Nope (2022)

This highly anticipated movie is Jordan Peele’s third successful horror film within the last couple of years. The trailers for this movie betrayed very little about the plot, instead reeling in audiences through mystifying visuals, an incredible cast (including Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, and Daniel Kaluuya), and its mysterious title. Nope takes place in rural California on a Hollywood horse training ranch as siblings OJ and Emerald make a terrifying discovery. The reviews for this film are incredibly mixed. “Dodge-Zombie” on Imdb’s review website states, “Seriously not recommended. Not even just to watch once. It's over 2 hours and could of been covered in an hour or less,” (Peele). This review is in extreme contrast to Zach Pike’s analysis on the same site, “I was in absolute awe the entire duration and the way all these subtle things link together was so well thought out, it's hard to not be blown away,”(Peele). Going into this movie, I had absolutely no idea how I would feel about it. The trailers looked absolutely incredible, but the reviews lead me in a different direction and planted a seed of doubt in my mind.

The next two paragraphs may contain spoilers for the movie.

I absolutely loved this movie. From the beginning, the shots, lighting, and cinematography were absolutely breathtaking. There are a lot of shots of the sky with hints that something is in the clouds or something’s wrong with them in general, but somehow they never got old. Not only was the show incredibly thoughtfully shot, but the plot was also incredible. I loved how little details from the beginning of the movie really came into play in the end, and truly made a world of difference in how certain characters reacted to different situations. The personalities, desires, and specific skills of many characters truly made the movie what it was and it was incredibly cool to see how the different characters' motivations made the ending work out the way it did. A Poudre High School student, Ryder Jackson commented, “I thought it had really great pacing, a good amount of suspense, and some pretty great acting,”. There wasn’t too much not to love, but I have to agree with some of the reviews in that it could have been cut down further. In the end, everything came together nicely, and overall this movie was really well made and was a joy to view.

At the end of the day, this film is definitely worth watching. It was entertaining, full of talented people, and was absolutely beautiful. Although Nope is considered a horror movie, I would consider it worth watching for the characters and plot alone. I feel that many people would be able to find something that they really liked if they watched this movie just because of the variety of qualities that it possesses. When asked who he thought would enjoy this movie, Ryder Jackson stated, “anyone that likes suspenseful movies or I even think like…more dramatic kind of movies as well,”. If you ever find yourself with extra time on your hands or if this review piqued your interest in the slightest, I would definitely recommend checking Nope out.

Works Cited “Jordan Peele.” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1443502/. Accessed 2 September 2022. “Nope (2022).” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10954984/. Accessed 2 September 2022. Peele, Jordan. “Reviews: Nope.” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10954984/reviews. Accessed 2 September 2022. Peele, Jordan, and Burt Bacharach. “Nope (film).” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nope_(film). Accessed 2 September 2022.

Elizabeth Bentley is a senior at Poudre High School, and this is her first year at the Poudre Press. She writes a blog that you can check out here!