Nope

A spectacle about spectacles— Nope feels like prime Spielberg to me, and that’s probably as complimentary as you can get— it feels as if Close Encounters of the Third Kind or War of the Worlds and Jaws had this really cool baby and it turned out to be a massive summer blockbuster spectacle. The filmmaking on display here is genuinely insane. So many themes of sensationalism, voyeurism, and the thanklessness of the entertainment industry compiled into a magnificent, huge-scale sci-fi epic filled with so much heart and a genuine sense of wonder. And while it’s surely a spectacle, it’s a spectacle that’s kind of a parable as well, because it really is a film about the power of cinema, about people’s need to document, to record, and to see everything, instead of just experience. Get Out isn’t a subtle film, and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way by any means, it’s absolutely fantastic, but it’s simply not layered with subtlety, as it needs to be. But Nope on the other hand is fiercely critical of show business, well-attuned to how eagerly and insidiously it exploits anyone whose name falls below the line, from the observably marginalized to the truly unknown and the helpless animals, but it never spoons feeding you. It's such an interesting dissection of the commodification of art and how everyone is so quick to make an easy buck on something that they’re filming. So many interesting things it says about art and filmmaking, how it has been modified, and how people aren’t really doing it for the sake of doing it nowadays— they’re doing it for the result, for the paycheck, for the box office. It genuinely doesn’t feel like a 3rd feature from a director, it feels like a fucking 16th. It’s so cynical and subtle in a way that it’s written so mature and feels like it’s a director’s final magnum opus in the latter portion of their career. There’s a reason why we record ourselves crying or pulling out our phones during disasters. Life can be a bitch so at least we should be able to capitalize on all the shit that’s happening to us. But of course, no amount of fame or recognition will give us fulfillment where there is none.