Jordan Peele writes, produces and directs his third success in a row with Nope, in which the excellent Daniel Kaluuya plays a down-at-luck Hollywood horse wrangler dealing with very strange goings-on at his isolated desert ranch. Clues are as usual seeded cleverly into the long slow-burn first two acts, in a film which doesnot necessarily go quite where you expect. At times gloriously disorientating and with some striking images, Nope is also a masterclass of sound and visual composition, with excellent building of tension and suspense. Kaluuya gives another perfectly-pitched performance, with Keke Palmer having real presence as his more open and sassy sister. The film never goes full-tilt horror as a couple of sequences suggest it could, and the finale seems a little low-key - in keeping with the film as a whole, however (this is more Arrival than Independence Day) - but the overall concept works well and the movie entertains and impresses.
