This entire thing is adorable.
(source: The Kalamazoo Gazette, December 20, 1899.)
do y’all think Coriolanus Snow supports gay rights because with a name like that I don’t think he has any choice but to.
da angels 🗣️‼️‼️‼️🗣️‼️ nrw hyperfixation yigpiggoieiepeie!! 1!11
so i found a pitman shorthand translator last night
Arthur Holmwood: oh, so dracula controls rats? i'll handle it
Van Helsing: may I ask how?
Arthur Holmwood, pulling rat terriers out of his pockets and chucking them into Carfax like live grenades: i said i'll handle it
haymitch saying “I don’t drink” hahaha so funny I have a gun in my mouth
Evangelicals don't have a problem with Elon's serial abortions.
Nope
“Nope” wants to have a message that’s present in every character, but also doesn’t want it to be overtly explicit, causing the themes to get lost within characters motivated by outside influence.
OJ Haywood has just gruesomely lost his father in what authorities claim was debris from a plane in the sky. He has also lost a job opportunity for one of his horses to star in a commercial after the film crew irresponsibly fails to respect its boundaries. Now, OJ must sell his horses to a nearby amusement park owner named Ricky “Jupe” Park, who was also a child actor back in the day. While contemplating with his sister about selling the whole ranch to Jupe, OJ notices that one of their horses is acting weird. When he goes to investigate, he sees what looks to be a UFO.
I know that the opening statement for this review looks like a bunch of word vomit, but trust me, it makes sense. Jordan Peele is a director whom I respect immensely. I’ve mentioned that I used to watch “Mad TV” on YouTube with my brother back when I was in elementary school and watched “Key & Peele” in middle school. Seeing Peele’s transition from comedy to horror was amazing because he just does both so well. “Get Out” and “Us” were great movies first and great message movies second. “Nope” feels like it’s trying to be a message movie, but fails to try and make the movie great. When themes like racial microaggressions and social mobility are exhausted in his other works, he’s left with passively scary themes such as desensitization to spectacle. All the characters in “Nope” operate under this theme, but it’s hard to pick up on because the theme itself is so vague. This leads to characters feeling unrealistic because their choices are dictated by this adherence to the theme rather than logic. OJ and Emerald learn about the existence of a UFO and their initial reaction is to catch it on film to become rich. OJ knows good and well that this UFO violently murdered his father right in front of him. I don’t think he’d be too eager to profit off of this UFO. If anything, he’d probably want to report this to the authorities out of anger. In fact, he’s not even angry at this UFO because the character is so muted. Steven Yeun’s character also adheres to this theme in a weird way. He went through a traumatic incident in his childhood, and that’s putting it mildly. Instead of being scarred by it and needing therapy for the rest of his life, he idolizes and monetizes his tragedy. I know some people will try to justify these characters’ actions and tell me that’s exactly what Jordan Peele is trying to point out. The truly scary part is that there are people like this out there. The problem is, that’s a gross oversimplification of what’s really going on, which in turn leads to my dissatisfaction of how the characters were portrayed. This is mostly apparent with the TMZ reporter. The dude gets seriously injured and all he cares about is getting it on video. Same with Antlers Hoist with suddenly wanting the perfect shot. Putting the theme aside, I think there were elements that made the movie itself decent. I thought borrowing elements from “Jaws”, but putting it into the sky was a lot of fun. The sky is everywhere so you can’t escape the monster’s grasp. However, on the flipside to that, the sky is more open than the ocean, so you don’t get the fear of the obscured monster as much. I mean, the movie does it with clouds, but the sky can also be crystal clear. The twist with the UFO didn’t really work for me. Part of the fun of alien invasion movies is finding out about the motivations of the aliens. Finding out that the UFO is the monster boils the motivation down to “it’s hungry”. It sucks too since I thought the scene with the kids dressed as aliens was the best scene in the whole movie. Before it’s revealed that it was just a prank, it was a genuine “Oh shit” moment that had me even saying “nope” repeatedly. Also, I know Jordan Peele didn’t have anything to do with the trailers for this movie, but they were misleading at best and downright insensitive at worst. There’s a shot of a weird looking man walking towards something the crowd is running away from. That shot is not in the movie at all. Then, you have the disfigured lady from the trailer. The trailer leads you to believe that she’s part of the horror of this movie, but it turns out she’s a sweet lady who was horribly maimed. It’s a little insensitive to weaponize that imagery to sell a horror movie, but that’s just what I think. All in all, I think this was a step down from what we’re normally used to from Jordan Peele, but still admirable for being something new. Ultimately, that’s what I want from directors and that’s why I respect Jordan Peele so much.
★★★
Watched on July 23rd, 2022
I also drew some epilogue scenes cause they can’t all be sad!
Burdock showing off baby Katniss at the Hob :,)
Katniss showing up at Haymitch’s house to sell him rabbits after Burdock’s death :,,,,,,)
The Cecil Whig, Elkton, Maryland, August 20, 1870
ruthven is so messy he nursed aubrey back to health after the death of his love for weeks and then got shot and acted like he was gonna die to make sure aburey didn’t tell anyone about him for a year and a day and then went to england and started mackin on his sister while everyone thought he was crazy and THEN got marreid to her on the LAST DAY of his oath and immediately fled the country with his new bride. he could have just killed him but instead he was like lemme make a memory out of this