Nope is a movie directed by Jordan Peele and released in July of 2022. It was extremely well received, making 171 million at the box office. The movie has had a gratuitous amount of critical acclaim and hardly needs anymore. I will be doing this anyway.
The movie is a masterpiece, and one of the best movies to come out this decade. It explores a lot of ideas surrounding the entertainment industry. Through Steven Yuen’s character, we see the lines between entertainment and genuine trauma. It shows how with the rise of easy, fast media, like YouTube or TikTok, it is easier than ever to make a commodity out of our own traumatic experiences. Through this idea, it shows how we as a society pursue spectacle over everything. We eat this traumatic content up, liking it, sharing it, and giving the creator more incentive to do more. This is shown to us in the movie through the TMZ character. Jordan Peele literally critizises the audience for taking entertainment from the traumatic (albeit fictional) experiences these characters go through. I cannot explain this more without spoilers, so please just go watch the movie.
Another thing the movie does well is use terror versus horror. Horror is the effect you get when you see something gross, offputting, scary, etc. This is the sort of thing horror movies like The Conjuring rely on. Terror, on the other hand, is the feeling you get from dread, imagination, and filling in the gaps. You don’t have to actually see the horrifying thing to be filled with terror- you can imagine what it is, and what may happen. Often, whatever your imagination comes up with is endlessly scarier than whatever the author/director could. This is the feeling that things like the Monkey Paw and Nope rely on. Nope rarely actually shows you what it is you’re to be afraid of- it shrouds, hints, uses artful lighting, etc. This creates a much more apprehensive environment than something like Lights Out can.
The movie draws amazing parallels, is endlessly complex, all the while using terror to keep you immersed and interested. I give it a 9.5/10.
