Us: Movie Review
Directed by Jordan Peele
Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker
When Jordan Peele shed his comedic stigma with his directorial debut Get Out to smashing commercial and critical success, all eyes were on the director to see if his next work would prove to be a sophomore slump or show further promise for the director. Thankfully Us proves that Get Out was no fluke: Peele has a distinct directorial style and a knack for delivering thrills and horror while continuing to incorporate a mostly black cast that never feel stereotyped or out of place. While Us doesn’t feature the kind of sociopolitical message that Get Out contained, it does provide a similar amount of crazy thrills. This being said, there are some issues with the film, and while it’s not perfect, it’s definitely an interesting concept explored with varying results.
Whereas Get Out was more of a psychological thriller, Us presents itself mostly as a slasher film. The basic premise is that a family goes on vacation only for their vacation to be violently interrupted by doppelgangers in cultish red wardrobe. Peele definitely makes this effort a whole lot more violent than his previous film, as this film more than earns its R rating in the blood department, though the violence on screen never feels exploitative or otherwise gorey for gore’s sake. The tone also feels more serious and dire this time around, but there are occasional bits of dark humor sprinkled throughout. While get out had muted blues and dark greys in its color pallette, here Us presents a whole lot of red, not only in the gratuitous amounts of blood, but in the wardrobe of the characters and the film’s different environments. Michael Gioulakis, a rising D.P. for horror films, shows increasingly talented camerawork and his collaboration with Peele here hopefully won’t be his last. Finally, the score features a children’s choir and some interesting ambient percussion peppered with hip hop inspired tracks that make the film feel unique and help perpetuate the uneasy tone, while still maintaining enough of a sense of familiarity to make the audioscape feel seductive and darkly tempting.
Unfortunately, unlike Get Out, my main complaint with this film lies in its narrative, particularly in its third act. It feels like the film rushed its third act considerably, and I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, but the film did a great job of showing and not telling the audience what was happening up until the last twenty minutes, whereupon the story gets overly expository and ending on developments that fall apart upon closer examination. Marketing for this film perpetuates the idea that “you will be thinking about Us long after you’ve seen it,” but I was left thinking about it in terms of trying to make the whole story make sense around the final reveals. The ending did retroactively diminish my enjoyment of the film slightly, but it did not prevent me from appreciating it and enjoying it as an entire experience. I suppose the ending the film was going for was far riskier than his first film, and even though it didn’t quite pay off, it was admirable in its ambitions.
While its tonal consistence is arguably improved from Peele’s predecessor, Us has narrative shortcomings that made me enjoy this less than I feel I enjoyed Get Out. It’s a decidedly different film with its own themes, however, and despite the consistent comparing of the two films, they each stand on their own in Peele’s quickly flourishing filmography. I’m excited to see where Peele goes from here, as he’s made two horror thrillers that have been winners so far. I would definitely recommend seeing this in the theater, as its shortcomings in narrative don’t eliminate enjoyment from its audio and visual splendor. It’s a fun watch and definitely better than the average horror film released in theaters today.
P.S. — I somehow got through this review and forgot to talk about the acting. Everyone was great. Lupita Nyong’o was amazing and Oscar-worthy. She’s so good that she won’t be nominated for anything. Tim Heidecker kind of overacts in a certain sequence in the second act, but everyone else was pretty good. I can’t complain too much about this aspect.
Verdict: See in Theaters — Matinee
Disclaimer: I review movies based on a 5-tier scale: See in Theaters-Full Price, See in Theaters-Matinee, Rental, Wait for Streaming, and Skip It. If a film is released straight to VOD or streaming, the rating will simply change to either Stream It or Skip It. If you disagree with this review, I encourage you to watch the film and as always, make up your own mind about it. Am I wrong? Am I spot on? Let me know in the comments below!
