Film It's A Movie
.To start with, I thought that Peele's previous film Get Out was okay, something not necessarily warrant of a high score, but it was a fun watch. With Us...it was..okay. I feel that this is another example of hype killing a film. For the most part, I liked the performances of Winston Duke and Lupita Nyong'o. The kid actors were also pretty good, not annoying as most cases are with child actors. The Tylers' actors were fine. The double performances that the actors had to do when getting into their Tethered role was impressive.
As for anything else...I'll just admit it, the writing was not good for this movie. While I appreciate that it wasn't going to be about race as Get Out was, there is always a meaning to a film even if it's unintentional. The problem here is that Peele was juggling too many plot ideas. I mean you have the numerous allusions to Jeremiah 11:11, the rabbits, the fact that the Tethered lived in tunnels that were abandoned. The Tethered is an interesting concept on paper, but the issue is Peele seemed to not know what he exactly wanted when making these creatures. I've heard theories that they could represent second-class citizens who were wronged by society among other alternate interpretations, but the Tethered's nature is hard to process. There is an explanation given to the doppelgangers' existence, but the problem is it borders on the realm of absurdity. Get Out had its out there premise of brain transplantation but it was still in a relatively realistic setting. Us on the other hand goes so far pass the point of believability, it takes me out of just accepting what the film is.
Another issue I had was the comedy. While Get Out had comedic moments, they never eclipsed the horror. With Us, there are several moments that are meant to be scary, but they are undermined by comedy. Winston Duke's character for instance doesn't work so much for me. He is supposed to be that stereotypical hip dad that embarrasses the kids, but with Gabe, I felt that he was more annoying to an extent.
Lastly..the twist. I won't give away what it was at first, but when it happened, it irritated me. While it doesn't ruin the movie, it is utterly predictable. From just the first trailer I saw the twist coming from a mile away and I hoped that Peele would wisely opt out of it. But we got it, and it is forever instilled in the audience's collective brains.
It's not a bad film. On the contrary, it is entertaining. The soundtrack is good. However, I feel that the writing has too many holes in it, which is a shame because Peele received an Oscar for his screenplay of his directorial review. The Tethered could've been interesting and probably gone up there with the likes of Skarsgard's Pennywise or the Babadook. Instead, it is a major disappointment. This film should not be compared to Get Out as it is its own thing, so when you decide to watch it, try to keep the lingering comparing it to Get Out film at bay.
Film Stop Running with Scissors
Having only just watched and thoroughly enjoyed Get Out a week ago, I was super excited to learn that Jordan Peele's next movie, Us happened to be already out in cinemas. All that I knew about the movie going in, and all that you should know, is that its about a happy family who encounters a corresponding family of strange doppelgangers. It's a straight up horror movie, and the exact kind of thing I needed to restore my faith in the genre.
I moan about it a lot, but horror movies had been stuck in a rut, wherein every big release seems to be about the same boring, bland, white yuppie family, moving into a huge creaky house. Maybe their creepy children get dragged around by ghosts, maybe someone will get possessed by demons. Then the movie ends on a jumpscare that teases a sequel. Ugh, I hate this! Us feels like a breadth of fresh air, despite secretly recycling a lot of familiar horror elements. It might have its own stereotypical rich family, for instance, but these ones don't behave like complete morons for a change; as soon as they realise the situation they're in, they knuckle down and take as much control as possible. Similarly, this family may be trapped in a big, fancy house for much of the movie, but this house is a modern, well maintained, brightly lit structure that contains a harrowing amount of glass.
As with Get Out, the film is fantastically cast and well acted. Lupita Nyong'o is front and centre as both the action mum and her villainous reflection, and the movie asks her to do a lot of things that could easily look goofy and silly if it were any less well performed. In my audience, there was no inappropriate laughing. I love horror movie audiences because they're so responsive that the cinema experience becomes participatory. Even in a bad movie, they'll laugh at rubbish acting and jolt at cheap scares, and seeing everyone else do that is part of the fun. In Us, my wife got such a shock one scene, she yelled "FUCK!" out loud, and yet it didn't break the tension because everyone else was reeling from the same scare. Also like Get Out, this movie throws in a lot of humour along with the scares. Us goes a step further down both routes; characters will crack jokes at otherwise inappropriate moments, often right after a really scary sequence. Some people might find the tonal shifts jarring, but I felt it only added to the human element.
Us may have some interesting underlying social and political messages to think about afterwards, but it's strength lies in being a very solid genre movie. The less you know about going in, the better. And even though you will almost certainly guess the final twist within minutes of the movie starting (its the first thing you think of when you are introduced to a story about identical twins), there is a ton of mystery and intrigue that will carry you through to the end. I give Us a thorough recommendation.
Film A very strong metaphor under a slightly shaky surface narrative.
As with Get Out, I didn't watch this film blind, but I still enjoyed the experience.
Adelaide Wilson had a bizarre experience at a fair when she was young—she ran into an identical doppelganger of herself. As an adult, she is deeply uncomfortable on the beach, despite her family's enjoyment vacationing at her old summer home. Then the Wilsons run up against a whole family of their copies, right after Adelaide began to panic about her shadow coming back for her.
This is a well-crafted slashery film with Peele's skill for imagery. The Tethered are instantly iconic antagonists in their gear, and the film is shot well. The acting is also fantastic given the use of dual roles. Lupita Nyong'o runs the show as Adelaide and her wildly different copy Red. Nyong'o is a relatable protagonist and a terrifying antagonist, and both of her characters become much more layered and fascinating as the film progresses.
The film discusses class oppression and how privilege benefits even passively from the subjugation of others. The Tethered are an underclass forced to suffer while normal humans prosper. The film runs strongly enough on this class commentary, but it shines for blurring it dramatically later on. There's tons to analyze about how the lines can warp and reflect upon themselves, making the mirror motif very strong. At the end, the film leaves so much to analyze about the conflict at hand that it's easy to forget—likely intentionally—the greater problem, in both society and the film's fiction. I also like how much sense the Tethered's MO makes in this world.
Yet the mechanics of the Tethered seem shaky. Sometimes they work one way, sometimes another, and a key moment of backstory was lost on me, as I couldn't tell what the inciting upheaval of the dynamic actually was. The logistics of the Tethered's existence are also weak. Get Out was small-scale enough to make its fantasy work, and I think Nope marries monster rules with social metaphor much tighter. I also think the film's final drops of information come later than they should, and could have been successfully placed earlier for a smoother experience. Us is far from bereft of conversation points and commentary, though, and the message still reads.
I respect how this film comes up with so many social questions, even if it's not the tightest.