Nope (dir. Jordan Peele)

oh yes absolutely! there's def a persistent theme of people exploiting their own tragedies for attention and money

and ppl having to process something inexplicable and horrible and unprocessable that happened to them and thus doing it in all the wrong ways

I understand the criticisms of DK's performance, but I also think they're wrong. I wasn't too fond of either of the main characters initially -- OJ too reserved, Emerald too self-absorbed -- but that changed by the end of the movie. I'm glad Peele is on a level where the studio can't force reshoots to make his leads "more relatable" or w/e. (Obviously there is also a whole racialized element to this, which I feel unqualified to speak to.)

The whole audience cracked up at the interaction between OJ and Em when the documentary filmmaker showed up with his non-electrical camera. Later I realized it felt like a moment straight out of the Key & Peele valet sketches.

as soon as Jupe mentioned the Gordy incident, I immediately knew exactly why there was someone in Jupe's audience with facial disfigurement in the trailer. and that they were going to show the incident in all of its horror (well-staged)

haha yeah i loved the appearance of his co-star

also loved the alien looking like a cowboy hat. kind of mad that the last set of trailers spoiled that a bit.

Saw this yesterday with my daughter and we loved it, though with a few reservations. One big way that Jupe's story ties in is that he didn't learn his lesson the first time that you can't tame or befriend a wild/predatory creature. Reaching out to knuckle bump your costars' apparent killer and feeding an alien horses, so much wtf Jupe! I haven't read every hidden text in this thread so sorry if I'm repeating the obvious.

Another random thought/connection:

When Parasite came out, I remember reading an interview, either with Bong or with his cinematographer, talking about how the whole set design process worked backwards from the director's hyper-specific vision for the film's final sequence (the father ascending the stairs out of the basement, into the sunny living room, with his son waiting there).

In my headcanon, I like to imagine a similar process played out as Peele set up that last shot of OJ framed by the gate, coming up out of the valley on horseback as the dust settles all around him. Like, How can you get a Black character into this iconic 1950s Western shot, and have the shot "make sense" in the context of the surrounding movie and carry the same affective weight that it would have in a classic Western, while telling an entirely original story in a contemporary setting?

Someone on the internet said the shot looks like the Muybridge film, which I don't agree with, but since the movie is sort of about spectacle, I do wonder if the entrance to Jupiter's Claim has the aspect ratio of a film frame

Also my idiotic fan theory is that all of Angel's band T-shirts have some narrative logic to them. Earth is mother nature, the Wipers is an apocalyptic event, Jesus Lizard is obviously the mix of the spiritual with the animal, being a Mr. Bungle got us into this mess and RATM will get us out

huge return to form after us which sucked ass. last 30 mins were peak spielberg level, nearly brought a tear to my eye in awe of the spellbinding magic of cinema. not as great of a script as get out, but i'm v relieved peel's still "got it"

Us is great, foh

other than tethered lupita (one of the craziest performances ever) i thoughtus was boring as hell and a clear sophomore slump

on the "good movie to write a thinkpiece about" v.s. "good movie to watch" spectrum, get out perfectly balances the two, us goes full thinkpiece, and nope leans more on the watchable end. the thinkpiece stuff in nope wasn't as flawlessly weaved into the narrative as in get out. i personally would've cut the whole steven yeun subplot (i couldn't follow the logic of keke palmer stealing his sign)

that is not a real spectrum!!!

or if it is it's the most reductive one possible through which to view these films

Discourse brain

or if it is it's the most reductive one possible through which to view these films

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, July 26, 2022 12:32 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

Discourse brain

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, July 26, 2022 12:40 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i know it's painful when someone doesn't like a movie you like, but i don't think it's reductive or discourse brain. part of what's cool about peele's movies is how topical they are and how he packs them with metaphors and symbols that self-consciously gesture at Big Ideas. i'm surprised it's a controversial claim--it's like the signature trait that sets him apart from other current big name hollywood directors? imho he's able to pull it off better than almost anyone, tho us and candyman were misses that left me cold

the career arc key & peele -> get out -> us -> nope is such a great distillation of vibes from peak obama era to obama-trump interregnum to trump term 1 era to biden era

like to the extent get out feels dated, it's cause it's a movie from when rich white lady racism was the centre of the discourse, before the conservative populist white revanchist movement exploded onto the mainstream

The T-shirts, explained.

The explanation: "They're [the character's] band T-shirts"

i really liked this! palmer and kaluuya were great and the set piece at the end was extremely clever. i'd love to know what inspired peele to cast michael wincott.

that voice, probably. everybody associates dust and cowboys with deep voiced people

"And it's Kattan, so he's CRUSHING it."

that bit was great because that is totally who would have played the chimp in that era of SNL

Lots of chatter about the band t-shirts but the fact that there was an Exuma needle drop and they showed the cover in a big studio release is wild.

the documentary filmmaker showed up with his non-electrical camera.

Hooray for analog media! The classic vinyl, the film cameras, the old Haywood promo videotape showing the Muybridge short....

Like, How can you get a Black character into this iconic 1950s Western shot, and have the shot "make sense" in the context of the surrounding movie and carry the same affective weight that it would have in a classic Western, while telling an entirely original story in a contemporary setting?

It's definitely a detournement of the classic Western trope of the (white) hero in a white hat riding a white horse.

I've grown to appreciate how Peele sets up the opening credits where you go 'what am I looking at and what does it have to do with anything I've heard about this film so far' -- and this time around he did it twice. (And when I realized what the black box with the cast names in it it was, yikes.)

Also, between the opening quote here and the one for Mad God, good few for deeply fucked up Bible quotes kicking off a movie.

Few weeks, I should say.

https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/4470/buck-and-the-preacher#overview

There was a prominently displayed poster for Buck and the Preacher (1972). Conveniently this will be shown on TCM on August 4, 2am (EST), as part of Sidney Poitier's Summer Under the Stars day. I know I want to check this out.

I...quite liked this movie. Other than the OJ dad backstory, the lack of "humanizing" elements and tedious exposition felt right -- even about the UFO.

TMZ dude looked like a Daft Punker.

Worth a read: http://reverseshot.org/reviews/entry/2959/nope

xp and sounded like Nicolas Cage! (I really want to believe this was an uncredited cameo)

If only, but it was this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_Graye

We took the kids yesterday, we all enjoyed the heck out of it. My older son, who pays attention to this kind of thing, said that he liked "how many metaphors there were for filmmaking."

Your son OTM

Brandon Perea is my new crush.

he reminds me of riz ahmed

Brilliant casting. Very much captured that kind of SoCal dude.

I'm supposed to be cheering, I know. As I posted at the time, I thought Peele's first two films were audacious--even though they drifted into conventional horror-film stuff towards the end, the conception of each was great. "We're Americans"--I still think about that line, thought it was brilliant.

I liked the Gordy story here, and wished the whole film were about that. (Even though, beyond the Jupe connection, I either missed or am too lazy to figure out the deeper connection to the main story.) I thought the Muybridge stuff at the beginning was really promising--again, if there was follow-through, I missed it. Three of the four principals were pretty good. Couldn't stand the cameraman's Sam Elliot imitation.

Thought the last half-hour was an ordeal, and quite silly. It kind of reminded me of why I got tired of Stranger Things--I can only take so much of a rag-tag crew banding together to defeat the monster. (And the way Emerald actually did it--was that an Austin Powers tribute?) And dialogue like "Are we still rolling?" "You're goddamn right we are!" They really needed George Kennedy to deliver that line.

Now about them fashions

Talking with @roxana_hadadi, #NOPEMOVIE's costume designer explains each and every decision that was made to complement the film’s considerations of celebrity, spectacle, and storytelling https://t.co/dpWJXO2spG

— Vulture (@vulture) August 1, 2022

Walter Chaw had very mixed feelings.

Whatever my responses to his three films, I don't get how Peele has become "bunkered and solipsistic."

the reverse shot piece that alfred linked was excellent

first paragraph of that walter chaw piece is exhausting just watch a fuckin movie man

Who is Walter Chaw, this shit sucks

Not much to chaw on.

Thought all those questions in that first paragraph were perfectly valid. I stopped caring enough to have any questions at a certain point.

Walter, you know a movie is just a bunch of made up shit, right?

Are you saying a film's internal logic shouldn't be questioned? That would be a new development in film criticism, for sure.

As far as Oscars go, Nope would seem to have been a strong contender given that it was both a critical and popular hit, not to mention the precedent of Get Out earning several Oscar noms including best pic and best director. I wasn’t surprised that Us didn't land with the Oscars since that had more straight-up horror elements and also had a more divisive reception. But Nope is *less* of a horror movie than either Us or Get Out, *and* it's about the movie industry!

exactly

yes but it’s about how the movie industry exploits crew members and commodifies trauma. the academy only likes it when hollywood is portrayed as an unequivocal good

ding ding ding ding

and how it’s racist

I don’t think the Academy likes it when you point out how they’re racist

(sorry, couldn’t resist)

loll

On a related note, MOMI has a really well-curated series of movies that got zero Oscar nominations despite being viable, in the mix, and certainly should've been up on merit:

https://movingimage.us/series/snubbed/

I stayed spoiler-free all this time... I'm in the midst of a run through recent big movies and Nope is so clearly ahead of most of what I've seen. No need to explain or dig any further, just a fucking, fun movie.

That's actually the second best thing about Nope, the best is that Agua Dulce, for once, gets to star as itself. Decades of filling in for some other places - or in the case of Vasquez Rocks, other planets as well.

the mirrorball is just a standard tool used by VFX studios - so when OJ has one he probably just copped it from antlers or w/e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCfHQL4kLnw

https://beforesandafters.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/hdri.jpg

playing in 70mm in new york right now. our screening yesterday was weird because the first reel wasn't delivered in time so the first 40 minutes were DCP and the rest was 70mm. pretty cool to do the A/B.

What were the differences?

the 70mm print had more dynamic range and was more contrasty than the DCP - so much so that it almost seemed 'washed out' for the first few min after the switch was made. but after you adjusted to it, it was great

Finally saw it. Pretty good.
I missed what caused flying saucer to become giant blooming iris/Lily diaphanous thing.

Good to finally see it. Good film.