REVIEW: NOPE

4/5

Yep.

130 Mins. Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Wrenn Schmidt, Barbie Ferreira & Keith David. Director: Jordan Peele. 

Close encounters of the third Jordan Peele film in his twilight zone (after the groundbreaking 'Get Out' and the real, revelatory 'Us') sees the former sketch-comedy duo star pulling no punches after last years 'Candyman' production. Nope. Nope. 'Nope'. All the way to a bloody fist-bump for this Monkeypaw science-fiction slash horror, instant classic that begins like the dawn of a 'Planet Of The Apes'. Right to the tip of a hauntingly upstanding, delicate plimsoll that shows us that this is anything but child's play. 

The TV sitcom call-sign for 'APPLAUSE' is no longer illuminated in neon, as all the audience members have made their way to the exits with panic, as blood runs through the stage. Red raw like the later step-to-step nod to fellow classic Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' as crimson rains on a farmhouse in the peak of the plains like something out of a Stephen King page-turner. Heeere's Jordan! Don't call this monkey business going apes###, laying waste on cast and crew,a crazy chimp. He's not that type of primate. Like Chris Rock said (no stranger to people being pushed too far on the attack) like Siegfried and Roy referenced here, "that (monkey) didn't go crazy. He went (monkey)!" The crazy was when he was dressed like one of his brothers off a PG Tips commercial spot. 

After this genuinely terrifying howl-fest, more foreboding comes raining nickel coins and other metallic items (keys...and all that other stuff that security guard from 'The Matrix' asked of Keanu and Carrie-Anne before he got what for) from the sky somberly like shrieking stones in 'Carrie'. And that's where we lose one of the best actors of our time, Keith David. In a truly harrowing and heartbreaking moment, engaging you in a movie of jolts that affords more than cheap jump scares.

Leaving his once upon a time in Hollywood horse providing ranch (not Spawn) in the capable hands of his kids. Son, Daniel Kaluuya, reuniting with 'Get Out's' Peele after winning the Academy for 'Judas and the Black Messiah' and acclaim for the crowning 'Queen and Slim' and 'Widows'. Missing out on the 'Wakanda Forever', 'Black Panther' sequel to go deeper in this (besides, this guy copped an Oscar for playing a real Black Panther and Messiah in Fred Hampton). And daughter from Harvey, Illinois and one of Time's most influential people of 2019, the show stealing Keke Palmer who's having a career year after starring on Chris Evans' left this summer for Disney and Pixar's 'Lightyear', now steaming on Disney +. Now dancing to classics, as the turntables warp in another iconic use of classic tracks to score this shudder inducing stage and state. 

Save this horror however, for the IMAX big-screen it belongs on in all its unsettling sound shaking you to the core and eyes playing tricks on your vision. All for the man whose horrors like a King hide real human ones as he shows us 'Us', telling us to 'Get Out' with those simple scares in his social commentary that sends a real shiver down our collective spines. This one looking at our greed in the face of tragedy need for recognition, information or just outright curiosity that killed you know what. And this one really scratches, even though we won't let it out the bag. Bet you thought a UFO couldn't scare you anymore like 'The X-Files'! Well, guess again, Mulder and Scully for this well, well, well reveal we simply won't Spider spoil in this snapshot. The greatest alien movie since Denis Villeneuve's 'Arrival' served up on a flying saucer is a deeper dish. 

Chasing to chronicle this apex predator like 'Jaws', sandwiched between the best blockbuster of the year in 'Prey' and Idris Elba's 'Beast' (if just here in Japan, released this weekend, just in time for Halloween, which is under the bed closer than you just around the corner think). This movie also stars a 'Burning' and brooding Steven Yeun and his wife Wrenn Schmidt. A child-star surviving the walking on all fours dead and now looking to be the greatest showman for this big boy Jupiter's Claim main attraction whose theme park already became a real part of Universal Studios before this movie even came out (now you know just how big this picture is). And you thought his childhood sitcom beginning backstory seems too close to the bone to not be true. 

Not our planet earth. This movie teases its title out of its audiences mouths like an incredible as always Kaluuya as OJ (yep, and what?), an actor who makes you work for his art, just like he does. Wrangling a Bible verse and showing us the first film star, stuntmen and horserider, all rolled into stampeding one. A black man. 

Five horse-drawn and named chapters bookend this classic that even when giving you red herrings in the barn scares you to the scale-feeling skin like this was '1922' and the rats were at your feet. Full dark, no stars and a cloud that will not move in the sky the cameras of a breakout Brandon Perea (sorry about the girlfriend, we've all been there) are concerned. Maybe he should take some solace with the 'Euphoria' of his co-worker Barbie Ferreira, on fine form. That's why cinematographer Michael Wincott (with a Hollywood voice born for villainy) is on the case as well as a TMZ reporter with no reveal (it's Devon Graye) getting to the chopper in a Daft Punk mirroring helmet. But this third picture gallop from Peele is double-act, and Kaluuya and Keke have a 'Meet The Parents' eye-thing going on, as you watch. You love to see it like 'Avatar'. 

Cloudbursting, some may call this exploitation a "bad miracle". Telling us 'Don't Look Up' like Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill in the Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, Adam McKay Netflix movie. But you will fall in love with this spectacle of this sci-fi western like 'Star Wars' that you just can't take your eyes off as it beams up the couch you try to hide behind. Even if you wish you could look anywhere but there. The appeal of Jordan's trilogy making big-three is now not just one of the best horrors, but the best science fictions and westerns too for this genre bender. One of the best moviemakers in the mainstream. 'Nope' will leave you speechless, or at least without saying what Jordan thought you all would when it comes to this title. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Get Out', 'Us', 'Fire In The Sky'.