Nope (2022)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Nope (2022) – J. Peele

Jordan Peele’s third directorial outing (after Get Out, 2017, and Us, 2019) is also a genre pic, straddling sci-fi and horror. Daniel Kaluuya is back, as O.J., a stoic horse trainer who supplies animal talent for movies, following in his father’s footsteps (the father who dies in a freak accident at the start of the film). His sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer), is helping out with the business but has other ambitions. When mysterious things start happening out at the ranch, O.J. and Em decide that capturing them on film might be either a ticket to fame and success or at least a way to salvage the flailing business. I’m not spoiling anything when I say that they think they have seen a U.F.O. and that the U.F.O. may be abducting their horses.  Straightforward enough but then again it isn’t. Peele takes us into undiscovered territory with a side plot that features a child star who barely escaped an on-set chimpanzee attack (and who now runs a western-style theme park). While not as clearly laced with social commentary as his early features (although there are nods to Black heritage and perhaps a general querying of our need to be famous/desire attention), this is still a solid creature feature, the kind where the unusual is treated seriously and rational steps are taken to address it (see also Tremors, 1990). Worth a look (and still a director to follow).