Nope (2022)

Elevator Pitch: Otis Heyward, his son OJ and his daughter Emerald operate a horse farm out in the hills near LA, providing horses for film and TV scenes. One day Otis is killed by a coin which falls from the sky leaving OJ and Em running the business. They are not successful, so OJ begins to sell the horses to Ricky Park, the operator of a western theme park. We have seen that Ricky as a teenage actor had witnessed a traumatic attack by a chimp on set and now, as part of his western presentation, takes advantage of the event.  They are all aware that something alien is lurking in the clouds and OJ and Em hire a local tech store guy to install cameras which identify the presence of something. Later they induce a documentary maker to join them with the intent of making money from a documentary, but have they taken on more than they can handle?

Content. No sex or nudity or drinking or smoking. There are scenes at on the set of “Gordy’s Home”, where the titular chimp attacks the cast, more or less out of sight, but still disturbing. OJ and Em take a horse to a film set, but it kicks up and they are sacked. The two go about their day to day business gradually becoming aware that there is something in the clouds, and when they hire the tech guy this is confirmed. As time goes on the thing reveals itself as a sort of flying saucer which causes the loss of electric power locally and OJ gradually learns what it takes to avoid being sucked up into it, a disturbing fate of some spectators at the western theme park. 

A View: Saw this yesterday in Madrid. It is early days but it has already made money, possibly in part based on the reputation of the director. It was a slightly bewildering presentation and not all the themes presented were obvious to me, at least in part because OJ and Em talk very rapidly in a sort of local argot. The film relies a lot on the sound which is oppressive and on extended scenes involving the creature, whatever it is. It is worth seeing, and if you are going to give it a go choose the largest screen you can find with the best sound. That’s the way the director wants you to view it.

There are 38 films involving aliens reviewed on this site, a surprising number of them comedies, but those presenting aliens as bad entities which you might not be absolutely familiar with, include: Life, A Quiet Place and The Thing.