When I say the name Jordan Peele, what do you think of first? Probably, you'd think of the Comedy Central show that him and Keegan Michael-Key ran together called Key & Peele. It was a very funny show while it lasted, and, after it ended, the duo jumped into the big screen with Keanu in 2016, which was also very funny, But, then, Jordan broke off to do movies on his own. He shocked the world with his directorial debut Get Out in 2017, and ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay because of it. I still say it should've won Best Picture, but I don't work there, so it isn't my choice. The next year, he acted as a producer on BlacKkKlansman, although he didn't write or direct it. And, now, Peele has returned to the director and writer's chair with Us, released on March 22nd of 2019. If you don't quite get why Peele is being hailed as "The Next Master of Suspense", watch Us and prepare to have your mind blown. This is your official spoiler alert. Don't read any farther until you see the movie, unless you don't care.
By far, my favorite part of Us was the story. If you thought this was just a standard home invasion slasher flick from the trailer, then, trust me, this is not just a standard movie. Us has one of the most intriguing and horrifying concepts I've ever seen in a movie. The prologue is set in 1986, as evidenced by references to the Twin Towers (and the fact that the year is explicitly shown on a TV screen in the opening shot). We cut to an amusement park at night where we see a little girl wandering away from her parents and entering one of those mirror houses. She sees what she thinks is herself in a reflection, but it turns out to be someone that looks exactly like her. Cut to present day, the little girl has grown into Lupita Nyong'o, who has a family of four. They move into a small house near a body of water, and are then stalked and terrorized by people that look exactly like them. On paper, this is a very scary concept, and it's brought to life, for the most part, very well. When these supposed doppelgangers are on-screen, and they aren't making noises, they're pretty unnerving, especially Lupita's (who the Internet has dubbed "Red"). Admittedly, though, when everything is explained near the end, it's very heavy-handed. Not to the point that it breaks the movie, in my opinion, but the last half hour or so is essentially just a giant exposition dump. Revealing a character's motivations is one thing, but beating the audience over the head with it is another. This movie does the latter. I just wish the movie had kept it's ambiguity throughout all of it, instead of stopping and unloading everything (like what ended up happening). The bright side is that all of it leads to a twist that genuinely blew my mind when I saw it unfold. Yeah, looking back on it, it could be easily picked apart with the hints that were dropped leading up to it, but I didn't. I was met with the full brunt of the twist, and I really like it. I won't say what it is, but I thought it was great.
Another huge high point here is the acting. Lupita Nyong'o kills it, child actors Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex do a great job in the roles of Zora and Jason Wilson respectively, Elisabeth Moss was good, Tim Heidecker was good, Cali and Noelle Sheldon were good. Every actor absolutely brings their a-game to this, except for one: Winston Duke as Gabe, the father. Don't get me wrong, I like Winston Duke. He doesn't do a bad job in this movie, he's still enjoyable. I just don't feel like he was up to par with everyone else. He was easily the weakest hero to me. Not bad, but not very good either. The cast does something very interesting by playing evil versions of themselves. They appear dressed in all red and they have minor facial differences that make them stand out from the good versions. When the actors don't have to make noises as these doppelgangers, they're very intimidating. The MVP of this group, in my opinion, goes to Elizabeth Moss. She was by far the scariest of these evil people. All of them were pretty darn scary with their facial expressions and body movements, but they almost became comical when they speak. I'll get to that soon enough, don't worry. Shahadi was also really good as her Evil Zora. She doesn't have to ruin it by making noises, so it's fully a physical performance. She's clearly having fun with it, and she does a good job. Also, side note: I'm not exactly sure what this says about me, but, before I saw Winston Duke's name in the credits, I thought Jordan Peele had cast himself as Gabe. Maybe it's because Peele and Duke look similar, I don't know. Just figured that'd be a fun thing to add here. Again, I gotta say that I didn't get as fully invested into Evil Gabe as I did the other doppelgangers. Winston doesn't do a bad job, but it didn't seem like he was taking the role seriously. Those weird noises he was making didn't help. I get that most horror movie villains attempt to combine scary and silly, but Evil Gabe was just silly.
If you haven't noticed, this movie does have a few bumps in the road. For starters, I feel like Jordan Peele did a better job of mixing laughs and thrills with Get Out. Us still has a good bit of funny moments, but the tone is all over the place. One minute, it's intense and freaky. The next, it's a stand-up comedy special. The jokes land more often than they miss, admittedly. Winston gets a lot of laughs, the kids get a lot of laughs. Even the evil doppelgangers (called "Tethereds", apparently) get a lot of laughs, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional in their case. Which brings me to another big problem I have with Us. When the Tethereds open their mouths and speak, they become much more difficult to take seriously. I gotta give credit to Zora and the Tyler family's Tethereds for not making sounds aside from a few grunts here and there, but everyone else has some explaining to do. Evil Gabe would've been okay if it weren't for the animalistic screams he does every time he opens his mouth. The relatively packed audience I was in laughed every time it happened. Evil Jason makes stock growling noises, which was pretty lame. It makes more sense when you consider that Evil Jason moves around like Gollum, but it still kinda ruined the character. Lupita had the most work to do with her Tethered, and I feel like she gave one of the best performances out of the group. Her raspy voice could be considered narmy, but I thought it was effective. The only problem I have with it is that we heard too much of it as the film progressed. Evil Lupita has a full-on monologue in the third act. It's a good source of exposition, I guess, but listening to that voice throughout all of it was a little difficult to do (and not in the good way). Now, to be fair, when the twist happens, Evil Lupita's weezy voice starts to make sense. Until that, though, it's really goofy. It would have worked if she didn't have a lot of lines.
This movie's soundtrack is outstanding. When it isn't using licensed or remixed songs, there's a very creepy, very effective original score that plays in a couple of the scenes. Occasionally, you'll hear a choir of soprano and alto voices chanting what I can only assume is Latin. I loved that addition to the score, the staccato rhythm is perfect for this type of movie. The composer, Michael Abels, deserves a lot of credit, as his score does a lot to add to the tension of the storyline. This movie also uses "I Got 5 On It" by Luniz masterfully, especially when it replaces the instrumental with a piece of the score. The trailer for this movie was instantly iconic because of the inclusion of the remix. There's a funny scene in which "F*** the Police" by N.W.A. is played during a scene of violence. It's dark humor like that that works in this movie, not dark humor like the children bragging over their kill count. Musically, this movie works in spades. I also really like the makeup effects on the Tethered version of the main family. Evil Lupita has no eyebrows, and neither does Evil Zora, Evil Jason has burns over the bottom half of his face, and I couldn't really tell what was up with Evil Gabe cause it was so dark for most of his screentime, but there had to have been something. Evil Zora also doesn't appear to have the top part of her hairline in tact, so there's that. Another thing I enjoyed is the cinematography. My favorite series of shots came during the info dump at the end. Half of the shot shows an extreme close-up of Evil Lupita's face, and the other half shows Good Lupita in the background holding a hot poker that is raised and ready for battle. A couple great longtakes here and there, a very good use of panning when the home invasion portion of the movie plays out. Mike Gioulakis, the cinematographer, did a very good job with this movie.
Us also has a few awesome moments on top of the comedy and the thrills. Special mention goes to Zora going ham on one of the Tethered twins by clubbing her in the face with a golfclub and then beat her face into mush off-screen. The sound design there was great, althought that's probably gonna take a toll on Zora's mentality when she gets older. And, as drawn-out as the third act was, it did give us a pretty cool fight scene between Lupita and her Tethered. Because they look the same, they also act the same, so Red fights her with elegant ballet moves while also snipping at her with a pair of scissors. Lupita's exausted, brutal swings with the hot poker clashed against Red's subdued dance-fighting very nicely, and it made for a pretty satisfying final battle if you ask me. I loved the far away shots of them fighting that made them both appear silhouetted. I don't know why, they're just pretty shots. Gabe trying to intimidate the still shadowed Tethereds before he officially met them was cool, and was easily Winston Duke's best moment. All of the main family does a good job of defeating their doppelgangers, but Lupita's was the best. I also like the image of all the nameless Tethereds from God knows how many people standing in a line with their arms locked. A little cheesy, yes, but it's still a pretty creepy image. I also really liked when it came back in the final shot. Still cheesy, but still super effective. There's also a really well-lit shot between Good Jason and Evil Jason that takes place in a dark room, where the only source of light is a match Evil Jason is holding. I really wish the darker scenes had tricks like that, cause the home invasion portion of the movie was borderline unseeable. I get that it's supposed to be dark because it's scarier that way, and it is. I just would've liked to have seen the action, that's all.
So, to sum it up, Us was good. Very good. A couple parts could've been better, but I still enjoyed this movie a whole lot. The ending was just ambiguous enough to leave the door open for a sequel, and I wouldn't mind seeing this story continued in another movie. I'm also really looking forward to the other projects Jordan Peele has in mind. Candyman, the Twilight Zone reboot he's hosting, and I hear he wants to do a live-action Gargoyles movie. That would be perfect, so I hope he gets to. Until then, I'm giving Us an 8.5. I initially had a 9 in my head for it, but I had to change it after I managed to get my thoughts down on paper. I found a bit more flaws in the movie the more I thought about it. It's still a very good time, though. I highly recommend it.
