NOPE : Tuesday 16th August 2022.

I saw 'NOPE' earlier this week and this eagerly awaited highly anticipated M Rated American Sci-Fi horror film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele whose two previous film making outings were the highly acclaimed 'Get Out' in 2017 and 'Us' in 2019. The film saw its World Premier showcasing in Los Angeles on 18th July, was released Stateside on 22nd July and here in Australia on 11th August having so far grossed US$117M from its production budget of US$68M and has garnered generally positive critical reviews. The films title was rumoured to be an acronym for 'Not Of Planet Earth' or 'Not Our Planet Earth' based on the movie poster, but Peele later revealed that the title speaks to the reaction he hoped to garner from audiences.

The film opens up with a short clip of the popular 1998 TV sitcom 'Gordy's Home' being recorded on a  soundstage before the titular chimpanzee animal actor (Terry Notary) attacks several of its human co-stars after being startled when a balloon bursts on set. We later see the full extent of the attack in flashback as the show's youngest actor, Ricky 'Jupe' Park (Jacob King), cowers under a table and watches the bloodbath unfold but is unharmed, though naturally traumatised by the experience. The chimp finds Jupe and extends his bloodied hand for a fist bump, before being shot dead by authorities.

We then fast forward to the the present day, and ranch owner Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) trains and handles horses for Hollywood film and TV productions, under the name of Haywood's Hollywood Horses Ranch. One bright sunny day he is out riding one of his horses, Ghost, and is killed by a quarter coin that pierces his eye and lodges in his brain that seemed to fall inexplicably from the sky. His adult children Otis Jr. - 'OJ' (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald 'Em' (Keke Palmer) inherit the ranch. OJ tries to keep the business afloat and protect his father's legacy, while Em seeks fame and fortune in Hollywood, and is happy to sell up. 

Some six months later, while filming a TV commercial with well known and highly regarded cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), one of the horses reacts violently when a crew member startles it suddenly, resulting in the Haywoods being fired from the project. The ranch's financial situation begins to worsen and OJ is forced into selling several of his horses to the now adult Jupe (Steven Yuen), who owns and operates the nearby 'Jupiter's Claim', a small Western theme park and neighbour of the Haywood's, where he exploits his story of the 'Gordy's Home' attack for profit. Jupe offers to buy the ranch from the Haywood's, an offer which Em encourages OJ to accept.

Later the Haywood's notice their electricity supply fluctuating, the mobile phones cutting out and their horses vanishing and violently reacting to a seemingly unknown presence. OJ is the first to see in the clouds above the ranch an unidentified flying object shaped like a flying saucer that has been swallowing up their horses and spitting out any inorganic material, which caused their father's death. Motivated by a desire for wealth and fame, the siblings decide to document evidence of the UFO's existence, and engage Fry's Electronics (a big box consumer electronics store) employee Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) to set up surveillance cameras around the property, all pointing up towards the sky. One night while monitoring the night sky, more electrical interference and a praying mantis on one of the cameras prevent them from securing any clear footage. The next day as Angel secretly monitors the footage from his workplace he observes a nearby cloud that never moves. He rushes over to the ranch with his video footage and together they draw the conclusion that this is the place where the UFO is hiding. 

Jupe starts up a new live show, the 'Star Lasso Experience' in Jupiter's Claim and plans to use a horse, Lucky, as bait to entice the UFO, having previously fed it the horses he had bought from the Haywoods. In front of an audience of about forty made up of  his staff and paying guests, he says that for a number of consecutive Friday evenings at 6:13pm the UFO manifests itself from the skies above. The UFO duly arrives about a hour early and quickly devours Jupe and the whole audience. OJ draws the conclusion that the UFO is not a spaceship, but a predatory, territorial creature which eats anything that looks directly at it. Utilising similar methods to those used to break and train horses, OJ believes they can influence the creature's behaviour to capture footage of it without being killed themselves. They call the creature 'Jean Jacket' after the first horse that Em learned to ride, and they then decide to hire Holst for assistance. Holst initially refuses, but eventually reconsiders after hearing about the Jupiter's Claim incident broadcast on national news that has the Police and authorities baffled as to how forty or so people can just disappear en masse. 

To avoid Jean Jacket's adverse effects on electronics, Holst brings a hand-cranked IMAX film camera to capture footage. With Angel, the group of four hatch a plan to bait Jean Jacket and watch a field of inflatable scattered tube men props for electrical malfunctions to deduce its location in the sky above the ranch. However, a TMZ reporter trespasses onto the ranch and despite being asked to turn around and go back from whence he came by Em he continues onward with his own hand held camera. He is thrown from his electric motorbike when it suddenly powers down within close proximity to Jean Jacket. He in turn is devoured by Jean Jacket while laying injured on the ground but not before begging OJ to film the event. OJ rides off from the scene on Lucky. Though Holst captures footage of Jean Jacket, he lets himself be eaten along with his smaller hand held hand cranked camera, forcing the remaining three to flee. Angel survives an attack from Jean Jacket by wrapping himself in a tarp and binding it with barbed wire, causing the creature to unfurl from its saucer shape and into something more resembling a jellyfish.

OJ lures Jean Jacket away from Em, while she rushes to Jupiter's Claim on the downed motorbike immobilised by the TMZ reporter, and untethers its giant balloon cowboy mascot. She uses an attraction's analog camera located in a wishing well to photograph Jean Jacket as it flies directly overhead and attempts to consume the balloon, which then explodes seemingly killing it. With the picture as proof of the creature's existence and reporters pulling up, Em sees an unharmed OJ ride to Jupiter's Claim on Lucky. 

'Nope' is Jordan Peele's third feature film making outing and here once again he doesn't disappoint, providing the viewer with a mash up of Sci-Fi, horror and Western genres that when combined offer a film that is bigger than the sum of its parts. It is action spectacle writ large with stunning cinematography, just the right amount of humour, a cast on its A-game, and a thrill and chill ride that will maintain the attention throughout its 135 minute run time that never leaves you wanting. The film is entertaining, fun and offers up a few well placed jump scares, despite the ending feeling rushed toward and leaving a number of questions unanswered. For me, 'Nope' gets a resounding Yep!

'Nope' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE NICE GUYS : Thursday 26th May 2016

'THE NICE GUYS' which I saw on the opening day of its Australian release is Directed and Co-Written by Shane Black and having received its Premier at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month, it's US release on Friday 20th May, and arriving on our Australian shores this week, this odd-couple buddy comedy mystery film set in late-70's Los Angeles has so far received much critical acclaim, and US$24M from its US$50M outlay.






Starring Russell Crowe as Jackson Healy a street smart, hard hitting shoot first ask questions later enforcer for hire who is fighting his own demons including keeping off the alcohol, struggling with the way the world is changing and fearful he's getting old before his time, and who seems to be relationship phobic except with his tank full of fish. He lives in a bedsit above a bar, and that basically is his world, wrapped up in a blue leather jacket that is so well worn it could probably stand up on its own.

Then there is Holland March (Ryan Gosling) - a down on his luck worse ex-cop ever private eye who comes with his own set of baggage including teenage daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) whose smarts more often than not keep her dad in check, an alcohol problem being rarely seen without a stiff drink in his hand, an aversion to the sight of blood - especially when it's his own seen pouring profusely from his cut wrist, and dodgy investigative practices that if it weren't for his daughter would see him on the wrong side of the law more often than not.

The two join forces unexpectedly to track down a missing young girl Amelia Kutner (Margaret Qualley) following the tragic & untimely death of a porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio). Hired by the porn stars grieving aunt who claims to have seen Misty alive following her alleged death, March takes on the case realising that there might be a link to the missing girl. It turns out that the missing girl is not really missing at all, but is just AWOL not wanting to be discovered by her mother Judith Kutner (Kim Bassinger) a high ranking official in the Department of Justice who claims her daughter is delusional and suffering paranoia. It turns out that Amelia and Misty Mountains were making an 'experimental' porn film together - part porn and part investigative expose about the LA smog and the car manufacturing giants that have contributed to it through exhaust emissions - that they plan to air unannounced at the upcoming LA Auto Show. Amelia hires Healy to get March of her case, which is how the two odd-balls come together in the first place although it doesn't end so well for March, but they soon come to realise they need each other.

The pair quickly learn that there are equally dangerous unscrupulous individuals hot on Amelia's trail too including the Older Guy (Keith David) and Blue Face (Beau Knapp). and that there is much more to this case than simply a missing person, as various persons of interest wind up dead during the course of their investigation. These include young Dean - the film maker whose house mysteriously burnt down with him in it, and with it the roll of film containing the 'experimental film'. Additionally, the money behind the film, financed by Sid Shattack - a king pin in the LA porn scene at the time, winds up very dead too with his face smashed in and discovered by accident one night at the bottom of a hill, that March tumbles down while at a party.

While Amelia pops up at various points in the film being very elusive, we learn that there is a second roll of film stashed away somewhere, that possibly Misty's aunt may be able to lead them to given the earlier claims she made to having seen the porn star alive after being reported dead. They visit Misty's house and find secret projection equipment, and deduce that the Aunt must have seen an image of Misty projected onto the wall in the house, and therefore a second roll of film is confirmed. But there are various nefarious crims closing in on the trail, including a hired hit man John Boy (Matt Bomer) who will stop at nothing to take out Amelia and prevent her from going public about what she knows, and well as Older Guy and Blue Face. The web of intrigue deepens as Healy and March, following a shoot out with John Boy, seek to bring the matter to the courts based on what they know - that the government and the media joined forces to down play the automotive industry's part in exhaust emissions and suppressing catalytic converters, but they have no evidence and so their case is dismissed.

Everything hinges on real evidence, and so they question Chett (Jack Kilmer) a young projectionist who worked on the film with Misty, Amelia and Dean, who they find beaten up in a dumpster at the hotel where the LA Auto Show is having its opening night. The other thugs have already got to him and he tells Healy & March that he has spliced the film into the opening presentation film which will be projected from a hotel window down onto the screen below. The chase is on to get to the projector and the film first and prevent its broadcast, and as both sides clash there are inevitable deaths before the roll of film is saved and the evidence secured. Whilst the case comes before the courts it is dismissed  and the Detroit car companies are not held guilty, and Judith Kutner is found not guilty of any cover up claiming she was acting in the best interest as a mother for her daughter and stating too 'what is good for Detroit, is good for America' . . . if only she could have seen thirty years into the future!!!

Crowe and Gosling clearly share an onscreen chemistry that make this an enjoyable and engaging romp through a late 70's LA that delivers conspiracies, thugs and underworld crims, violence, moments of humour and a touch of noir that round out the package quite nicely. Both show off their comedic talents well, and in this respect Gosling is the surprise in all of this as he does so with pathos and in an understated and believable way. While Crowe is perfectly at home with his bully-boy no-nonsense style - the two riff off each other in a fear and loathing yin-yang kinda way until the end when their exploits on this case bring them together as they launch their new investigative agency - 'The Nice Guys'! Certainly worth the price of your ticket and I can see that if this does well enough, there could well be a sequel in the offing!

  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-