Nope

Après le présomptueux Us, dans lequel la critique et la métaphore sociales laminaient le fonctionnement du film dans son ensemble, Jordan Peele revient, dans Nope, à une idée simple enchâssée dans un spectacle de genre fonctionnel, tel qu’il l’avait fait avec Get Out. Et il a reproduit parfaitement ce charme spielbergien où l’on s’émerveille devant l’élément surnaturel, avec des touches mesurées de comédie, des moments d’horreur glaceuse de sang et, surtout, de l’aventure. Un film d’aventure aussi épique avec en plus l’impression de vivre cette aventure exclusive avec les personnages, ça faisait longtemps ! Pour moi, c’est clairement un pouce en l’air. Avec ce film, Jordan Peele se dévoile-t-il en génie du septième art et en maître du film d’épouvante, comme les médias américains et la critique essaient de le présenter ? Pas du tout. Mais est-il un cinéaste intéressant et talentueux dont la filmographie vaut-la peine d’être suivie ? Absolument. (10/09/2022)

Pour un spectateur qui connaît le talent de réalisateur de Peele ainsi que les limites de son écriture, Nope est exactement le genre de plaisanterie annoncée par la bande-annonce. Peele sait filmer pratiquement n'importe quelle scène de manière engageante. Cependant, quand ces scènes, qui durent cent minutes, n'évoquent que peu de choses et que certaines d'entre elles n'ont aucun sens significatif pour une histoire déjà peu dense (l'Asiatique et le chimpanzé), cela devient simplement une manipulation superficielle. Le mélange inhabituel de motifs de genres de Peele (ici la science-fiction d'horreur et le western) peut sembler audacieux et original, mais dans un film qui veut effrayer mais en même temps est en train de balancer vers la parodie, la vision créative est perdue. Nope se situe quelque part entre Get Out, qui reposait sur une idée géniale, et Us, qui était une absurdité ridicule. (28/08/2022)

For two thirds the film is a compelling, engrossing and carefully constructed horror-thriller mystery that kept me engaged as the characters struggled to get to the bottom of the mystery. This part of Nope, which I was very pleased with, culminated in a magnificent night scene with "blood rain" that made me glow with bliss and consider awarding five star to a horror flick for the first time in a long time. But, as you can see, I didn’t go further than three. Because the film then turns into an action charade, where you don't care about the characters and just try to catch the design of the weird contraption and figure out if you like it or not. And what shocked me above all is that it doesn't actually come to anything. After his previous two films, you'd expect Jordan Peele to be ... smarter than that? Us may have been logically leaky, but I found its social references were very stimulating (and that goes twofold  for Get Out). There's nothing like that in Nope, or I don't see it there at first. Many people, often dismissively, refer to Peele as the king of "elevated horror", but this is, in the end, more or less an ordinary genre film. In the space of half an hour, the film shoots two or three banal ideas (what people are willing to risk for fame and success / the fascination with tragedy / the stupid notion that man can tame everything), which it then repeats to the point of foolishness, but doesn't take them anywhere. I don't want to sound overly critical, Nope is definitely nice to look at, it has a number of impressive scenes and it's certainly a good film to see in the cinema, but after the excellent first two acts I can't help feeling disappointed at the end. (17/08/2022)

Siblings OJ and Emerald are struggling with a failing farm, their own relationship, and now with something hiding in the clouds, and as it soon turns out, it's pretty damn dangerous. Only how do you expose this thing, which is good at hiding and doesn't like to let witnesses in, to the world? And how to survive it? Jordan Peele delivers a science fiction film that doesn't quite work in the first half, and he as a director doesn't quite manage to build the tension as well as he might have liked. But he makes up for it all with the final act, when the humans and the mysterious something from the clouds have a fair fight. The closer we get to the end, the smarter and more entertaining Nope gets. And it looks really beautiful. But Peele still can't do real fear and terror. (17/08/2022)

Best UFO movie in decade? Nope. Actually god damn YES! Jordan Peele is back and will once again divide audiences into two camps, though this time he'll get a bigger ovation than he did with the overrated Us thanks to the awesome material. Peele is a bit unconventional here, the social undertones aren’t as intense as in his previous films, there is a fair amount of humour and there are considerably fewer symbols and metaphors, yet he's made a unique and impressive genre film that again isn't as horror as it could have been, but I'm very pleased. Nope is definitely a horror film that manages to win the audience over with its strong cinematic aspects, and it looks really beautiful, especially in IMAX. The cinematography by Hoytema is a masterpiece in itself, some of the shots are breathtaking (and that's not something you see often in the horror genre), and the casting is great. Kaluuya is good, but next to Keke Palmer he seemed slightly like a shadow, because here she gives perhaps the strongest female performance in 15 years (emotions, screaming, speech, voice), an absolute acting tour-de-force from an unknown actress, whom I immediately want to see somewhere else. The music is well chosen and especially the atmosphere works fantastically, it's very uncomfortable, creepy, weird and unnerving in places. There are quite a few exciting and spectacular horror scenes that I will remember in the future (The chimp, a house covered in blood, a horse's head in a car, the digestive process of the villain and the screaming of the dead still ring in my ears). I'm perhaps only the final act away from a full score, which ironically is weaker than the previous ones (most people complain about the action-packed finale, but I wouldn't call it so, you can immediately imagine a spectacular Secret War style alien massacre and it doesn't really happen). I just wasn't sure if I liked the final scene or not, but you can't deny the creativity. Peele will definitely be making horror films in the future and I'd quite like to see a slasher or pure ghost story from him. Better than Arrival for me. Story 4/5 Humour 2/5 Violence 3/5 Fun 4/5 Music 4/5 Visuals 5/5 Atmosphere 4/5 Suspense 4/5 Emotion 4/5 Actors 5/5 Total: 8/10. (22/08/2022)