Out.

© 2025 Silver Screen Reviews