The One Thing Nope Audiences Won't Get During Their Viewing Experience
Jordan Peele is gearing up for the July 22 release of "Nope," the latest in the filmmaker's celebrated career. When Peele, fresh off his hit sketch show "Key and Peele," first told the world that his feature-length directorial debut "Get Out" would be a horror movie, eyebrows were raised. He was, after all, generally seen as an affable comedian whose most recognizable work included parodies of former president Barack Obama and lovers of hotel breakfast foods. But when "Get Out" hit theaters in early 2017, any naysayers were silenced. The movie was, in the words of The New Yorker, a critique of "the insidious racism that lurks just beneath a veneer of white liberal do-gooderism." It would go on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay, with nominations for both Peele and Daniel Kaluuya in the best director and best actor categories, respectively (via IMDb).
Now, with "Nope," the director hopes to take moviegoers on a close encounter of the third kind. Expectations for the upcoming Universal Pictures release are sky-high and will undoubtedly be bolstered by the mostly positive early critical response, as well as the exciting return of Kaluuya to Peele's cinematic world. Kaluuya is joined by Keke Palmer in "Nope," where they play OJ and Emerald, siblings who live on a horse ranch and are beset by alien visitors. (Given the plot, it should come as no surprise the working title was "Little Green Men.")
To date, Peele has remained steadfastly tight-lipped about specific "Nope" details. But, at the flick's Los Angeles premiere, he gave potential moviegoers some idea of what the movie will be, as well as what they shouldn't expect.
Nope won't be an escape from the horrors of real life
If, after the previous two Jordan Peele movies, you expect "Nope" to offer a reprieve from the troubles of the real world, prepare to be disappointed. At the film's Los Angeles premiere, Peele broke his characteristic silence around upcoming projects, noting, "I wrote this movie in a time that we still exist in, where I think many of us would agree it feels like we're in the middle of a bad miracle" (via The Hollywood Reporter).
The "Us" director clarified his vision of the movie, musing, "It's a reflection of all the awful and spectacular horrors that we've been living through." Indeed, in an era of pandemics, protests, and political upheaval, not to mention the cavalcade of other calamities on the pages of the daily news, all of which we have direct access to through the wonders of technology, "bad miracle" may be an apropos term to describe the surrealism of the present. And for a filmmaker whose previous work has been so invested in making explicit the unease that lurks beneath the surface of daily life, pure escapism simply wouldn't be his modus operandi. "If you thought you were going to get a complete escape from the horrors of the world, sorry," Peele said. "It's not that."
However, audiences shouldn't expect "Nope" to be all doom and gloom. Said Peele, "We also told a story about love and adventure, and joy and happiness and agency."