By Fritz Esker & David Vicari
Nope
they did in his other films. Nope has recurring flashbacks to Ricky as a hen the central mystery in Nope is finally child on the set of a sitcom titled Gordy's Home, starring a chimpanzee as Gordy. Needless to revealed, it comes off as a little silly; say, the chimp goes berserk and however, writer and goes on a bloody rampage. This director Jordan Peele plays it is meant to build the character of all straight and is such a strong Ricky and his later motivations, filmmaker that the movie works and it's also meant as subtext to as a good science fiction thriller. the story. The Gordy moments Siblings Emerald (Keke are gruesome and dour and Palmer) and Otis “OJ” Haywood don't really fit with the rest (Daniel Kaluuya) own a ranch of the movie's tone, which is where they train horses for suspenseful and exciting. I think use in movies and television. the mad chimp element may have Business has been drying up since the bizarre death of their father, Otis Sr. (Keith worked better if Peele had taken a page out of David), who was hit with debris falling down from the Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975), like having Ricky recount the horrific story in a monologue like sky. To keep Haywood's Hollywood Horses afloat, Quint's Indianapolis story. Quint's speech in Jaws OJ has been selling some of his horses to has-been was effective, and, at the same time, made us former child star Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), understand the character's motivations. who operates a western-themed amusement park. Nope, however, does have a strong finale. When OJ sees an unidentified flying object in Kaluuya and Palmer are great playing siblings who the sky over the ranch, he and his sister decide to are opposites—OJ is the quiet thoughtful type, try and capture video footage of the mysterious and Emerald is the extrovert. The actors make object. They get help from tech salesman, Angel you root for their characters to battle this UFO and Torres (Brandon Perea) and an aging documentary hopefully survive. And elevating the suspense to filmmaker, Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott). Soon, an insane level is the full-blooded music score by it becomes abundantly clear that the object is a Michael Abels. sinister entity. Both Get Out and Us are better than Nope, Like his previous movies, Get Out (2017) and Us (2019), Peele constructs a smart slow burn to terror but this is a good movie. An imperfect Jordan Peele movie is still way better than most thrillers. with social commentary woven into the story. Nope –David Vicari is good, but not all of its elements work as well as
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TAMICA LEE
Saints Preview | Where Y'at Magazine
SEFENECH HENOK
Vengeance
T
he Office star B.J. Novak makes his writing/directing debut with Vengeance, a darkly comic noir about an aspiring New York podcast host (Novak) who finds himself in search of the perfect podcast story in West Texas. Ben, the aspiring podcaster, ends up in west Texas after receiving a phone call one night from Ty (Boyd Holbrook). Ty is the brother of Abi, a woman Ben hooked up with but never had strong feelings for. Abi, on the other hand, had apparently been telling her family all about Ben. So, when she dies of an opiate overdose, Ty talks Ben into coming to Texas for the funeral. In West Texas, Ty tells Ben he thinks Abi was really murdered. He has no proof, just his gut feeling and he wants Ben to help him find vengeance. Ben sees an opportunity
for a podcast about red state conspiracy theorists and how people cling to conspiracies as a way of avoiding life’s mundane but painful truths. There’s a lot of fish-out-of-water comedy involving the New York journalist learning about West Texas culture. It thankfully avoids leaning too heavily into either painting the Texans as all idiotic yokels or Ben as a completely insufferable New York narcissist. Everyone is flawed here, but in recognizable human ways. The whodunit aspect of the plot is not terribly difficult to figure out, but the identity of the perpetrator isn’t what matters. When the film reached its climax, I was genuinely uncertain how it would resolve itself, and that’s a rare feeling in movies these days— most of which are very predictable. –David Vicari
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