Nope

As Peele reconciles with his new status as an auteur of black storytelling, he dives into a new direction that dares to question the very foundation his films. Nope criticizes the Hollywood film industry, and it’s white American viewers, who profit off and consume black trauma as a spectacle—while Black people remain poor, ignored, and fighting for their lives. I love that just as we thought we knew Peele, he pulls a fast one on us with a new style and an unexpected message. While it’s a shame the clever satire went over most people’s head, the movie still stands on it’s own as an entertaining-as-hell blockbuster. —————— In Nope, we see a Black brother and sister living with the trauma of a film industry that disrespected their family and a father who was killed for trying to make money while Black. They are haunted by an alien, given the very American name Jean Jacket, who represents American viewers (or “The Viewers” as Jupe calls it) consuming trauma in its way and turning it into a spectacle. In the most unforgettable scene, we see a monkey—a  common slur for black people—reach it’s breaking point and fight back. He feels a kinship in Jupe, an asian child actor exploited for white viewers, and spares him. Unfortunately, like for many Black Americas, fighting back leads to the monkeys quick death. Jupe make it through life for a while but carries his trauma with him. Never able to fully process his childhood, his desire to be the spectacle, to perform for white people, eventually kills him too. There is only one way out: refusing to watch the spectacle. OJ and Em avoid looking it in its eyes and are finally able to take it down. Notably, Jean Jacket was dangerous for everyone—no matter your race. When it came for Jupe it consumed the audience watching, when it came for OJ and Em it consumed the TMZ reporter. Everyone would have been better off killing the spectacle when they had the chance, but it took Black people fighting for their lives, and filming it for proof, to do it.