The film boop (well no) begins with a sequence that perfectly sets the tone and tenor of what is to follow. We see OJ and his elderly father Otis, a rancher, exchange a few trite words interspersed with looks that say more than the words spoken. As OJ drives home, a mysterious rain of small objects falls on the paddock where Otis is riding. At the hospital, an X-ray shows that a coin pierced the latter’s skull, killing him. Where does this unusual shower come from, or rather, enough to does it come from Jordan Peele’s new production quickly answers that question.

In fact, the first act is barely beginning when OJ sees what can only be a flying saucer in the sky. The stealthy apparitions of the ship sucking in people and horses are also observed by Emerald, OJ’s bohemian sister, who cruises through the ranch.

It should be known that the brother and sister work in parallel with Hollywood shootings for equestrian scenes. As we learn, the company was founded by the late Otis to honor the memory of an ancestor who was the very first human to appear in a series of animated images. Which sequence is inspired by the series of chronophotographs by Eadweard Muybridge The horse in motion (1878): One of the sequences shows a black jockey walking in boopthis ancestor becomes a pioneer of cinema.

It’s Emerald who explains all of this to a uniformly white and obviously disinterested film crew just before the start of the first act. In this case, this “meta” passage is neither anecdotal in terms of content nor form. Jordan Peele immediately places OJ and Emerald on a stage in front of a green screen, the symbol of special effects blockbusters, while the team listens to them in the background: blacks in the middle, whites on the periphery, in an inversion of the Hollywood model that changing slowly but remaining dominant.

Great performers

In short, in this real “special effects blockbuster” that combines western and science fiction, the stars are two black actors and the main supporting roles are played by actors with Latin American and South Korean roots. As the fifth wheel of the carriage, they have a white partner in the third act. Jordan Peele makes no secret of the fact that he makes “social thrillers,” as he recently recalled diversityand the very distribution of boop represents a statement.

Beyond the message, the interpretation is fundamentally impressive. Daniel Kaluuya, discovered in exit, Jordan Peele’s first megahit where racism is literally appalling, is fabulous. His OJ is a young man of few words who has aged before his time due to immense responsibility. Silently, he also displays an often hilarious slime during the most tense moments. The opposite of OJ, Emerald is verbomotor and cannot stand still, and Keke Palmer (hustlers) is priceless in the role. The same thing for newcomer Brandon Perea, tasty as a conspiratorial salesman in an electronics store.

Steven Yeun (walking Dead, chaos) is given a subplot that Peele insists on, but fails to tie into the rest of the film. It follows a monkey’s antics during the disastrous filming of the final episode of a situation comedy starring Justus.

So there’s this “trained” monkey in the past, and these “tamed” horses in the present, each time for the purpose of filmed entertainment… Obviously, Jordan Peele is trying to convey a different message, even trying to feed them It’s not one of those Metaphors whose secret he has, but this part remains unfinished, vague.

Uncomfortable in between

The same applies to the extraterrestrial entity. If Jordan Peele has no problem determining what this visitor wants from somewhere else, and the answer turns out to be as simple as it is logical, then the director’s propensity to imply – here by a cryptic take, there by a drawn-out inappropriately – that this extraterrestrial Schiff “represents” something larger, confining the film to an uncomfortable in-between, between misfires Independence Day (independence Day) and the brain Arrival (The arrival). not seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Dating of the third kind) want.

There are many spectacular, harrowing (that night trip to the stables!) or wonderfully weird scenes, but these are interspersed with lengths where the depth of the message is probably intended to emerge.

What is this flying saucer (which takes on a ridiculous appearance at the end) a metaphor for? Humanity sucking up the resource and spitting out its waste and choking on its own plastic? Who knows. At least Jordan Peele spares us the over-declarations that plagued the second half Us (We). To choose the disjunctions and imperfections of boop are more interesting.

To see in the video