‘Us’ Review
Us, is the second film by comedian-turned-horror auteur Jordan Peele. After the softly revolutionary Get Out, Peele had to meet high expectations with his sophomore film. And does it? Well, yes and no. Us is a good horror movie, but not nearly as good as Get Out, if not for any reasons other than Peele's own ambitions. If Get Out was Peele's Halloween, Us is his The Fog, or Christine.
Us, tells the story of the Wilson family: Adelaide played by Lupita Nyong'o, her husband Gabe, played by Winston Duke of Black Panther fame, and their two kids, Zora and Jason. Without spoiling the setup, The family is terrorized by a family of dopplegangers who become known as "The Tethered". As a horror setup, this is pretty dynamite, and as what the trailers showed, it's would seemingly be a mixture a home invasion movie plus scifi-cloning horror. And the film IS that, and more. One thing I appreciate about the film is that the scope is way bigger than the marketing leads on. While the movie probably would've worked as just a home invasion movie, the films aspirations are alot bigger, and it mostly works as a benefit. To explain more would be going into spoiler territory, and it's best to go into this movie with as little known as possible. However, the ambition of the story is also it's biggest problem in my opinion. While Get Out was relatively reserved, even in it's reveal of what's going on, Us is big and grandiose in implication. However, the amount of explanation we're given is insufficient, as it raises more questions than it answers. I feel the story would've worked better if things were explained in far greater detail, or almost no detail at all. There's also a twist ending which I could've done without, as like said, it ends up raising more questions than answers, and personally left me unsatisfied.
On the acting side, everyone is stellar, particularly Lupita, Winston, and shockingly Tim Heidecker in the brief time he's in it. Technically the movie looks great. The cinematography has really evolved since Get Out. This film also has some great music in it. The opening title theme especially, and the dark flip of I Got Five On It.
In the end, Us is a perfectly good follow up to Get Out, even if it's inferior, but even then it's only inferior if you're deadset on comparing the two films, which are ultimately very different in intent. Peele is showing himself to be a revolutionary face in American horror, and what ever weird idea he comes up with next, will automatically draw eyes.
