In a 7.22 Variety piece, Oscar handicapper and identity-celebrationist Clayton Davis has actually poured water on the notion that Jordan Peele‘s Nope is an Oscar contender. “In the land of the Oscars, major Nope attention for best picture, director and original screenplay appears out of reach”, Clayton says.
He also states that Peele “is surely in store for the most polarizing reception of his career, as the film’s visuals and narrative beats will divide critics and audiences.” Translation: Clayton isn’t much of a fan.
Peele is obviously not “our modern-day Alfred Hitchcock,” as Davis contends. Because Peele hasn’t the slightest interest in or aptitude for the art of creating suspense. Nor is Peele a skilled “organ player” of audience emotions, nor is he a master montage guy who uses carefully deployed editing and precise camera movement…basic Hitchcock tools. Nor is he an explorer of anxiety and uncertainty or dreamy moods. Peele is nowhere near Hitchcock, c’mon. At best he’s a black M. Night Shyamalan, as he mainly delivers racially-stamped spookers. And even a charitable reading of Nope wouldn’t compare it to Signs, which is at least ten times scarier.
So now that the HE community has seen Nope, what’s the verdict?
HE review excerpt: “No discipline, this fucking film. It’s ‘imaginative,’ if you want to call it that. [But] when Gordy the chimp appears, the film comes alive. What Gordy has to do with the dumbshit rascal white-oppressor aliens is anyone’s guess.
“Steven Yeun costars in Nope, and I couldn’t understand why he was in it. Yes, he has something to do with Gordy (I won’t say) and he wears a red suit and a big white cowboy hat in one scene, but he has NOTHING to do with anything.
“I need to re-watch this movie with subtitles some day.”
