Us (2019)

[baumer]

Discuss

[Valonqar]

A+++

 

Absolutely loved this! 

 

will wait for more people before getting into big spoilers.

[excel1]

Good though I totally missed whatever metaphor it was trying to make. I don't get no comprende 

[Valonqar]

Maybe there was no metaphor? 

[La Binoche]

Need a few days to see if it lands at B or B+

[Water Bottle]

That final twist was unnecessary. If I could have given Jordan Peele one note, it was to cut that twist. It was predictable and made the movie make even less sense. A good twist (predictable or not) should make sense with what you have seen: it should compliment previous scenes, not contradict them. 

 

The other note I would have given was to have the plot follow the world rules rather than the world rules shaping to fit whatever plot he had.

 

Almost any other director does this script, it's easily a C to C+ movie but Jordan Peele finds a way to keep me engaged and entertained and he executes most of the scenes really well. The score is absolutely killer as well.

 

B+

 

 

[CoolioD1]

It’s very effective and creepy (except for the last fifteen minutes which are... a no from me) and very well acted. Kinda disappointed that it’s not surprising in any way but I had a good time with it. Can’t imagine it’ll stick with me like get out.

[Mulder]

A personal complaint I had with this is that I wish the movie was more personal? I felt the "End of the world"-esque plotline just was...unneeded. Wasn't huge on the use of a The Birds-type ending either. 

[Morieris]

 

Spoiler

I thought the twist was pretty sensible except how do you not remember that you're a shadow clone who spent like 8 years beneath the ground.

 

& I appreciated the humor, it helped show everyone's personalities and made them fleshed-out people instead of 'We root for them just because they're the heroes'.

 

It's not sticking with me like Get Out did, but that's okay.

[lilmac]

B

 

Pros 

- loved the reveal at the end

- I'll watch anything by Jordan Peele - because of his originality - it's like a breath of fresh air

- love Lupita! She was great. Both of her characters

 

Cons

- Too much symbolism for me to keep track of. I definitely need to find a primer on Youtube. Pretty sure I missed alot.

- Film lacked suspense and horror which is what I was looking forward to

- MeToo Infiltration Factor - 6/10 - annoying but not overly so. Examples, "You don't make the decisions anymore!" , Winston Duke and other male character being dumb doofuses and caricatures

[Webslinger]

Jordan Peele was always going to be hard-pressed to follow a directorial debut as incisive, original, and wildly successful as Get Out, but he rises to the challenge with gusto in Us. Taking a hard turn from his previous film’s satirical and comedic undertones into darker and more straightforward horror, Peele crafts an intense and disturbing experience packed with expertly constructed sequences of terror and impressive symbolic layers. Much like in his previous film, Peele constructs the narrative with enough clever foreshadowing and attention to detail that it’s easy to swallow slow and seemingly bizarre moments with the knowledge that they will pay off in the climax; and while some of the twists in this film’s final 20 minutes may divide viewers to some extent, I felt that these developments added further layers of intrigue to an already thought-provoking script. Without giving anything away, this film wrestles with weighty questions about duality, human nature, and the ways in which the uneasy relationship between good and evil is too close for comfort. It certainly aims for broader thematic territory than Peele’s much more direct commentary on race and privilege in Get Out, but the ways in which he swings for the fences and connects with worthy ideas to complement the scares are mightily impressive. On the technical front, it also has numerous scenes and sequences that are genuinely tense and unnerving enough to earn this film a spot among the most effective horror films of recent memory. Numerous cast members have well-played double roles, but the clear standout is Lupita Nyong’o in her most impressive work since her well-deserved Oscar for 12 Years a Slave. Nyong’o digs deep as the trauma-afflicted protagonist, portraying her discovery of the extent of her strength in the face of life-threatening adversity in convincing and powerful ways, and she is also terrifying as that protagonist’s vicious, primal doppelganger. There’s so much to unpack in Us that repeat viewings practically feel mandatory, but even this first impression is a strong one that strikes a chord with its scares of both the visceral and intellectual varieties. 

 

A-

 

Stray Thoughts:

- Like others (I'm assuming), I figured out the final twist within the first ten minutes - it really doesn't help that the reveal shot is in the trailer. Nevertheless, I'm still definitely a fan of the twist because it - like numerous other elements of the film - subtly blurs the line between the humans and their doppelgangers. Both Addie and Red are clearly capable of great violence and see no problem with upending lives to get what they want, so which one is really the evil one? I love how the last shot of Nyong'o captures that dichotomy - she tries to look mostly innocent, yet there's also an air of menace in her face.

 

- I loved how the doppelgangers largely reflected the worst qualities of their above-ground counterparts - especially in the case of the Tyler family (husband is lazy and ineffectual, wife obsesses over her appearance and makes facial alterations to meet her personal standard for beauty). A cynical viewer could read into the doppelgangers' ruthless efficiency in killing their targets as a metaphor for our tendency to let our vices destroy us.

 

- I'm going to need a second viewing to catch all the instances of symmetry present, but I was kinda taken aback when I thought about how the inclusion of "I Got Five on It" is one of those examples. Think about it: the song is about two people going halfsies on a dime bag.

 

- The Ophelia music selections were on-point. While most of the movie does go straight horror, the N.W.A. song got a huge rise out of my audience.

[baumer]

Definitely not quite my tempo. Didn't like it all. None of it worked for me

 

5/10

[Morieris]

9 hours ago, Webslinger said:

- I loved how the doppelgangers largely reflected the worst qualities of their above-ground counterparts - especially in the case of the Tyler family (husband is lazy and ineffectual, wife obsesses over her appearance and makes facial alterations to meet her personal standard for beauty). A cynical viewer could read into the doppelgangers' ruthless efficiency in killing their targets as a metaphor for our tendency to let our vices destroy us.

 

 

I think that's what was supposed to come across stronger....but it didn't, at least not for me.

 

Spoiler

But considering the main family was basically a super twist on what doppelgangers are 'supposed' to act like....this could have been remedied by having the obnoxious family have a bigger role.

 

[Water Bottle]

 

 

 

14 hours ago, lilmac said:

 

- MeToo Infiltration Factor - 6/10 - annoying but not overly so. Examples, "You don't make the decisions anymore!" , Winston Duke and other male character being dumb doofuses and caricatures

 

It's amazing how you are threatened by female characters that much.

[The Panda]

Loved it, don’t have full thoughts yet, but better than any of the movies I saw last year.

[The Panda]

The basic interpretation I’m getting from this is that the tethered are a metaphor for classism in a since and how your upbringing can shape you.

 

Doppelgänger Adelaide is able to live a fulfilling life, while the other tethered aren’t able to, because of her changed environment (meanwhile Red goes psychotic).  I got the idea that we’re all the same people, but some people are born in “tunnels” and others are born on the “surface”, and so the difference between these groups of people (and why the tethered seem so much more barbaric than others) isn’t their lack of humanity but being raised in an environment that strips their humanity from them.  

 

It also seems like there’s themes about the “Us vs Them” complex.  I’m not sure if  the idea of “We’re our own worst enemies” fits what I saw from the film.

 

There’s still quite a bit I’m trying to pin down, like the significance of the rabbits, scissors and the hands joining.

 

I don’t care too much about the logistics of the film (like how did the tethered get their scissors) as I don’t think it matters.

[lilmac]

12 hours ago, Water Bottle said:

 

It's amazing how you are threatened by female characters that much.

Not threatened. Annoyed by blatant Hollywood liberal ‘soapboxing’. Same reaction if LOTR was remade in 2019 with the leads being racially diverse for PC reasons. 

[filmlover]

I liked this a lot but ultimately fell short of Get Out for me due some choices near the conclusion. I wish in retrospect that the trailer didn't reveal so much because I was able to guess the twist early on, even though I still had fun picking up the clues along the way. But once everything started being explained I thought the movie just lost its early effectiveness. That said, it works very well up until that point, as Jordan Peele proves here that he knows how to craft moments of sustained suspense and creepy atmosphere (a surprising and awesome twist for someone who got his big break in sketch comedy). He also gets strong work from his cast: Lupita Nyong'o is excellent and would be deserving of awards recognition for the two very different roles she must take on here, Winston Duke has great comic timing, and Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker entertain in their brief screen time. And it leaves itself completely open to post-movie conversation long after it's over, which is refreshing for any studio movie in this day and age, not just one firmly rooted in the horror genre. B+

[Water Bottle]

 

 

 

16 hours ago, lilmac said:

Not threatened. Annoyed by blatant Hollywood liberal ‘soapboxing’. Same reaction if LOTR was remade in 2019 with the leads being racially diverse for PC reasons. 

 

Right because skin color matters so much to you. Like if they cast a black person to play Legolas I wouldn't care. I think it'd be great he got an acting opportunity. But all you see is PC politics. Must be a sad way to look at films and life-to only see people by the color of their skin and their gender.

[La Binoche]

On 3/23/2019 at 7:59 AM, baumer said:

Definitely not quite my tempo. Didn't like it all. None of it worked for me

 

5/10

Did you like Get Out?