‘Nope’ Film Review: The Parts of Jordan Peele’s Latest Are Greater than the Whole

thewrap.com:

“The Horse in Motion.”)The soft-spoken, laconic OJ remains committed to the day-in, day-out labor of maintaining the ranch, while his brash sister has other show-business ambitions.

With live animals increasingly phased out by CG, OJ finds himself having to sell horses to a neighboring Wild West–themed amusement park managed by former child star Jupe (Steven Yeun), who survived a traumatic incident that occurred during the shooting of a ’90s sitcom.That’s before OJ and Emmy come to realize that a UFO is hovering over the ranch, and they set out to make their fortune documenting it. (Jupe, meanwhile, has his own plans for exploiting this phenomenon.) After helping the Haywoods set up surveillance equipment, tech nerd Angel (Brandon Perea, “The OA”) keeps showing up uninvited to help them in their quest, one that will eventually rope in big-time cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott).To say more would be to get into spoiler territory, but “Nope” is a film that spoils itself by creating a rich tapestry of backstory that goes nowhere.

Jupe’s childhood horror makes for some vividly terrifying moments – but then winds up connecting to the main plot just enough for a coincidence-based gag. (Not to mention a pointless exploitation of his horrifyingly injured co-star.) The rules of how one does or does not attract the alien’s attention don’t make all that much sense, and the resolution feels rote and random.Peele remains a master of the suspenseful scene, and “Nope” has several, as OJ and Emmy and company struggle to elude and then later document the alien hovering above.

But as the film strives for metaphor – people in various aspects of visual media battle a consuming force that can be overcome only by not looking at.