Movie Review of Jordan Peele’s “Nope”

By carolinianweb on October 25, 2022 • ( 0 )

Aliyah Gibbs

Staff Writer/Editor

Jordan Peele has proved himself as a renowned and respected director, producer and cinematographer in film. I have been so impressed by his journey to this status, and I feel most people share the same sentiment. I, like many others, was introduced to Jordan Peele through the comedy duo Key and Peele. He and his co-star Keegan-Michael Key had a successful sketch comedy program entitled “Key and Peele” that ran on Comedy Central for about five years. The show was an excellent introduction to both actors and allowed the viewers a glimpse into Peele’s sense of humor and psyche. Because of his previous reputation as a comedian, I feel like I’ve noticed this sort of lighthearted, comedic tone ring throughout most of his films, despite them being horror films. Peele’s switch to horror was extremely flawless and unique, and I think the way he goes about producing films like “Get Out,” “Us,” and “Nope” is quite genius.

Ok, now that I’ve gotten all the good news and praise out of the way, here comes my truth… despite my being a fan of Peele, I was not very impressed with his last creation, the film “Nope.” By the way, I am no film critic, simply a girl with an opinion. In general, I feel that Peele’s last film screamed ‘cinema’ in a way his previous films did not. What I mean by this is that I noticed his attention to detail when it comes to the lighting and framing of the shots. The whole movie felt sort of grandiose in nature, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; I just wasn’t understanding how that fit the story that was being told. For example, having wide shots in large, open fields–I feel like these decisions were intentionally made to add a sort of underlying, or invisible, meaning to the film. It’s this very reason I wasn’t too blown away with this last project. For me, I feel like this complicates the movie-going experience and may alienate some people who aren’t able to participate in the conversation when it comes to the borderline-snobbish topics of cinematography. However, outside of these complaints, I did find the movie to at least be enjoyable; it just wasn’t my favorite work of his. Still, when it’s all said and done, and Jordan Peele releases another film for the world to rave over, I will be in attendance at the movie theater to indulge in whatever creation comes next.