Nope (dir. Jordan Peele)

apparently Antlers is inspired by Peele's own DP? But I definitely agree with the shades of Herzog.

Imagine how cool it would have been if we didn’t get a good look at the ...thing the whole time UNTIL we saw the Oprah shot slide into the tray?

Saw this last week and bloody loved it. Instinctively, probably my favourite of the three so far? I definitely thought of Herzog - thematically sure, but the Wincott character definitely had a reek of Herzog. And I could totally hear the Herzog voice narrating the weird animal snuff movies Wincott was watching in his lair.

The thing that's stayed with me more than anything is the Gordy stuff. It almost feels like a separate film. The violence is so shocking, so brutal as to be off-stage (literally obscene).

Something gnaws at me in Peele's representation of the family. It's always broken or dysfunctional, but there's an uncanny element to it. This is obvious with the family in Get Out, but the sitcom family are necessarily one step removed from this and the violence feels almost retributive, or a punishment for something - beyond the obvious 'meddling with nature' narrative - and different from the violence meted out by the creature. I need to think it through.

It was supposed to be a sitcom from 1998 but felt more like 1988

Yeah, definitely. _Small Wonder_ vibes.

haha yes!

Omg Vicki

Ned, you nailed it. I couldn’t quite define what I was reminded of.

It seems unlikely that a show like that was exist in ‘98 but even in the last 1990s there was still a fair about of network dreck - it’s just that the dreck was more short-lived by that point.

WOULD exist

one thing that kinda confused me: keke palmer finally gets her oprah shot at the well, but she seems to forget about it, the plate just lying there in the collection tray as the police arrive?

― Tracer Hand, Friday, September 2, 2022 12:39 PM (two days ago)

I mean, she is (understandably) more excited to see her brother isn’t dead plus it’s just a cool shot

― castanuts (DJP), Friday, September 2, 2022 12:51 PM (two days ago)

yeah that’s true. we don’t see what she’s looking at at first.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, September 2, 2022 12:55 PM (two days ago)

Hah Tracer I had the same reaction to Em in that final sequence -- "You worked so hard to get the shot, don't let the news crews snake it from you now!!"

I've already talked upthread about how much I loved the last image of O.J., but seeing it for a second time really made me appreciate the setup. You can tell by the expression on Em's face (as well as by her sudden disinterest in the photo printer) that she's witnessing something powerful. The camera stays with her reaction for an extraordinarily long time before cutting away, to the point where I started wondering if we would ever see what she was reacting to, or if the movie would end without showing us.

Thought this was pretty great - loved all the references but the thing itself isn’t derivative despite that. I will be thinking about it a while. I haven’t read previous comments so may be repeating others upthread.

The musical cues are (unsurprisingly for Peele) really superb.

And I wear my sunglasses at night
So I can, so I can
See the light that's right before my eyes

I really like seeing Steven Yeun in anything and he was used perfectly here. The snl monologue is such a great little moment for the character, both in this monologue and also during the Star Lasso Experience he alludes to the truth, in one case unknowingly.

I don’t really understand people’s confusion about the Gordy subplot. The key to the film is all in that - the exploitation of animals without regard to their comfort which obviously leads to tragedy when dealing with something that’s wild, the different lessons people take from freak occurrences, monetising tragedy…all stuff that’s important for the whole film. I thought it was interesting that Jupe references the sitcom dad’s outfit in his Star Lasso jacket with the white flowers and Mary Jo was brought there again - reminded by her presence of how there was a man who escaped the Hiroshima bombing to return to his hometown of Nagasaki the next day. The detail about her wheelchair on the roof was so awful.

The siblings are really something. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Keke Palmer’s acting before. The costume choices for them added so much to it - I think people must have pointed out that The Jesus Lizard shirt but I appreciated their separate colour motifs in the end sequence too. I really liked OJ for just being a quiet horse guy who cares deeply about his animals - I knew he wouldn’t abandon them - and I thought a really key bit of detail is how well Lucky is trained. Lucky reacts to the mirrorball negatively, but that’s an animal’s instinct that you can’t really train out of them, however Lucky didn’t kick the trailer out when left there overnight and carried OJ through hell without spooking or throwing him off in a panic. The Haywood Hollywood Horses deliver!

Emerald is clearly written to be annoying little sister but I liked her she’s also no fool and has plenty of guts and willingness to push through. Also her line about her therapist was extremely funny. The part where she gets the speech wrong (“great”) cos she’d memorised from her dad was such a nice little detail.

The scene with the film crew is a foreshadowing of the Star Lasso Experience (and Gordy’s Home, too) where there is no attempt made to work with the different rules of engagement and an outright contempt for the advice given.

When they are in Jupe’s office, it was a nice bit of redirecting when OJ is asking to buy the horses back and Jupe is only too pleased to pick up Emerald’s line of inquiry instead. A little bit of plot that niggled at me was, you don’t see any of the horses or around at Jupiter’s Claim for obvious reasons but this shouldn’t make sense to OJ - he has sold ten horses, didn’t he wonder why they wanted more? It didn’t seem like a terribly big place, didn’t he notice that there weren’t any horses around?

I (now) know Jean Jacket’s final form was meant to be a reference to biblical angels, but I thought of the Logoi in Sunless Skies (presumably pulling from the same biblical reference) which are also fucking terrifying.

But I really need to watch it again as I’m sure I’ve missed lots.

Oh yeah

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ddd42ea1502d35d92be5345/1578053082572-4EK4CP1FBBB9QS6A293A/image-asset.jpeg

The siblings’ determination to document this thing is a fairly blunt reference to their ancestor’s depiction on film riding the horse - despite the fact being recorded, it remains unknown, and for them to be believed they need proof.

Still one of my top three of the year. Only one I've seen more than once in the theater too.

One of my regrets this year is that I didn’t see this in a theater for a second time.

Yeah I wished I’d caught this in the cinema, the sound is such a big part of this

Watched this a month or so ago and really enjoyed it. Not as much as Get Out or Us (what's with the Us hate here???), but I think that's mostly because I like horror stories way more than I like westerny alien stories. Apologies for not being that deep about it.

Absolutely loved the way it threw us straight into the Gordy's House narrative at the beginning before moving to the present-day, both a concrete way of introducing thematic motifs and adding surreality to create a disorienting experience. I was surprised to read upthread that there were criticisms of Daniel Kaluuya's performance - while I don't specifically know any 'horse guys' I do know 'understands animals but doesn't understand people' guys, and I thought it was pretty spot on, especially with the added weights of grief and responsibility.

I agree with you, I found a lot to enjoy in Us.

Re Gordy scenes: they were the most horrific in the film for me. I watched the main scene again after I finished the film and you can hear Gordy panting and sounding agitated as the family deliver their lines. Also the sitcom mother’s actress is wearing a necklace that looks like bared teeth, which probably doesn’t go great with a chimp.

Us is great

The Gordy cold open was particularly effective in the cinema

The first thing my bf said when the opening Gordy scene came up was "its Travis!"

Im certain the nod to Travis the chimp wasnt an accident - more so when they briefly showed the horror of Mary Jo's injuries when her veil lifted- her mouth/lips were missing, which is what Travis did to his victim. And that woman also used to wear a veil over a hat to hide her disfigurement.

(B did a podcast episode about Travis so it made sense he'd immediately see that)

Watched this last night, thought it was fantastic, clever and gripping. I wanted to watch with the subs on because I figured there'd be background sound/speech we'd miss otherwise but I was voted down and I WAS RIGHT (re him seeing Jupe's practice - I had no idea what that was til reading this thread).

It was a nice change to have a menacing alien movie where they showed the alien instead of being coy about it a la Predator/Cloverfield.

lol wtf

Somehow I totally missed this video of Jordan Peele pretending to be impressed by a terrible metaverse recreation of Nope. pic.twitter.com/JiL4RLaZW6

— Zack Zwiezen's Skeleton 💀 (@ZwiezenZ) October 17, 2022

I hope they paid him in more than stupid VR goggles.

It was a nice change to have a menacing alien movie where they showed the alien instead of being coy about it a la Predator/Cloverfield.

The smart move was just going for it in the last trailer and making everyone think "Oh, alien spacecraft" instead of what we got.

gyac otm. i really enjoyed this. and it was beautiful.

saw this finally, and was mercifully spoiler free going in

goddamn what a trip. scary & fascinating & disorienting & unsettling & funny & suspenseful

my favorite subgenre is movies -about- LA and/or moviemaking, and this is my new favorite just for sheer number of layers; horse ranch & animal trainers; child actors & animals performing for tv; mom & pop theme parks; theme park stunt shows; cameras & photography; down to the cinematographer has to go up the hill for the better shot in the good light at the expense of his safety, after already getting the shot

so much to chew on and think about but also so much that made me laugh

[tmz guy flips off his bike]
“no way he survived that”
[distant agonized scream]

also genuinely scary!

oh yeah and all the westerns iconography was faaaaantastic

also the thing that i can’t stop thinking about with the Gordy scene is the way the studio audience are all still dimly outlined in the background while the whole attack is taking place

i think that’s the subtle element that truly fucks Jupe up bc it blurs the line of performance where nothing is off the table, he has no boundary

I actually thought they were all dead! Like the chimp had killed everyone? But he hadnt I assume?

No, you can see audience members hiding behind seats.

Damn…I never caught that!

Yeah, the first time I saw it I couldn't figure out why the studio was empty. Then the second time I caught that people are there and cowering.

Good discussion on the latest ep of the Still Processing podcast: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/podcasts/still-processing-jordan-peele-nope.html

Thanks for sharing that - they hit a lot of angles that I hadn’t even considered about this film, and now I wanna see it again even more:

i need to listen to that! thx jaymc

Now on Peacock and there's an hour-long making of as well, which I will get around to soon.

it’s being shown on 70mm in London soon

https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00011874/nope

Said making-of was a good watch. Also, Indiewire has the script up:

https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NOPE_Script_FINAL_2022.11.29.pdf

one thing that kinda confused me: keke palmer finally gets her oprah shot at the well, but she seems to forget about it, the plate just lying there in the collection tray as the police arrive?

the impression I got was that the news guys out of shot were talking about the footage they got of the thing exploding, rendering her photo worthless?

I enjoyed this a lot - probably more the first half which took on the character of kaluuya's laconic, aimless, mysterious, half checked-out performance - and y'know these nitpicks don't really bother me but the "don't look at it or you will spook it" thing works if the animal is otherwise content to leave you alone. if it's trying to eat you it's not such a good strategy.

i know awards are arbitrary & whatever but it’s depressing & frustrating that this didn’t get a ~single~ oscar nomination

like, not even cinematography? screenplay? editing for chrissakes!? fucking NADA?

Sound design alone should have gotten a nod. It was the only movie I saw twice in the theater last year and the second time was because I absolutely wanted to immerse myself in that more thoroughly.

Lots of horror got overlooked this year. "Nope," "Pearl," could even imagine someone throwing "Barbarian" a bone. I mean, this is a world where "Top Gun" and "Avatar" are awards players, so anything goes.

xxp Yeah, it's like what they say when you're hiking in bear country. If you encounter an angry brown bear or grizzly, you can try playing dead; it might get bored and wander off, and if you fight back the bear will likely respond with even more aggression. But if it's an angry black bear, *do not* play dead, because the bear will just kill you. And so says the national park service: "If any bear attacks you in your tent, or stalks you and then attacks, do NOT play dead - fight back! This kind of attack is very rare, but can be serious because it often means the bear is looking for food and sees you as prey."

these nitpicks don't really bother me but the "don't look at it or you will spook it" thing works if the animal is otherwise content to leave you alone. if it's trying to eat you it's not such a good strategy.

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