Another genre-straddler, Jordan Peele’s third feature has its hands in a few different pots this time around. The movie follows OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer), siblings who run their family’s horse-wrangling business in Hollywood, and their attempt to document evidence of a nearby UFO seemingly stalking their farm. Part horror movie, part thriller, part epic, “Nope” is the sum of its parts for sure, but where it shines the brightest is in its thriller moments. In fact, one could argue that the film’s second half is reminiscent of Steven Spielberg, if Spielberg directed a stone-cold extraterrestrial thriller.
The genre label also speaks to the film’s pivotal scenes with Gordy, a seemingly superfluous (at first) subplot that chronicles a hellish misfire on the set of an old sitcom where a primate actor snapped and murdered several of his co-stars. In a horror movie, we might actually see the terrifying details of these murders — but in a thriller, we linger on the feeling in the room instead. Peele does a great job of managing tone and tension within the film’s high-octane plotline, and he crafts a thriller that is sure to withstand the test of time. Hell, it might even be his best film yet.