I’ve had a few days to process this film since seeing it opening night (in Dolby!!) and I’m still stalling to write this because I don’t even know where to start. This movie was an experience, and you should go to into it as cold as possible to get the full effect. Not because there’s major spoilers, but because you shouldn’t have any preconceived ideas of what it is or means. But if you still wanna hear some thoughts on it, here we go
Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke are parents taking their two kids on a nice family vacation. The town they’re visiting is near a beach where Mom Adelaide had a traumatic experience as a child, that she has repressed for years. After a day of fun in the sun, they find a family trespassing on their property. That family, all in red jump suits, look strikingly familiar…
Writer/director Jordan Peele is the real deal and this movie was legit scary AF. Normally in order to really get to me, I hafta feel like the situation is inescapable. Looking at it logically, not so much. But Peele makes it feel like it is. I don’t clearly see a way out. Then add in some really creepy imagery that has haunted my dreams ever since. There are few filmmakers who can do this to me.
Another reason he’s so successful at the scares is because he’s a funny dude. You don’t wanna maintain a constant high level of anxiety. It’s not sustainable. What you want, is moments that make you laugh and calm you back down, so that when the next scare hits, it’s taking you from zero to sixty on the anxiety scale. A lot of the funny came from Winston Duke’s really dorky dad. I loved him so much, talk about #dadgoals
This film was gonna be under a lot of scrutiny because Get Out was a horror movie thinly veiling a metaphor. Would Us be a similar social thriller? Peele insists it’s straight up horror, and watching it, yeah it was. I’m so creeped out (especially when the Dolby seats started vibrating at key moments, or when that super haunting score kicked in) I wasn’t even thinking about a deeper meaning. When it ended, I felt like there was one there that I wasn’t seeing. As I’ve marinated on it, I do see layers and levels to the story. There’s still so many questions I have about the world on the surface and the meaning behind it. I don’t think I’ll ever get all the answers, but I find those make the best movies. The ones that don’t ever let you go because you need to keep thinking them thru. So once again, Jordan Peele, mad genius, has made another cinematic masterpiece.
Us – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/