Us - Review Thread

That's fine, but it still doesn't explain how the other doppelgängers broke from their trances or why the "intrinsically linked" idea never fully comes into play.  Shit, would've been awesome if BOTH of them had burst into flames, that would really be emphasizing the idea of "Us" would it not?  But nope, plot holes instead, lack of rules, lack of consistency.

Sure, we can assume that "Red" broke them of everything and leads them to all enlightenment through the resistance, but Peele has to show us something.  There's too much implied here, and even then it doesn't hold up.    

Haha, he was great, the family dynamic is the best part of the movie.  But once we realize none of the main characters are in danger of actually dying, the terror is largely gone.  Hitchcock killed off Marion Crane, why can't Peele kill off the one character of the four that actually could die?

That too.

Killing off Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss is expected. Peele needs to get bold and kill his Marion Cranes. Everyone keeps labeling him as our generation's Hitchcock. Well, prove it.

I think it's good, but far from great. In the wave of sequels and comic books, I applaud Peele for his original concepts and ideas. It is refreshing. And as of this post, I think I like it better than Get Out. As a horror movie, it's pretty solid.

Some really good sequences, namely at Tim Heideckers house with their doppelgangers. Perfect use of the Beach Boys. The opening sequence with in the house of mirrors, another good moment. Tons of great visuals, and it the setting provided for a cool aesthetic. Part of the problem, though, is that outside some of these scenes, none of it ever felt to scary, which is kind of important for a horror flick. It was tense and hitchcockian at times, but I never really felt the family was in danger, or there wasn't one scene that was jump out of your seat scary.

In the half in the bag review above, they discuss how this so effective on a visceral level, with tons of great visual moments, and to a certain extent, you can't focus too much on the logical aspect.

That's fine, I can take that argument, but I do think the some of the story elements feel rushed and/or forced. Lupita Nyong'o's explanation to her husband, for example, about her first experience as a child with the tethered, right before the tethered first appear outside the house, felt a bit odd and weirdly timed.

The third act, which a few people have mentioned, is sort of where I start to lose some interest. The reveal at the very end with Lupita's character, was unnecessary, and felt too twisty for the sake of needing a twist.


The humor is hit or miss, but there are some pretty funny moments, more than Get Out. And the acting is good, as is the family dynamic. Both leads are strong.

All in all, this is a good movie, and it mostly works. I can accept some of the flaws in the story for an original concept, especially one as weird as this. And if it seems like I'm being overly negative, I don't mean to come across that way. As alluded to earlier, maybe some of this is being too nitpicky, which can maybe be a result of a "prestige" horror flick with a lot of praise, and to an extent, that might be true. But I also think that Jordan Peele can do better.

7/10

Boy oh boy this movie is divisive and weird. This whole thing is a giant spoiler, so turn back now if you haven't seen this: 

First off, the movie itself - the cinematography and acting were great. The story was fine, though not terribly original or groundbreaking, and essentially came down to being a monster movie, but with the monster being doppelgängers of the family in the film, and then other families as well until you realize everyone in the U.S. has a doppelgänger. There are elements that make this stand out from other similar monster/pod-people movies, and so it does manage to set itself apart and provide a solid movie-going experience. For the enjoyability and quality of the movie, I'm willing to give it a "very good" rating of 7/10. There are some plot contrivances for sure, and Wyldstaar put it perfectly when they said "the premise [was] nonsensical when the plot threads were pulled at."

Where the movie kind of lost me is on the preachy allegorical side of things. 

As I mentioned, in the movie, it turns out there are doppelgängers of everyone in the U.S. living in tunnels underground - they share a soul with the doppelgängers somehow, and are “tethered” to the people on the surface. So, all the actions of the doppelgängers mirror the people on the surface, and they don't have their own free will. This was an experiment of the U.S. government to control people through their doppelgängers, but something caused them to abandon it. In the end, it is revealed that a little black girl breaks out of the “tethering” somehow, and manages to go to the surface, where she met her “surface” counterpart, then proceeds to choke and damage her throat/larynx, and send her back to the doppelgänger world. She ends up freeing the other doppelgängers from their tethering, and they decide to exact a plan of revenge to kill all their surface level counterparts and live up on the surface. The little girl who escaped is one of our protagonists, a mom and wife in present day, and doesn’t seem to remember she is a doppelgänger until she suddenly remembers for some reason near the end of the film. There are hints of her former doppelgänger life when she doesn’t finish off the doppelgänger of her daughter, who hangs dying in a tree, and then screams at her son to not kill the doppelgänger son. The doppelgängers all have creepy evil smiles (think the music video for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy"), and, at the end of the movie, she flashes one of these creepy evil smiles, as if she suddenly remembers and realizes she fulfilled her mission to get the doppelgängers to the surface and take over.

The movie, and audiences who saw the movie, seemed to have this preachy message of xenophobia or classism where we fear those who are poor or live under the surface and don't get to experience life as fully as the rest of us. There is some “oh poor us, we were trapped down here and made to eat raw rabbits and live a terrible life, why couldn’t we all have lived together up on the surface???” exposition done in the movie, and shows that we who live in luxury and safety could be threatened by our complacency or shunning of the less fortunate. The problem is this: the American people don't know about the doppelgängers. It was a secret government plot. So I don't know how this really reflects on society as a whole, and why it would be justified to kill the American people. Sure, the doppelgängers didn't know this, but that ultimately paints them as horribly misguided, not us "surface folks" as xenophobic monsters. Taking the problem even further, we see one of the doppelgängers grow up to lead a normal life and become one of the members of society that ultimately kept the doppelgängers down. So, given the opportunity, the doppelgängers will be just as oppressive as the rest of us. It's totally hypocritical and paints the doppelgängers in a further villainous light, devoid of any virtue. I think the irony of this is lost on a lot of audiences who stop at the “we need to be better to the less fortunate" part and don't go any further. The fact this movie even gets us there means it may have accomplished its mission to get us talking about how we need to be better to those less fortunate, but the movie itself takes it further than that by saying the less fortunate aren't going to turn out any better than the rest of us and someone will always be on the bottom, looking to take out those on the top. It's a snake-eating-its-own-tail metaphor, and the message is entirely muddled.

I'd be interested to see what Peele said the intended message was. If he admits it was supposed to be nihilistic in that being virtuous is a good practice but ultimately evil rising up is always inevitable, I can get behind that. But, if the message was supposed to be "let's not be afraid of those less fortunate, they're just like us in the end," he backfired entirely.