Nope

With Jordan Peele’s Nope, I can’t help but wonder how much critics — myself included — are inflating its grade out of simple appreciation for an ambitious, original horror film getting made by a studio as big as Universal.

Far from a perfect movie, the tale of the Haywoods — horse-trainers for film and TV with industry ties dating back to the first Black stuntman — dealing with a UFO terrorizing their valley outside of LA starts off painfully slow with the story’s flow further impeded by a seemingly unrelated intro involving a rampaging chimp on a sitcom set.

But once the skies turn dangerous and siblings OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer, Lightyear) start figuring out how to combat the mysterious aerial entity, Nope hits its groove and Peele’s distinct, frightening, yet often playful vision is realized on a gleefully large scale, improving on his past efforts in several regards.

Gone are the overly expository sequences that try to explain the mythology of Get Out and especially Us. In its place are characters merely attempting to understand their otherworldly intruder and outwit it, while simultaneously coming to terms with man’s inability to coexist with or control predators.

That latter theme is further galvanized by the memories of the Haywoods’ neighbor Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun, MInari), a former child actor who now runs western theme park that capitalizes on his glory days. Though the connection wisely remains unspoken, Jupe’s recollections of the aforementioned simian attack by his TV co-star Gordy — and Peele’s expert staging of the tense encounter — help provide context for the UFO’s presence and also hint at how it might be defeated.

The ties between chimp and alien also makes Nope more than just a weird sci-fi/horror film and dark comedy, but it’s most definitely those things as well. Engaging though the human machinations are on the ground — themselves trying in with the Haywoods’ history and continuing their legacy with a new stuntman chapter — it’s the tantalizing sights in the clouds that define Peele’s latest winner and add a command of spectacle to his already impressive filmmaker toolbox.

Grade: A-minus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, Grail Moviehouse, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Universal Pictures)