Nothing if not controversial, writer/director Jordan Peele made us root for a guy named “OJ.” “OJ Haywood” to be exact, played by very talented actor and Peele stablehand Daniel Kaluuya. Is it fitting that Daniel Kaluuya is playing a stablehand in a film about terror at a horse ranch? Maybe. What’s more important is that Jordan Peele has deliberately put it out there that at least in the director’s mind, OJ is the name of a hero.
That ain’t gonna please a whole lot o’ white folks … which, in turn, makes me snicker. Oh, I think OJ Simpson is guilty of double murder, no question. But I’m going to enjoy that this deliberate nomenclature will, by itself, trigger MAGAts.
As with too much in Nope, “OJ” is an irrelevance; it only exists for the sake of atmosphere. For a film about the issues of horse ranchers, Nope is paced by a set of scenes depicting something else entirely. The film begins … and is littered with … the haunting and somewhat vivid depiction of a chimpanzee attack on the stage set of an otherwise forgettable sitcom. The subplot tells us that during a birthday episode of this sitcom about a family and its exotic pet, one of the chimp “actors” loses it and goes on a violent rampage.
The “chimp attack” is not-at-all coincidentally both the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of Nope. It plays as a strength by warning us of the horror to come. The opening is all told aftermath style; we have to discern what went on during the shoot. Luckily, this isn’t difficult given the set barren except for random destruction, a seemingly lifeless human on the ground, and one overactive chimp flitting around with a bloody maw. This is excellent filmmaking. The problem? The chimp scenes are irrelevant to the plot. Absolutely irrelevant. It would be like inserting a chimp rampage at the beginning of The Silence of the Lambs.
In the meat of Nope, there is a horse ranch run by OJ and his sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer). OJ is all business; Emerald is something of a wild card until shit goes down. And then she becomes as serious as the plot. You know the phrase: “hold your horses?” Well, that’s exactly what this ranch can’t seem to do, whether it’s selling horses to the rodeo next door or the beasts disappearing mysteriously.
The thing is … it’s unclear what’s happening to the horses even while it’s happening. Already over two hours long, Nope needed trimming, not enhancing, and yet the editor clearly decided to cut some key (and Peele) scenes 
of exposition where the audience might be let in on the joke. Emerging from Nope, my first thoughts were, “You get a A for setting the mood, but a D+ for letting us know what was going on.”
Nope feels a lot like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in that it was so intent on setting a mood of creepiness in this rural California locale that it gets lost in indulging the mood rather than exploring the plot. Nope was desperately … and I do mean desperately in need of a simpleton character, somebody who could 1) lighten the mood slightly from time-to-time and 2) let the audience know what was going on. I don’t know how you add such a character and then edit the film to run under two hours, but that’s exactly what needed to happen to take this film seriously as a blockbuster. Nope will almost certainly make back its investment … and it should, but I’ve now come to have higher standards for Jordan Peele; I hope his next film is better.
Edit: I’ve now seen Nope a second time since I wrote the above. The second viewing was more enjoyable as I knew what was going on. I have clearly underestimated the film for striking visuals — this picture will likely deliver the key screenshots of “what we saw in 2022,” so I’m upgrading it from 2.5 to 3 stars. The bottom line remains, however, Nope represents first-rate film-making, but second-rate story-telling.
A horror less of scares than of feel
The villain won’t quite make you squeal
Not telling a lie
Yet I cannot deny
Nope has a certain a-Peele
Rated R, 130 Minutes
Director: Jordan Peele
Writer: Jordan Peele
Genre: Horsin’ around
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Jordan Peele fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “I don’t understand any of this.”
