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Us, 2019
As a child, Addy (Lupita Nyong'o) wandered away from her parents and saw something horrific at an amusement park. Now all grown up, Addy is on vacation with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and her children Jason (Evan Alex) and Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph). But things take a sinister turn when a family shows up in their driveway. A family that looks very familiar.
The great peril of making a film that is obviously about something is that you run the risk of an end product that isn't very scary and with an allegory that falls flat. I thought that, for the most part, Us avoided this pitfall, with both its scares and its commentary landing pretty well.
On the scares front, the film delivers on performances and set-pieces that are genuinely frightening. Amusement parks and home invasion and doppelgangers are all horror staples, and they are used effectively. The performances all land, anchored by Nyong'o in the lead role. The movie also showcases Peele's comedic sensibilities, and it very much has his handprints all over it.
The subtext of the film works out pretty well. I did feel at times that it was stuck in an awkward place between the general and the specific. The idea of an
Overall I thought that the film looked great and generated a good deal of tension. While the last 15 or so minutes lean a little exposition heavy and raise a lot of questions about the film's statement on class and privilege, I found it to be a satisfying watch.
Us, 2019
As a child, Addy (Lupita Nyong'o) wandered away from her parents and saw something horrific at an amusement park. Now all grown up, Addy is on vacation with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and her children Jason (Evan Alex) and Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph). But things take a sinister turn when a family shows up in their driveway. A family that looks very familiar.
The great peril of making a film that is obviously about something is that you run the risk of an end product that isn't very scary and with an allegory that falls flat. I thought that, for the most part, Us avoided this pitfall, with both its scares and its commentary landing pretty well.
On the scares front, the film delivers on performances and set-pieces that are genuinely frightening. Amusement parks and home invasion and doppelgangers are all horror staples, and they are used effectively. The performances all land, anchored by Nyong'o in the lead role. The movie also showcases Peele's comedic sensibilities, and it very much has his handprints all over it.
The subtext of the film works out pretty well. I did feel at times that it was stuck in an awkward place between the general and the specific. The idea of an
WARNING: spoilers below
oppressed, literally underground group of people finally rising up to take their share of the world is an interesting one. The "others" all bear signs of a harder life---scars, mental illness, perpetually startled expressions. The film is taking on not only the idea of the plight of the invisible underclass who suffer while at the same time having their faces rubbed in the lives of those more privileged, but also the notion that successful people are "born better". The entire film is taking aim at the idea of moral superiority of the middle and upper class, and at times this even means implicit criticism of its protagonists.
Overall I thought that the film looked great and generated a good deal of tension. While the last 15 or so minutes lean a little exposition heavy and raise a lot of questions about the film's statement on class and privilege, I found it to be a satisfying watch.