Nope

This has been a record of some kind: over the past week, I’ve seen three movies in theaters.  I won’t leave you in suspense – the best, despite flaws, was B.J. Novak’s Vengeance and the worst was Jordan Peele’s Nope, with Elvis not in the middle because it’s far better than Nope, but still second to Vengeance.

All share a similar theme though: In part, each film is a reflection on a culture of watching rather than living or engaging. In a way.

Let’s go in chronological order.

I saw Nope last weekend with my youngest at a very nice theater out in Laramie, Wyoming – this one, part of a Wyoming-based chain, it seems. The seats were large and well-spaced, and the building was even decorated with old movie posters – and the concession prices were just a tad cheaper than what you’d find down here. I was impressed.

Not with the movie, though. I’m a fan of Peele’s comedy with  Keegan-Michael Key, but I’d not seen any of his films. Having heard great things about Get Out at least, I was open to this one, and what else to do in Laramie that night? Not much.

Well, it was a mess, and here’s why. Peele clearly has a Theme – and he made that come first, before coherent storytelling.

But even the Theme – or Themes – is a bit messy. Is it about exculsion in Hollywood? The impact of trauma? The ways in which popular culture consumes us and watching becomes our primary reality, rather than, you know, reality? All of the above, it seems, and combined with disjointed storytelling, in the end, none of the above.

There were aspects I liked – basically the framing, first of the main characters’ history and background as the descendants of a Black jockey caught on early film, running a horse-training farm for the movies. I also thought the character Ricky “Jupe” Park – a former child actor of Asian ethnicity who’s now operating a rather sad Wild West attraction nearby – and his horrific backstory were intriguing and suggestive.

I really liked both of those aspects, as well as the creepy sitcom backstory. All different, all interesting, all good.

But here’s what I didn’t like – or perhaps just didn’t understand about Nope. Without spoiling too much, here you have this alien form which is eating people. Scooping them up and consuming them (but only when you look it in the “eye” – directly engage with it). Our characters/heroes figure out what’s going on, and determine to – get it on film. Not stop it. Not save people’s lives as soon as possible – but to film it in action (with decoy victims) and then profit from the resultant fame. Stopping the creature as a result is briefly mentioned, but it’s not the primary goal. And even in the end – again, trying not to spoil – the victory felt is really in getting the image, not possibly bringing the creature down.

First of all, dramatically, this sucks a lot of dramatic tension right out of it – if they’re not trying to actually destroy the creature or explicitly save people’s lives – I care a lot less about what they’re up to and how it turns out.

Secondly, that whole effort isn’t framed in a way that I understand what it really expresses about the characters. I’m not saying Peele needs to tell me what to think about them, but honestly my first reaction to their reaction was not sympathetic at all. Was I supposed to view these actions were heroic and worth cheering on? Or were these actions presented as a way of either critiquing contemporary culture, which is all about recording and profiting from it, rather than actually getting involved or as an expression of the impact of trauma?

My gut reaction was to take the determination to capture the creature on film for profit rather than bring others into the effort to combat it and save people’s lives as a critique – but it’s not framed that way at all, rather as straight up heroism.

I actually could see the film playing effectively with both themes –  we are disconnected from each other, we exclude each other from community, which then deepens disengagement and leaves us with nothing else to do but watch images and be consumed by them. But, dramatically it seems, the fighting back against all of that past and present has to be rooted in a recognition of the problem, not an embrace of it.

That is, fighting that monster has to come from an understanding of the damage it’s done to us and a determination to stop that – not just make on more Instagram about how problematic Instagram is….

Well, that escalated quickly….I’ll do the rest in separate posts. I guess.