NOPE: 3 ½ STARS
The trailer for “Nope,” the new alien abduction film from thriller auteur Jordan Peele, now playing in theatres, is one of the rare promos that gives next-to-nothing away about the plot. It’s meant to pique curiosity, to open your mind to the possibility of… well, almost anything.
The movie exists on the edge of possibility. It’s possible to see it simply as a good-time-at-the-movies UFO flick, but if you’re looking for more, Peele adds layers of subtext to the slow burn story, commenting on Hollywood, corralling nature and the belief in something bigger than yourself.
Set in current day, just outside of Los Angeles, “Nope” sees O.J. and Emerald Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) carry on the family business after the death of their father (Keith David). Descended from the Bahamian jockey who was the first person to be filmed riding a horse, they run Haywood’s Hollywood Horses, a ranch that supplies livestock to film and television shows. “Since the moment pictures could move, we’ve had skin in the game,” says Emerald.
Business is slow, and just as O.J. considers selling some of their horses to a local pioneer village style theme park, owned by former child star Ricky "Jupe" Park (“The Walking Dead’s” Steven Yeun), strange things happen at the ranch. Some kind of disturbance in the force has caused electrical blackouts, weird weather, and puts the horses on edge. There’s also a cloud that hasn’t moved for months.
When O.J. spots something in the sky, something he says was “too fast to be a plane,” Emerald hatches a plan to film the airspace around the ranch to capture film of a UFO. “The money shot,” she says. “Undeniable. The Oprah shot.”
They set up surveillance cameras and, working with tech support guy (and UFO evangelist) Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) and gravel-voiced cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), they attempt to lure the mysterious craft—which resembles a giant sand dollar—to their elaborate trap and get “the impossible shot.”
“What we’re doing is going to do some good,” says Angel. “Besides the money and the fame. We can save some lives.”
Like Peele’s other films, “Get Out” and “Us,” “Nope” has jump scares and disturbing images, but this isn’t a horror film. It’s a sci-fi movie that explores the fear of the unknown by way of Hollywood Westerns—it pays tribute to the doorway shot at the end of “The Searchers”—monster flicks, and of course iconic Steven Spielberg sci-fi films like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” These homages are lovingly assembled to create something fresh, but students of film will have a hoot dissecting the movie’s visual influences and Peele’s obvious love of the form.
Just as there are myriad visual inspirations, Peele has jam packed the film with ever-shifting thematic and plot elements. The straight-ahead alien showdown is prefaced by story threads and flashbacks that don’t always feel like they’re forwarding the story. A TV chimpanzee-gone-wild sequence, for instance, while kind of cool if it was part of another movie, is a bit of a head scratcher.
Having said that, the sheer size and spectacle of “Nope” is powerful. There are only a handful of characters, but their journeys are broad and there are unexpected twists and turns. It’s an ambitious movie that feels less focused than Peele’s other films, but nonetheless, “Nope” earns a yup.
THE GRAY MAN: 2 ½ STARS
“The Gray Man,” a new shoot ‘em up starring Ryan Gosling, and now streaming on Netflix after a quick trip to theatres, overwhelms the senses with an underwhelming story.
The story begins in 2003 with convicted murderer Court Gentry (Gosling) accepting a job offer from a CIA operative named Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) to live in the “gray zone” in return for a commuted sentence. He will be part of the top-secret Sierra program, trained to be a “ghost,” live in the margins and assassinate people who need killing. He’ll be the kind of guy you send in when you can’t send anyone else in. “Take all the pain that got you here,” says Fitzroy. “Turn it around, and make it useful.”
Cut to 18 years later. Gentry, now known simply as Six, because “077 was taken,” he deadpans, is on assignment in Bangkok. On the orders of CIA honcho Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page), he’s there to assassinate an asset and retrieve an encrypted drive. When Six refuses to pull the trigger because there is a child in the way—he’s not all bad!—things quickly spiral out of control.
With the help of CIA agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas), Six gets the disc, but in doing so, becomes a target himself. Turns out the disc contains info proof of unsanctioned bombings and assassinations ordered by Carmichael, in his bid to turn the CIA into his own personal army. Carmichael wants the disc destroyed and to eliminate any traces of the only people skilled enough to expose him, the Sierra program.
But how do you kill the CIA’s most deadly assassin? You hire morally compromised, independent contractor Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to “put a Grade A hit” on Six. To lure Six into his web, Lloyd kidnaps the closest thing Six has to family, Fitzroy and his young niece (Julia Butters). “You want to make an omelet, you got to kill some people,” says Lloyd.
“The Gray Man” is a big-budget, globe-trotting adventure that makes up in exotic locations and gunplay what it lacks in intrigue and interesting characters. Filtered through the endlessly restless camera of Anthony and Joe Russo, the movie has all the elements normally associated with high end action movies. Fists fly. At times it is a bullet ballet. Things explode. There are tough guy one liners (“Are you OK?” Miranda asks after one city-block destroying action sequence. “My ego is a little bruised,” Six snorts), double-dealing and death around every corner.
So why isn’t it more exciting?
The story is fairly simple. It’s the kind of super killer on-the-run flick we’ve seen before in everything from “John Wick” and “Nobody,” to almost any Jason Statham movie, but it isn’t the simplicity or familiarity that sinks “The Gray Man.” It’s the overkill. And I don’t just mean the unusually high body count. It’s the more-is-more, Michael Bay by way of the “Bourne” franchise approach that overwhelms. The story is constantly on the move, jumping from country to country, from time frame to time frame, never pausing long enough to allow us to get to know or care about the characters.
Six is meant to be an enigma, and while Gosling can convincingly pull off the action and deliver a line, he’s basically unknowable; a stoic man with a number for a name. His relationship with Fitzroy’s niece gives him some humanity, but he remains a dour presence in the centre of the film.
At least Evans, as the “trash ‘stached” sociopath, appears to be having a good time. Nobody else does. That could be because there are so many characters, most of which are underused or underdeveloped. No amount of fancy camerawork could make Carmichael interesting. As the big bad meanie at the heart of all the trouble, he’s a pantomime character with only one gear.
More interesting are Indian superstar Dhanush playing a killer who values honour over cash, in his striking debut in a Hollywood film, and de Armas, who does what she can with an underwritten part.
“The Gray Man” is big, loud, popcorn summer entertainment that spends much time setting itself up for a sequel, time that would have been better spent creating suspense.
FIRE OF LOVE: 4 STARS
For 20 years, French geologists Katia and Maurice Krafft indulged in their great love of exploring active volcanoes, cameras in tow. “Katia and Maurice had spent their lives documenting how the Earth’s heart beat,” says narrator Miranda July. “How its blood flowed.”
The Kraffts were the Jacques Cousteaus of volcanology. Their groundbreaking footage and photographs of Mount St. Helens, Mauna Loa and Mount Nyiragongo, among others, are as epic as they are educational, charting otherwise unfamiliar territory.
Filmmaker Sara Dosa uses that material as the basis for “Fire of Love,” a stunning new documentary that captures not only the Krafft’s (ultimately tragic) love of volcanoes, but their love for one another.
Near the beginning of the film, July says, “This is Katia and this is Maurice. It’s 1991, June 2. Tomorrow will be their last day,” telegraphing the story’s tragic end at Mount Unzen in Japan. But before we get there, director Dosa uses 200 hours of 16-millimetre film, archival photos and interviews to tell two stories: one of scientific passion, the other of simple and pure passion for one another.
Visually the film makes an indelible impression. The otherworldly images of volcanoes are breathtaking, like watching pictures sent back from another planet. Dosa enhances the silent footage with interesting foley to awe inspiring effect. These shots, including boating on a lake of sulfuric acid and protective clothing bursting into flame, coupled with thousands of gallons of flowing lava, betray the risks the couple faced every day on the job.
Those scenes are memorable, but it is the relationship between Katia and Maurice that gives the movie real depth. Their bond is evident in their joy, the sheer exuberance ion display. The scenes of them talking are limited to talk show appearances and the odd bit of in-situ dialogue, but their bond as soul mates, living and loving the life they’ve chosen, is undeniable. They are not stuffy scientists, but passionate, funny seekers with a philosophical bent to their understanding of the natural world.
“I have a hard time understanding humans,” Maurice says. “I mean, I am one. I’m not constantly running away from them. But I believe that by living on volcanoes, away from humans, I’ll end up loving humans.”
“Fire of Love” is not just a nature documentary, it’ is something more. It’s a character driven film with stirring images best seen on the big screen of a movie theatre, about the nature of passion.
