☆☆☆☆
It's right there dual meanings of the title. And in the answer that the evil twin of Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) gives when her victim insists on knowing who is attacking her: "We're Americans."
The deeper meaning in Jordan Peele's second feature -- a wildly ambitious and sometimes frustratingly (almost joyously) disjointed socio-political metaphor -- is hidden within a gorgeous but frequently confusing and always convoluted puzzle. Its coyness, along with sometimes murky social commentary, may make Us frustrating for some. It tries very hard to be both scary and meaningful. Maybe a little too hard. Then again, so many movies don't try anything at all.
Peele imbues Us with an atmosphere of dread from its first moments. Nyong'o's Adelaide is first seen in 1986, when she wanders away from her parents at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The year -- and a nearly forgotten event it contained -- is important. Three decades later, Adelaide returns with her family to a nearby vacation house, where they're viciously and senselessly attacked by people who look exactly like them. Except it's not so senseless.
Horror movies have long traded in metaphors: the loss of identity in Invasion of the Body Snatchers; the terror of illness in The Fly. Peele's metaphors are sometimes obtuse, and the movie poses maybe one or two too many questions whose answers it expects us to find ourselves. But the joy of Us is how it leaves us actually wanting to make the effort to do just that.
Viewed March 21, 2019 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks
1930
The deeper meaning in Jordan Peele's second feature -- a wildly ambitious and sometimes frustratingly (almost joyously) disjointed socio-political metaphor -- is hidden within a gorgeous but frequently confusing and always convoluted puzzle. Its coyness, along with sometimes murky social commentary, may make Us frustrating for some. It tries very hard to be both scary and meaningful. Maybe a little too hard. Then again, so many movies don't try anything at all.
Peele imbues Us with an atmosphere of dread from its first moments. Nyong'o's Adelaide is first seen in 1986, when she wanders away from her parents at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The year -- and a nearly forgotten event it contained -- is important. Three decades later, Adelaide returns with her family to a nearby vacation house, where they're viciously and senselessly attacked by people who look exactly like them. Except it's not so senseless.
Horror movies have long traded in metaphors: the loss of identity in Invasion of the Body Snatchers; the terror of illness in The Fly. Peele's metaphors are sometimes obtuse, and the movie poses maybe one or two too many questions whose answers it expects us to find ourselves. But the joy of Us is how it leaves us actually wanting to make the effort to do just that.
Viewed March 21, 2019 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks
1930
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