The Wait For It Podcast
Late To The Party - NOPE
Are you ready to step into the chilling, suspense-filled world of the film 'Nope'? Late To The Party was inspired by our desire to catch up on some of the biggest films and other media in Pop Culture that we've missed over the years, and for this episode, we talk about this extremely divisive film by Jordan Peele. This 2022 cinematic wonder, despite receiving mixed reactions, had us captivated. We pull apart its tension-building sequences, and the horror elements that both tantalize and terrify us. The disparities between critical and audience reactions are also analyzed, and we delve into the film's inspirations from quintessential films, all the while appreciating Peele's passion project.
IMDb Synopsis: The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.
🔻You can find all important links for the podcast over at https://linktr.ee/waitforitpodcast (which includes our brand new Patreon site!)🔺
🔻BACKGROUND MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
"Extenz - Gravity" is under a Creative Commons license
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://bit.ly/extenz-gravity
🔺
Enjoyed the episode? Have something to tell us? Text us here!
Are you ready to step into the chilling, suspense-filled world of the film 'Nope'? Late To The Party was inspired by our desire to catch up on some of the biggest films and other media in Pop Culture that we've missed over the years, and for this episode, we talk about this extremely divisive film by Jordan Peele. This 2022 cinematic wonder, despite receiving mixed reactions, had us captivated. We pull apart its tension-building sequences, and the horror elements that both tantalize and terrify us. The disparities between critical and audience reactions are also analyzed, and we delve into the film's inspirations from quintessential films, all the while appreciating Peele's passion project.
IMDb Synopsis: The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.
🔻You can find all important links for the podcast over at https://linktr.ee/waitforitpodcast (which includes our brand new Patreon site!)🔺
🔻BACKGROUND MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
"Extenz - Gravity" is under a Creative Commons license
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://bit.ly/extenz-gravity
🔺
Enjoyed the episode? Have something to tell us? Text us here!
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it.
Speaker 2:Gaming. Wait for it, anime.
Speaker 1:Plus Ultra. Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is Wait for it.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait for it podcast.
Speaker 2:I am your co-host, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty. And Eric, we are here with the October edition of Late to the Party and, in you know, true October and spooktober fashion, we are taking on a Jordan Peele film and we're taking on his most recent film, which is Nope Came out in 2022 to a lot of, I think, mixed reception and I don't know that's necessarily the fault of this specific film because of what you know, and we'll talk about that here in just a moment. But you know, when you're coming off, absolute bangers with, of course, get Out, and then Us, which I have not seen Us, but I have seen Get Out, and that will again play into our discussion here tonight. You know it released to some mixed man fare, so I'm excited to see how both of us reacted to it and talk about this film and you know, at the end of the day, taking in anything coming from the mind of Jordan Peele is usually a pretty good call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, 100%. I mean I'm going to kind of skip ahead to this film. I was looking at some of the Rotten Tomatoes and one of the comments here is or I guess what like kind of is a summary is. It may not be the movie you think you're going to get, or even the movie you want, but either way, nope leaves a strong impression as a true Jordan Peele original and that really stuck with me because that's definitely a good way to describe this film. I was surprised there was a split reaction and, you know, a year later, getting to watch it, I'm definitely excited to talk about it and to jump in. It fits the theme of October we were going for. It's a movie that was on both of our radars. I know we've been talking about watching this since it was in theaters, so it was really about time, but we are late to the party.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, as the title of this series entails, so excited to get into it here. Before we begin, want to welcome in any brand new listeners that are checking out the show for the first time. Welcome, thank you guys. So much for giving us a shot and giving us your time as well. If you want to know where the rest of our content is, as well as our social media pages, go ahead and wait until the end of the episode. I'll let you know where all of that is. And for all of you returning listeners, welcome back. Thank you guys. So much again for the continued support, especially our patrons, stefan and Breyer. But for those of you that are either brand new or, if you need a little bit of a refresher, eric, let them know what late to the party is all about, and then we will dive right into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so late to the party was inspired by our desire to catch up on some of the biggest films and other media in pop culture that we've missed over the years. So for this episode we are going to talk about the very divisive note which is a Jordan Peele film. I believe is third, if I'm correct, Phil, and yeah, I also have not seen us for context, I've only seen get out and now no. So it's not really, I guess, a trilogy, but in the sense of this filmography it kind of is. So we're missing that one little element. Still excited to talk about it and, who knows, maybe we'll revisit us in the future, but I'm ready to go. If you are, Phil, what did you like about this film?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, always going to be a fan of Daniel Kalia, whatever work that he is in, you know, starting with get out and then his even his minor role in Black Panther, another solid character that he's done, so always really like that. Kiki Palmer is a star, you know, even though I hadn't seen this film, I did very much like I grow an admiration for her during the press tour. You know, she just has a really, really Outspoken and likeable personality, so I was excited to see her in this, even though I didn't take the dive into no In theaters and usually I don't when it comes to horror films, I'm much more better with those in the comfort of my own home. As I am pretty jumpy, you know, I have to my my favorite thing, going into a lot of some of these series that we watch. There is a website called where's the jump and it lets you know where the jump scares are. So if you're very jumpy like me, I check out that website. You are welcome if you already did not know about it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and I also just really am a fan of Jordan peel storytelling. Now, was this necessarily Something that I'm going to recommend? Everybody will get to that in just a moment. But I just think that Jordan peel is kind of like a generational storyteller and director when it comes to, you know, our generation. And I think, when it comes down to like, his films are going to be Films that are studied. When it comes to building tension and horror and kind of just building a world, I think he's going to be somebody whose work will be will stick around for a very, very long time. So Any opportunity you get again to take in Jordan peel properties, I think again you're just doing yourself a favor, even if nope wasn't necessarily my biggest cup of tea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's completely understandable. I'm right there with you. Kiki Palmer, specifically, was an absolute stand out. She was infectious.
Speaker 1:I also For a lot of the movie, like the slow burn. I'm not always a slow burn kind of guy but I know in like horror in a sense, and I know this isn't necessarily a horror film. But for films like this you're building the suspense, you're building up to the end game. It's it's going to require a slow burn and it no point fill. And I don't know that you felt this way but it no point did. I really feel Board.
Speaker 1:I was always interested to see what was going to happen next. I will also say there's a lot of great imagery here, one of the things that Jordan peel Kind of. Doing my research on it, everyone relates this movie to like a Steven Spielberg ask type film. In fact the word spectacle is used a lot when discussing the themes and just the film overall. And even Jordan peel said this is like his summer blockbuster out of the ones that he's made. So this felt like that and I think for that it was. It worked. You know it really did work it as a whole.
Speaker 1:There is one particular thing I really liked that I'm curious how you felt, but I do want to and I may be missed at the beginning late to the party. We're late to the party, so we're going to speak freely about this movie. There is one big, big, big plot point and really the twist of the film that I'm going to bring up here pretty early on. So if you don't want to hear it, this is probably your pause point. I loved that, this seemingly alien, like UFO movie that the actual spacecraft wasn't a spacecraft, it was an actual creature and I love that element a lot. I was curious how you felt about that twist, because it is, I think great.
Speaker 2:I think that's something that I also kind of came across as far as like taking in some reviews, is that some people were kind of Throw it off or not happy with the fact that it wasn't your typical sci-fi alien film. And I try to think of, like, what are really the, you know, the, the hallmark alien films for like our generation. Like Men in Black is pretty campy and comedy like a rival. Have you seen a rival? I was not the biggest fan of a rival People love that movie but I found it kind of boring. Have you ever seen a rival?
Speaker 1:I've never seen it, but I know people like it a lot, so you're going to make people upset.
Speaker 2:No, people love it. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, amy Adams is great in it, but it's a. It's a talk about a slow burn. A rival is a slow burn. We're watching aliens do cursive. Sorry for the spoiler there, eric, I apologize, but if you ever watch it, let me know what you think. You know there's a rival Mars attacks.
Speaker 2:You know, like, when we're thinking of, I think, like alien movies. I mean, a lot of people are thinking about those types of films and that's not what Nope is going to be. You know, like you said, a very much so a slow burn, but I thought it was cool as well. You know, again, you, when the first time you see it, you're like, ok, typical spherical, alien, ufo type of sighting, and then the final form of it, pretty cool. I also, like you know, you think about the mind of Jordan Peele and you see, like the beginning credits are like, you know the little tunnel. You're like this is something that we know this is going to come into play. This is definitely not just like a random opening to the film. So I thought that was pretty neat. But yeah, really I think that was a cool decision. Again, jordan Peele never does things traditionally and yeah, I like that. I thought it was pretty cool design overall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's an interesting take, because I did like the twist on the alien Did not love, did not love that final form I maybe I didn't understand it. I didn't understand how he got there. It just kind of started happening and I didn't quite understand how. Yeah, jellyfish.
Speaker 2:Is that what it was? I don't know. That's what I was thinking of. Oh, OK.
Speaker 1:That's cool then, I guess. But no, I like when it's still shaped as a UFO. I kind of understand, you know how it works, and I get it like, ok, they suck it up. It's like the mouth when it turns into and it does it randomly Like there's no indication that this thing can do this. I don't know. I kind of I don't want to say it took me out, but it definitely was weird. It was weird and I don't think there was a lot you know around that, but you know, phil, kind of transitioning into stuff we probably maybe didn't like about the film. Because, again, this is a very beautiful film to look at. The filmography and the cinematography I think is really really well done for the most part. There's one part I know you hated, that's Gordy. If you do not know, phil has a, I would say, a rational fear of monkeys, but I think he would disagree, phil. How is that? Because the movies I didn't want to tell you that the movies are Don't understand that way?
Speaker 2:Do we even know and listen? All of Jordan Peele's films are incredibly layered there. A lot of them, of course, are about social commentary. This one felt like he just wanted to throw a terrifying monkey in it. I don't know what purpose that it served, stephen. I mean maybe to build up Stephen Yoon's backstory, his character, his trauma, whatever that was, only for him to just get sucked up by the vacuum later on in the movie.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if that was ever addressed again, but it's like everything that I have ever said about these things was justified in these scenes and, honestly, that was the most terrifying part of the film.
Speaker 2:I know there's the one jump scare later on in the movie, but that whole flashback scene is terrifying and it's exactly why I don't like that we make them so smart. I don't like that we're teaching them to do all these different things between AI and monkeys. Man, we're screwed. If there's like an AI monkey robot or something like that, we're done for dude. I'm not even going to try to put up a fight, I'm just going to give up. So it was an awful, terrible scene and I still not sure what the point of it is. Now I'll probably go back and watch like a YouTube video on Nope and then it'll give me all the subtle nuances on why that scene was important and why we had to know about it and all that stuff. But you know, in the moment and in the now, having watched it earlier today, hated it. I don't really understand why the monkey was in the movie at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I watched it before you so I had some time to kind of go down the rabbit hole and the short story and I kind of felt this because I was also wondering why, why did we have this monkey? Why did we do that for a character you would think the character that Steven Yoon plays just to basically die right, but it kind of incul and I could kind of see this. I can kind of understand it now. They did it to kind of parallel the actual creature as far as like hitting its breaking point and the way that there, the way that it's being treated and things along those lines. I feel like you need a little bit more time in that setting with Gordy and the cast, to make it stick right. So I feel like there wasn't a lot of time to really make that point clear to audiences and I think that's why we're going to see a lot of people, you know, when we go over the scores. Not, I mean, this isn't a universally beloved movie. A lot of people left the film confused, disappointed, and others absolutely loved it. So, by all means, it definitely hit a particular type of audience.
Speaker 1:I think for you and me it was missing layers or we missed those layers while watching it. I will say this movie does feel like if you were to give it another like go, you'd probably catch a lot more. You know, if you really kind of slow it down and you take the time to do it, am I going to do that? Probably not, do it? Should I have to do that? And I think that's a big thing for you and me, phil. Should we have to watch a second movie to get it? Probably not. But there was enough of those layers that worked, for me at least. I just think with Gordy there could have been a little bit more emphasis or a little bit more time for that specific, you know section or just not put him in the movie.
Speaker 2:You know, you can do something else.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I would be here for a Gordy horror movie if we want to put that on display.
Speaker 2:We just saw it. That five minute scene was the horror movie. That's all you needed. It was about another 55 minutes, no, and then the lady was was at. If she, because she survived and you could see her. Oh God, it's awful.
Speaker 1:It did feel like it did feel like the Gordy scenes were there to set up unsettling imagery. So in that sense, again, that's why it didn't quite work for me in the confines of the film, which at its core is, you know, this family on a ranch trying to get a picture of an alien like that's. That's at its core, what the story is about. Obviously there's a lot of underlying themes around that very simplistic, you know plot that I just gave, but where Gordy fit in all that I didn't really think it worked that particularly well. Phil, was there anything else about this film that kind of stood out on a positive or a negative standpoint?
Speaker 2:you know as you, as you just saw this today and it's fresh on your mind, yeah, and again, the only other Jordan Peele film that I have to reference is Get Out. Now I have seen the kill count of us, so I know you know what happens and for all intents and purposes it looks like a pretty action packed film, even for you know Jordan Peele. With Get Out, you know, I think I just obviously a lot of it had to do with the social commentary, but just being gripped by that mystery from beginning to end, while also being really, really scared Again, watched in the comfort of my own home. So it was a little bit more. It was easier to digest, is what I will say, and I just wasn't feeling that here, with nope, like you said, definitely a slow burn to the points where I was a little bored at points, and you know it does hurt me to say that, because we've obviously spoken our praises about Jordan Peele and his filmmaking.
Speaker 2:But yeah, this one certainly missed the mark for me. Like you said, I'm not going to go back and watch this. It would be difficult for me to really recommend this to a lot of people and not to say that it's a bad movie by any, by any means, because, as we've stated here, there are certainly things that we've liked, but having only Get Out and you know 30 minutes of what I've seen from us, this didn't feel like that. You know, get Out, I think, is honestly when I haven't watched many, but Get Out is one of the best horror films that I have ever seen. And this, while being horror adjacent, like I said, it's more sci-fi, more more than that realm. But as far as story and character wise, I wasn't gripped like I was in Get Out, and maybe that's unfair, but when you come out of the gate swinging like he did, then you know people expect home runs and that's not what no was for me.
Speaker 1:Now completely understandable. And you know, phil, I think there's a great opportunity for us to kind of look at the reception of the film and talk a little bit about that with some of the scoring, because, again, we could talk all day. I'm curious where we're going to land with our letterbox score. So we'll save that here, you know, towards the end, after we talk about how everyone else has kind of received it. But I am very curious when we get to that part where we're going to rank it. I feel like you like it less than I do and I think I might like it a little bit more than you think. So I'm curious where those numbers are going to lie. But how did audiences kind of take this? I got to see a little preview and I'm going to be honest, I kind of wasn't surprised when I finished the film and then seeing this, yeah, not surprising whatsoever 83 percent certified fresh on the Tomato Meter score.
Speaker 2:It's funny. You know what I think Rotten Tomatoes is like the PFF of movies, like some people hold a lot of stock and some people think it's absolutely bogus. For those of you sports fans, football fans specifically 83 percent certified fresh tomato meter score, 69 percent audience score Nice. So yeah, 14 percent difference between audience and the critics and, like you said, eric, people coming out of the movie probably a little confused, but then also those people coming out absolutely loving it and that score really shows that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you guys may recall, at the beginning of the episode I talked about, you know kind of that saying that that kind of described one of the viewpoints of this movie, where you know, it doesn't matter what, you don't know what movie you're going to get, and that was what the audience says and that's, according to Rotten Tomatoes, the critics consensus says admirable for its originality and ambition, even when it's reach exceeds its grasp. Nope adds Spielberg yeah, spielbergian is spectacle to Jordan Peele's growing arsenal, and that's what this felt like. This felt like, you know, kind of checking off a box Some of the inspirations for this film. People have brought up things like Jaws, obviously, jurassic Park. People have even brought up things like King Kong and the Wizard of Oz as inspiration. So I feel like there are a lot of things that were kind of brought in. This was probably a passion project and, honestly, I think probably checked a box off the bucket list for the type of movie Jordan Peele wanted to make.
Speaker 1:That movie is not going to be for everyone. I can at least respect, though, his vision, to kind of summarize that point. I can respect his attempt here, and I think that does mean something, you know, especially when it comes to recommending this movie. It's not for everyone, but I do think it's worth a watch. So, phil, that's going to bring us to where you landed on the film out of five on Letterbox. What happened here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, for again, for reference, unfair or not, I have get out as a four and a half on Letterbox, so that is what I gave.
Speaker 2:Get out so obviously very lofty expectations when we look at our Letterbox scores and having to adjust for not doing it out of 10 and doing it out of five, like you said.
Speaker 2:I think it was the very last episode that we watched, or the, the international feature that we watched, you know, where you said a two and a half would be difficult for you to recommend, and that's where I landed is a two and a half, because, again, I don't know that I can recommend this to everybody. I think people that have seen all of Jordan Peele's films yes, absolutely watched this one just to continue to support the director and also continuing to see how his vision is evolving over time. And I don't think this is by any means a sign of things that to come, that things are not or maybe on the decline. That's definitely not what's happening here. It just wasn't the type of film that I was looking for when it comes to, you know, the sci fi and the horror genre. So, yeah, I landed on the two and a half, again, not terrible, but not something that I would watch again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, again, I had a feeling you liked it a little less than I thought you would coming into this, and I think I liked it a little bit more than you're going to think. I actually landed on a three and a half. If I had to, if put a gun in my head and I could change Letterbox point two, fives would exist and this would probably be a three point two five for context. But I think it's a little bit better than a three and a three and a half for me, like I do think it's better than good, although it does kind of lose me. In the third act there are things that happen that are just again, this creature completely turns and changes the whole dynamic of how it moves, how almost how it works. In a sense, you know little little things that kind of annoyed me. Like up until that part I was honestly leaning towards maybe a four, potentially, like I was really enjoying the journey. But that third act really lost me. Things like the cameraman, the director that they get, they get a pretty good shot and he just decides I want a better one and I'm gonna, I'm just gonna die, I'm just gonna die is stuff like that that really kind of took me out and really kind of lowered my score overall. But I think that this movie is one that you could tell people if they're looking for something a little fresh and that has a unique spin or a unique take on it.
Speaker 1:I think there is an audience for this film and I feel like you're not going to know until you watch it. That's why I wanted to make it really clear. One of the first things I brought up was like the fact that the spacecraft is actually a creature. That's a huge, huge twist. That I think, made the movie way more interesting because, from like a animal, tamer perspective that they were going for, there was a lot of cool stuff about that. So again, three and a half, probably a little too high, but we're on. You know we're subject to letterbox scores. That's where I landed. And are you surprised?
Speaker 2:No, because, again, I think, if the.25s were a thing, I think a 3.25 for you is definitely would be on par, because, you know, especially going through this episode, you definitely spoke about it a lot more glowingly than I did for the most part, but yeah, you know, it grossed 172.3 million on a 68 million dollar budget. So, as far as this genre, I believe that that's pretty solid. You know, when you, when you look at horror and sci-fi in general, and just as far as the good will that you know that Jordan Peele has built up, dervis is deservingly so over the, you know, over his film run. So, yeah, not too surprising, but just was not for me. But I'm excited to see whatever he has, whatever he has cooking next.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm doing the lazy thing which is just trying to find the answer on Wikipedia. So sorry, but I guess, I guess it was it kind of like did a little bit, a little bit under what was expected and then obviously a little bit less than what us did previous to that. So I would assume the same thing for get out more than likely. But again, I think a lot of people like this film, a lot of people are spoken.
Speaker 2:What Get out? Had a budget of 4.5 million and made 255.4. Yeah, okay, that's a difference. Us had a $20 million budget, 256.1. So yeah, it was a pretty significant difference from get out and us Again, two totally different tones and films. Get out and us are very, are pretty dark in terms of just the cinematography Nope is out in, you know, in Montana, somewhere, wherever it was California. Actually it was in California about the middle of nowhere, so I always forget that California also looks like that in some space.
Speaker 2:It's not just like Los Angeles in the future.
Speaker 1:And now that you kind of said I don't know why, it just came into my mind Really what I wanted to say to summarize my score, which I'm pissed I didn't say it just right when I when I did it would have been pretty clip worthy. This movie, if you just want to say nope and that's all I told you, this movie would be the movie to recommend. Like.
Speaker 1:I definitely there were a lot of no, there were a lot of no. It did do what it sold you on. And I just say that because I just thought of the trailer. You know we were talking about this movie somewhat being a disappointment. Like, leading up to the movie, there was a lot of hype around it and I know when we saw that first trailer we were extremely interested. So again, if you want to see a movie that makes you say nope, well nope is the movie for you.
Speaker 2:There you go. That sums it up perfectly. It's because there's plenty of nope, moments in nope, so we'll and are we going to see it again?
Speaker 1:Nope, okay, okay, also also that part.
Speaker 2:But there you have it. Guys are late to the party. Episode of nope. What did you think of the movie? Did you enjoy it? Did it exceed your expectations? Was it disappointing? Let us know.
Speaker 2:On any of our social media pages there's a couple of ways you can actually interact with us directly. Two ways are our Instagram and TikTok page, which we are very active, and we have a brand new discord page. That has been a lot of fun. People post in there all the time pop culture, news, what they're watching, or streaming Other episodes from other podcasts from our friends. So it's a great way to interact with us. So it's been a lot of fun in there.
Speaker 2:All of that can be found in the link tree link of this very episode. You can also support the show a little bit more. If you want to head on over to Apple podcast or Spotify, if that's where you're listening, leave us a five star review, tell us what we're doing right, and it's one of the best ways you can support the show. It drives us up those charts and lets those podcast networks know that we are doing a good job over here. And if you want to find yourself, you know, maybe supporting the podcast a little bit more. Eric will let you know how to do that. Yeah, guys.
Speaker 1:So you can go directly to our Buzzsprout page, which is also in the link tree, and you can become a supporter of the show directly and subscribe to us there, or you could take those funds and move it over in the form of Patreon, where we're very active, with multiple tiers that you could take advantage of, including unedited versions and early access to episodes like this one, along with a lot more benefits. Thanks again to Stefan and Briar for supporting the show. We really appreciate everything. Guys. It's going to be an exciting month and we can't wait to do a lot more for the month of October. And, with all that being said, my name is Mr Eric Almighty. That is my co-host, phil the Filipino, and, please don't forget, we release new episodes every Wednesday on the podcast, with bonus content on platforms like TikTok, and all you got to do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:So I heard you're looking for a go to source for entertainment. Wait for it Gaming. Wait for it Anime.
Speaker 1:Plus Ultra. Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino yeah, they've got you covered, and all you got to do is wait for it. This is the wait for it podcast.