Us

I think the trailer we saw for Ari Aster’s new film Midsommar looks scary. I actually did not enjoy watching Hereditary. It’s an excellent horror film, but I’m not a fan of horror. (One scene is just too awful for any parent to enjoy, and I can’t stand to watch someone risk dental injury.)  As a child, I thought Fatal Attraction was scary. And as a parent, I thought Coraline was much scarier than I’d expected.

Us is more like an episode of The Twilight Zone featuring an Academy Award winning actress as the star.

(Speaking of The Twilight Zone, I’m frustrated that I won’t be able to watch Jordan Peele’s reboot right away, but I don’t think CBS All Access has a right to exist. CBS is already a channel. How is an average American family supposed to pay for 800 different streaming services?)

If you want to see something horrifyingly scary, Us might disappoint you. (After a night of sleep, I can now report that it did not give me nightmares.)  But it’s an excellent film, a real showcase for Lupita Nyong’o and a strong follow up to Get Out.

The Good:
Academy Award winning writer Jordan Peele (also the film’s director) clearly wants to create iconic cinematic moments that viewers will remember forever.  The set-up of Us is not only slow and methodical, but it also feels overwhelmingly like a series of memorable tableaux.  We’re shown a young girl with enormous eyes holding a blood red candy apple on a stormy beach.  The reason is obvious.  Yes, these moments advance the plot and establish mood, but more than that, something so vivid and unique is bound to make an indelible mark on the imaginations of audience members.

I can’t tell you how much I respect this kind of filmmaking.  The camera is always showing us something.  The idea is very much that certain images will get stuck in our minds.  Alfred Hitchcock made all his films this way, and he took inspiration from several European filmmakers.

Us reminds me of a Hitchcock movie, and I love his work.

Peele’s use of gripping images in Us is outstanding.  Every frame of the movie is gorgeous and captivating.  Peele clearly intends his film to become a horror classic, and I’m on board with that.  It was brilliant to cast Lupita Nyong’o in this part and to emphasize her large, expressive eyes.

The movie also uses music in amazing ways.  Just like Get Out, Us makes great and inventive use of its soundtrack, and I love the score.  It just gets better as the movie goes on.

I think the story is pretty captivating, too, especially because it’s such a showcase for Lupita Nyong’o.  Even though there are some odd aspects that could seem a little off, it’s very hard to notice or care about these when we’re busy watching Nyong’o play two (incredibly complex) roles.

I always appreciate an exciting movie that begins slowly and takes a million years setting up all the dominoes before “the thing” happens.  (Jurassic Park is my standard.  It’s a nearly flawless specimen of this type of “What could possibly go wro…DEAR GOD!  THE HORROR IS UNLEASHED!” movie.)

With Us, Peele takes his time parceling out little pieces of exposition before the dark mayhem really begins.  What’s really great about all movies is that we usually see only what we’re shown.  Peele really takes advantage of this.  There’s nothing sloppy about this film.  It’s all careful, methodical, calculating even.  And yet, it’s really fun to watch.  I feel like I keep saying this, but for me, Us is the best movie of 2019 so far.  (Maybe 2019 will just be a better year for movies than 2018!)

I keep thinking, “If Daniel Kaluuya got a Best Actor nomination for Get Out, then maybe Lupita Nyong’o can get nominated for this.” (True so many people’s hopes for Toni Collette’s performance in Hereditary turned to broken dreams, but Nyong’o has already won an Oscar, and she seems so visible right now.)  Her performance is as fun to watch as Tom Hardy’s work in Venom, but it’s a much more awardsy type turn.  She’s such a magnificent actress.  I liked Nyong’o’s performance in Twelve Years a Slave, but I find as time goes on, I just love her more and more and more.  Her performance of trauma is something I could relate to.  But as it turns out, this amazing performance of hers is the gift that keeps on giving.  I’m positive it will be even better on a second watch.

I really like Winston Duke, too.  His M’Baku was one of my favorite characters in Black Panther, and here he perfectly captures the Dad who’s just trying to have a successful summer vacation (and life).  At times, he reminded me of my husband, actually, though my husband is far more attuned to my mental health and emotional well being.  He would notice right away if I were having an emotional breakdown (because I’m always having an emotional breakdown.  Life is just one big nervous breakdown with me.  At least I’m exciting.)  What’s funny is that Duke is also playing a double role, and I truly never thought about that until just now.  I guess that means he was doing a good job.  (Well maybe I did think about the difficulty of it for just a second in this moment on the boat that reminded me of Key Largo.)

Elisabeth Moss also has some amazing moments in this movie.  She makes the most of every second she’s given.  Watching adult TV is hard around here, so I’ve never seen Mad Men or The Handmaid’s Tale.  (I have read The Handmaid’s Tale.  A student of mine brought me a signed copy when he skipped my class to attend a Margaret Atwood lecture, which seemed like a sensible choice to me.)  My point is that you can’t call me an Elisabeth Moss fan because honestly I think I’ve only seen her in televised awards shows.  So you can believe me when I say she’s fantastic here.  One scene in which she’s putting on lip gloss seems destined to generate millions of memes.

I also loved the three child actors.  Madison Curry has amazing eyes.  She does little in the film except walk around making facial expressions, but she does that so well.  Her face is burned into my memory.  Shahadi Wright Joseph is marvelous as Zora and her doppelgänger.  Joseph, in fact, is probably my favorite of the young performers.  I keep emphasizing the challenge of playing two roles.  I guess I’m just a sucker for versatility.  Joseph is equally convincing as the chronically exasperated teen daughter and the terrifying twin pursuing her.  And Evan Alex plays two of the most intriguing characters in the film.  He’s really good, too.

Best Scene:
The final scene of the movie is the best by far.  It’s like you get a second movie for the price of one, like the “But here’s what really happened” ending of Clue.  You think you’re all finished watching the movie, and you’re reasonably satisfied with what you’ve seen.  And then you realize you need to go back to the beginning and watch all over again.  There’s a second movie hidden inside the one you thought you just saw.

Best Scene Visually:
It’s pretty hard to top that little girl on the beach with her candy apple.  I feel like every single other scene tries, though.  This movie is just one stunning, arresting visual after another.

Best Action Sequence:
Near the end of the movie, the action escalates. (Hahaha.)  I love the music in these final scenes.  The last big showdown is well choreographed and somewhat breathtaking.

The Negatives:
I think the horror of this film is over-hyped.  I rarely watch horror movies, so for me this was a positive, but some people may be left asking, “So when does this movie get scary?”  It’s scarier than Get Out, though (unless you count the real-world implications of Get Out, which are horrifying).

My husband said, “It would scare you if it happened in real life.”

Well, yes, but it’s not happening in real life (not on the literal level, anyway.  I’m sure a scholar could spend twenty years unpacking this movie).

Just like Get Out, the film is kind of high concept, and it also pays homage to other great movies.  In some ways, it reminded me of Scream.  For me, Us was a more cerebral than visceral experience.  I spent much of the movie trying to figure it out (so I didn’t get too scared because I was preoccupied by my puzzlement).  I kept thinking, “Okay, I know this is telling me something, but I don’t quite see what.”  Then I realized that I hadn’t been given all the tools I needed to analyze the film until its final seconds.

In the end, it’s a bit like an improved version of The Birds because it does finally tell you why (whereas we never learn what the deal is with Melanie Daniels, if it’s even anything).  For that reason, The Birds is probably scarier and more disturbing.  However, I will say that the scariest, most disturbing part of Us comes at the very, very, very, very, very, very end.

As you watch, there are some things that seem to make no sense, but I suspect a second viewing would clear up most of them.

I do think that some of the humor doesn’t land quite as well as it wants to.  Or maybe I was just watching with a surly audience.  (The guy who coughed once at the beginning checked his phone quite a few times.  I think the woman bossing him around constantly had probably dragged him to the movie, and he wasn’t that invested.  Normally that annoys me, but I was feeling very positively toward him since he was kind enough not to be sick after all.)

Honestly, some elements of the plot are a bit out there, but that’s true of most high-concept horror.  And I don’t really care because I’m not watching, thinking, “Does every detail of this plot seem likely?”  I’m watching, wondering, “What is going on with Lupita Nyong’o?”

Actually now my husband and I are dying to watch a bunch of videos of fan theories about some of the weirder elements of Us.  We have to be careful, though, because our daughter hasn’t seen the movie yet, and she’ll be furious if we spoil it for her.  She’s already mad enough that we didn’t take her.  (Perhaps I can appease her by letting her watch season 3 of the Santa Clarita Diet.  That’s also not really appropriate for ten-year-olds, but she loves it.)

Overall:
My husband and I loved Us, the movie that truly begins just when you think it’s over.  If you’re a fan of Jordan Peele or Lupita Nyong’o (or, like me, both) then you must see this movie in the theater.  But you probably already knew that.  To be honest, I can’t wait until I can watch the movie again.