Paulette Moore

So, I have some time to reflect on Nope. I feel ready express what I believe Jordan Peele might have tried to reveal in his brilliant film. There may be some spoilers. Some of the info in this review may have come from interviews I looked up to help me understand the movie better. I apologize for not using the correct citations. But hear we go!!! I believe that the death of Otis Haywood Sr. represents a dying generation of baby boomers who provided for us and protect us from harm. OJ and Emerald represent Gen Y. They are unsupervised for the first time in their lives so anything goes. They have experienced more trauma than my generation x. We experienced the space shuttle challenger explosion in real time in our youth. I was in the 4th grade and I really didn’t know how to react to the situation. Anyway if you watch the Gordy’s Home opening theme on YouTube, you will see the space shuttle everywhere. One character has a space shuttle t- shirt on and the mom has on a space suit. And the center of the whole show is this chimpanzee named Gordy. In fact in real life there was an incident with a woman who owned a chimp. It went crazy on her friend and ate the friends face off. No one knew what the lady looked like until after extensive surgery. It was horrifying to see the poor woman’s face like the face of Jupe’s costar on Gordy’s Home. The real life event became a spectacle when the chimp was shot. The owner was mad at her friend who’s face was mauled. The owner accused her friend of wear something that could have set the chimpanzee off. I believe there was a civil suit against the owner, but I don’t know the full details of what happened after surgery. Gordy’s Home immediately took me back to that event that happened in our youth. So art imitates a life and a tragic spectacle from the 80s or 90s. Now Unlike Gen X, Gen Y experienced Columbine, 911, Sandy Hook, and the list goes on. Gen Y’s response to these horrific events leaves them numb like OJ, obsessed and traumatized like Jupe who was almost a victim of Gordy the chimp, and Emerald who was down for exposing this spectacle by any means necessary. After the spectacle at Jupiter’s Claim and the blood bath on the Haywood Ranch, you would think think that OJ and Emerald would give up the Oprah shot. NOPE they didn’t. In fact they devised a risky plan to earn fame and fortune with these pics. In the last scenes of the film, could not take it anymore. I wanted to see some adult supervision from a baby boomer or Gen X’er. I needed someone to say to say “STOP 🛑 THIS FOOLISHNESS. THIS IS TOO DANGEROUS FOR YOU”. But there wasn’t and it made the movie terrifying yet beautiful at the same time. I had to sleep with the lights on for 2-3 days but it was worth it. This is a must see movie on IMAX and definitely go to a matinee. Y’all I may go see the movie again. There is a lot to take in. I look forward to seeing more of Jordan Peele’s work.