With his first film, ‘Let Me Out’, Jordan Peele has become one of the great promises of recent cinema, triumphing at the box office and winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. With the second, ‘Nosotros’, another critical and commercial success, he has reconfirmed himself one of the most original and inspiring directors on the American scene. With those credentials, Peele has been credited on many occasions with the work of reinventing terror with his filmmaking, a somewhat hyperbolic claim, but deep down he’s somehow right.
In his third feature film, ‘NOP’, Peele continues the path that he himself marked with his previous works. It is another original idea with which he intends to rewrite the norms of genres, in this specific case of science fiction, a third fantastic story with a social message and black protagonists, but at the same time totally different from his two previous works. ‘NOP’ would be approximately a reinterpretation of the summer blockbuster that reformulates action cinema from a completely unique and personal perspectiveapproaching alien invasion stories with an unprecedented perspective.
The less you know, the better
As in the case of ‘Let me out’ and ‘We’, and perhaps in this case with more reasons, it is advisable to enter ‘NOP’ knowing it as little as possible in advance. As a brief synopsis to situate the story, we will say that the film follows two brothers with opposite characters, OJ and Emerald, who live in a lonely ravine inside California, where They make a chilling discovery in the sky, which soon turns into an unexpected and unpredictable threat..
The brothers are played by Daniel Kaluuya, who he repeats with Peele after being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for “Let Me Out”, and popular Keke Palmer (“Scream Queens”). They are joined by Brandon Perea (“The OA”) as an electronics store clerk who helps them decipher the riddle behind the clouds and Steven Yeun (“Burning”) as a former child starring a traumatic past that now serves as the director of a western theme park located near the residence of GU and Smeraldo.
The threads that connect the story gather influences from different genres and directors. The film it juxtaposes the western to science fiction and, like everything Peele does, is full of tension and suspense, with chilling moments of terror sprinkled especially in the first half of the movie. But above all, ‘NOP’ offers its own version of summer action cinema, with self-confessed – and very evident – inspiration in Steven Spielberg’s cinema (Peele cited ‘Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ as references) and ‘ Signs’ by M. Night Shyamalan. It also detects traces of disaster films from the 1990s (“Twister”), the more recent “The Arrival” and even “The Wizard of Oz”, as well as serving as a tribute to classic American television.
But the good thing about “NOP” is that Peele manages to bring together all those inspirations under a unique and defined vision, his own, reimagining the show cinema that we have been consuming for decades to give it a new approach in which it is arguably his most ambitious and spectacular work to date.
show with message
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Jordan Peele movie without his social media message. The director has made a name for himself with his personal brand of social thriller and in ‘NOP’ he once again uses the fantasy genre to reflect on important issues. In this case, and surprisingly, the film is built as a Hollywood critical allegory addressing how the industry treats its creatives, claiming and making visible black workers and artists who have been erased from film history despite their contributions, also affirming itself as a metaphor for the cinematographic process itself, establishing an interesting game of mirrors between the director and the protagonists in search of the perfect shot. Somehow, Peele also includes the theme of childhood fame (and its aftermath) and even allows himself to launch a direct dig at the tabloids, much in the wake of what Shyamalan did with the paparazzi in “Girl in the Water.” “. The subtlety is evident in its absence, yes, but the messages come loud and clear.
Going back to the plot, ‘NOP’ is divided into two different parts. The first hour is a live masterclass, with Peele managing expectations comprehensively and effectively as he composes his shots. History tells us what an ugly miracle would be like, which makes us fall a disturbing nightmare in which confusion and uncertainty reign as we discover what lies behind the clouds and their intentions. The mystery wields and Peele knows exactly how to shape it, with an impeccable and elegant direction, beautiful wide shots (the film was shot in IMAX and it is recommended to watch it in the best possible technical conditions), exceptional sound design and absolute mastery of the advance.
The second hour, however, develops more openly as a big action movie, a hit show where the scale increases and Peele brings out the Roland Emmerich in him. And that’s where it comes from the main problem of the ‘NOP’, which the more it teaches, the more it risks losing the viewer. Peele chooses to show the secret explicitly and clearly, and from that moment the tension subsides considerably. To compensate, yes, this threat turns out to be something tremendously unusual, an invader that shatters expectations and manages to reconfigure what we’ve seen so far.
Incoherent, but memorable
As for the cast, it must be said that both Kaluuya and Palmer respect, but here to bring the cat into the water is Yeun, who builds an enigmatic and mysterious character that leaves one wanting more (his intervention knows little and there c ‘is were more layers to peel), e the revelation of the film, Brandon Perea, which brings comedy and energy to a character who, at first, could have been very much in the background. Kaluuya and Palmer’s scenes are best when Perea is in the equation as well, highlighting a humor that on this occasion may not shine as much as in “Let me out”, but still leaves good moments.
In relation to Yeun’s plot, ‘NOP’ also exhibits some structural problems. Peele is a storyteller full of good ideas that work wonderfully on their own (Yeun’s flashbacks are chilling and go a long way in creating the unease that defines the film), but they don’t always integrate well. There is a lack of connection between some elements and the plot takes a bit more logic in some jumps that Peele uses to move forward without worrying too much about explaining what happened.
However, these are details that do not spoil the visceral experience of witnessing the unfolding of that ugly miracle that sees us on the edge of the seat in the first hour and with an open mouth in the second. “NOP” is mainly about the idea of capturing the show in front of the camera, and that’s exactly what Peele does.who, inconsistencies aside, has once again designed a film worth living on the big screen with which he offers us something as familiar as it is unheard of and which, like his previous works, will hardly leave anyone indifferent.
‘NOP’ captures clichés in a way never seen before, which, in today’s cinematic landscape, not much can be said. Its value as an original film is enormous and reconfirms Peele as one of Hollywood’s foremost directors today, but best of all, as well as providing something different and refreshing, it fulfills its purpose of functioning perfectly as a summer getaway and film show. . Only in this case Hollywood does not stay in the comfort zone, but offers us something much more risky, fodder for debate and potentially divisive. That means, cinema that is not in the theater, but accompanies us beyond the vision.
Note: 8
The best: The suspense of the first section, its impeccable staging and the originality with which it refocuses the genre.
Worse: He loses tension when he starts teaching too much and there is a lack of connection (and cohesion) between the various parts of the film.
Source: E Cartelera
