Us (2019)
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Us Movie Review
Us is a 2019 horror film directed by Jordan Peele and starring Lupita Nyong’o. Although overly ambitious for its own sake, it’s still admirable as this high-concept, sophisticated genre film.
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“Ophelia, call the police.
OK. Playing “Fuck tha Police” by N.W.A“
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It follows a black family being violently chased by a family of doppelgangers. It’s obviously reminiscent to the ‘Twilight Zone Season 1’ classic episode Mirror Image and it’s never as creepy as that episode, but still the director took a different approach with more politics and answers which I ultimately liked, even if it is ambiguous and even pretentious in a way.
I personally found this movie to be a superb social commentary on privilege above everything else. And it’s a great take on the importance of environmental factors when it comes to one’s upbringing. It showcases how marginalized people would be just as successful in life if given a chance. It also portrays the conflicts that arise between those privileged and underprivileged among the marginalized groups.
I personally like that explanation best and I found the movie the most sophisticated if it is about privilege whereas in terms of racism overall it’s yet another vaguely themed, lazy film. I found the film thematically very rich and intriguing and also very sophisticated, but at the same time it’s somewhat forced, pretentious and the ending itself felt like a major exposition.
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I am talking about the movie’s somewhat problematic structure in that the first act is a strong build-up, but the second act is literally one giant action sequence overdrawn to an entire act and the third act is entirely an exposition. It’s an odd structure which doesn’t really work, though individually I did like all three parts as the action is a lot of fun, the ending is intriguing and the beginning itself truly is unforgettable and instantly iconic even.
Let’s talk about the characters themselves. For this type of movie, the character development should have been better. They’re solid, but they should have been even greater and I wanted a bigger emphasis on each family member-doppelganger duality. But still all of the four actors did such a good job that I liked each one of them. And the family dynamic is truly superb here.
Winston Duke did a fine job in his role, but I found the husband overly clumsy in the end. The kids are great, especially the proactive girl. And of course I loved the protagonist’s role and the twist that the original one remained trapped down there in the sewers. It’s a very interesting twist that worked for me and it led to a complex relationship between the two and a truly terrific, complex, dual performance from Lupita Nyong’o.
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Us is respectably directed by Jordan Peele and I do respect his vision here a lot, but he needs to learn how to write a most polished third act and a more well rounded movie overall as he made a similar mistake in ‘Get Out’ too. But this is still a better, more interesting movie than its predecessor and it flew by for me how purely engaging it was. I loved the dialogue, its weird quirks and details, the cinematography and its terrific, one of a kind score. The humor is also absolutely superb and the funny one-liners exchanged among the family were so endearing to me. In terms of the horror elements, they are great, but more creepy than truly disturbing.
Us is an overly ambitious movie for its own sake as it crumbles upon too many ideas and not enough strong execution as the third act, though fascinating, felt too much like an overlong exposition. But it truly is a powerful metaphor for privilege above all else and I found that theme well explored. Lupita Nyong’o is excellent in her dual role and even if the character development isn’t the greatest, this family is wonderful and I loved their amusing dynamic with the film’s humor being excellent. Even though it’s flawed, nobody could deny its powerful opening sequence and a superb concept.
