Just saw US. I loved every bit of it until the last 5 minutes or so. Haven't went out to a movie in over a year so had high expectations. Peele did a great job (not excellent). However, Lupita N'yongo is my girl crush. Not only is she gorgeous, but she is a supershero in this movie! Not often do I get to look at someone as beautiful and chocolate on the big screen, but I see ME for once! I'm so proud of her for making this movie worth my while.
5
First the good: Lupita N’yongo is simply amazing. Now the bad: everything else about this incoherent, pretentious mess of a movie. Sophomore slump here.
80
We just saw Us. This is one of the worst films that we have seen in a long time. My wife and I are avid film fans. Went out our way to see movies such as "The Hateful eight" on 70mm film. The theater experience is special for us. Throughly enjoyed Get Out last year and we were re so looking forward to this new release from Jordan Peele.
58
Movie was fun but made no sense mostly - nowhere near as good as "get out."
38
i saw "Us" last night with my wife, a horror film fan. we both enjoyed it.
the jordan peele knack of giving horror tropes a comic twist is on full display in the skewering of affluent americans. but it's tough to paraphrase the film thematically.
i took that it was a parable of reparation, of disenfranchisement, of racial inequality, of bigotry that has no more factual basis than where and how you grew up; the red suits can't speak proper english because they were raised in tunnels. the trope is made more transparent by eliminating differences in skin color from the dynamic.
it also implies that neither violence nor empty gestures like "hands across america" actually solve anything. the solution seems to be individual action and family solidarity: freedom and equality are there if you are able to grasp them ... plus, know how to wield a golf club.
otherwise, i feel dargis overthinks it all. the film buff references are light, decorative, and don't trend to any point except how quickly films, like old news footage, become trapped in the past.
lupita nyong'o was brilliant. elizabeth moss was a delight. even the teen girl was highly efficacious. and the men? there's even a feminist slant to the film. the men buy vanity boats, play whackamole and can't see danger coming; the women know when to be wary and how to take care of business.
77
@drollere
Winston Duke's father character reminded me of Chevy Chase Mr. Griswold from the Vacation movies.
14
“In “Us,” Peele uses the metaphor of the divided self to explore what lies beneath contemporary America, its double consciousness, its identity, sins and terrors.”
Seriously? This is a well made movie with great performances by the two femak3 keads
6
@Gordon Humpherys So what in the first paragraph do you find so objectionable as to type "seriously"?
17
Jordan Peele, like M. Night Shyamalan, has an uncanny knack to scare the bejesus out of us. I loved Get Out and I plan on seeing Us.
Normally I am not a fan of horror films per se, but with these two film makers i make the exception.
Can't wait.
13
Jordan Peele deserves every ounce of credit and recognition he has received and then some.
If you always need to know exactly what is going on in a horror film you should probably stop watching them and stick to documentaries.
This movie is excellent. Ignore anyone who tells you otherwise.
49
Loved Get Out—
I had no idea what was going on in US. Did I miss something? However: Beautifully shot—some very fine acting.
29
It is a wonderful thing to finally be seeing more diversity in representations of Americans and American families in film and importantly in the writers, directors, and producers of those films who can bring forward stories (and hire) so many people who have been omitted in the past. There is an irony in this film, however, that proves how ingrained in our social norms some of our prejudices are, that even in a film by an African American man they elude detection and comment. The film deals with alternative versions of self; multiple identities; hidden identities, yet misses the starkest hidden-in-plain view identity that of the mother. To call the family “The Wilsons” automatically, though socially acceptably and encouraged, omits the women’s own identity. She no longer is her own self, she is the female copy of, the “Mrs” of, her husband. She exists in public form as Mrs Wilson, but also in private, suppressed, masked, and omitted form in her own name. Dual identities. Because this is so common (and celebrated), it does not “feel” strange, eerie, or wrong. But if a “family name” (ie husband’s name) was determined by skin color (ie the lightest skinned partner gets to “name” the family) rather than gender, would we object? Again, it is momentous that more diverse voices are finally, after excruciating effort, getting to be heard - but is equally important that those voices question all social norms, even the ones that benefit them (eg “The Smith and Wilson Family”).
30
If only horror directors like John Carpenter, with their cunning allegories on consumer society in films like They Live and genre-defining entries of suspense like Halloween had been African-American in our era, they might have had their work recognized as Oscar-worthy as well. The emphasis on diversity is certainly vaulting certain directors to critical acclaim whose work might have been considered mere pulp in the past.
12
@steveconn
I do love "they live" .. but the artful qualities, the subtleties of "Get Out" and ( at least from the masterful trailer for "Us" just has me thinking these are the beginnings of a very storied career.. I could care zero if Peele is black, white or purple.. this is well done, thoughtful work.. Cohen Brothers in another genre in a way
24
There something tactful about using horror to comment
on the state of race relations. As a viewer you can navigate
back and forth between the thrill of being scared and the
cold calculations of Mr Peele's very serious commentary.
Its new and powerful and fantastic to see and think about.
Im going.
62
I loved "Get Out." It was funny, scary and a totally original idea. I am looking forward to seeing this film too.
23
@susan: Seems to me that "Get Out" is "The Stepford Wives", with white liberals as villains rather than suburban conservatives.
3
Naturally, it is every filmmakers right (depending of course on his or her ability to convinces financiers to back him, an entirely different game) to tell any story and in any genre.
I can say for myself, as much as I applaud genre filmmakers and studios pursuing comic book adaptations and horror movies to become inclusive and put women and underrepresented ethnicities in the center (and provide them with the chance to be brilliant), I still find these genres imbecile and gratuitous and irksome, did not watch them with white males in the lead and won't in the new form.
But kudos for getting it made and for making it a success with others.
12
@CitizenTM
Just FYI, ther texts from this "imbecile and gratuitous and irksome" genre include Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Dorian Gray, Jane Eyre, Jekyll and Hyde, Castle of Otranto, Turn of the Screw--to name a few. You're missing out.
33
Seriously looking forward to this. What an incredible time to be alive. And who misses Woody Allen? Love seeing new filmmakers with something to say
40
@Mtn14 To those with attention-spans Allen is probably the most influential cinematic comic voice of the twentieth century. Peele with his Twilight Zone leftovers heralded as Oscar-bait still has a way to go.
21
I don’t deny Allen’s influence - but he’s likely over. And I’m not sad about it.
30
Also, please direct me to anything “Twilight Zone leftover” about Peele’s work? I know about the connection to the episode “the trade-ins,” but I don’t see much derivative in Get Out.
Like it or not, Peele’s perspective as a target of racism informs his work and drives it. This isn’t some kind of Hollywood affirmative action, or a black perspective super-imposed on a horror story - it’s a whole voice and a whole script - a voice and script that wouldn’t have seen daylight before now and thank goodness for now.
51
Not sure why this is a critic's pick. Especially after reading this passage Dargis wrote:
"He also busies up his story with too many details, explanations and cutaways. Peele’s problem isn’t that he’s ambitious; he is, blissfully. But he also feels like an artist who has been waiting a very long time to say a great deal, and here he steps on, and muddles, his material, including in a fight that dilutes even Nyong’o’s best efforts."
Very honest summary of the entire film in my opinion. So why co-sign such a "muddled" effort?
The movie's concept was interesting, but not executed in a way that lit any fire in me, which is very unfortunate for a horror film — a genre that mostly lives to send some kind of emotional shock to audience members.
Hype is real and heavier than ever in these digital times when striking while the iron is hot is super important to a product's bottom line. (Here today, gone tomorrow has never been so true.) And being a black guy, it's exciting to me, and imperative, to support creators of color. That can sometimes skew how I experience and perceive art.
But the truth with this film is that "Us" is not moving, inserts too much jarring comedy, is confusing, and closes with an ending that just doesn't add up.
But don't let this stop you from seeing it. The creative concept is worth exploring and makes it a slightly above average film. But trust, you won't be talking about this movie a month (or less) from now.
61
@Liam Honestly, I preferred the story it's based on. So wonderfully creepy and little enough information to insert whatever story you want. You know, until the real people died. Very sad. But still a very good scary story.
Not that I could've made a better film about it, but still.
Thanks for the spoiler.
23
@Liam Careful - not towing the 'Peele is a genius' line could get you in trouble with the PC police.
18
" President Reagan held hands in front of the White House even while his administration was criticized for cutting billions for programs to help the homeless."
Reagan was an actor first and foremost in his life. He believed if he acted the part the rest of us would believe he was the person he portrayed. There are actors who are true to there craft, just as there are politicians true to theirs. Then there are those few individuals who find their personal sense of power not in the craft the simply are grade B at, but find it in a fuller sense in the political side of themselves. That's all Reagan was. He was a mediocre actor with a wife who believe he was meant to be so much more and he thought, I could do that. He did not think "Do I understand the reach I am grasping for?" Very much like Trump with the exception being that Reagan had a sense of humor and self-possession. Reagan was not really a great President. I think now that Nancy may well have been or first female President of the USA.
44
So glad he was able to get across his personal fear as a child that was the origin of this script.
Horror, done well, is a magnificent genre. Unfortunately Hollywood goes for the blood and gross instead of plot and character development.
As a child I saw The Uninvited with Ray Milland and still get chills from watching the final scene.
35
@Linda I'm going to watch The Uninvited today.
Thank you!
12
I'll never be able to buy the idea that horror movies deserve the same critical attention as well, any other genre.
I can admire Stephen King's craft - anyone interested in craft should read "On Writing". But people go to horror movies not for the philosophy (please), but for the burning, and impaling, buckets of blood, the horror.
No thank you; I don't believe it's more than that, for even a second.
16
No movie - or novel or play or any other story - is entirely one genre. All narratives participate in genres without being purely one thing. So your dismissal of horror is both wrong and a bit sad; you are depriving yourself of opportunities to experience something in a new way. It’s also smacks of elitism. Do you have a hierarchy of genres? Is there some ideal narrative form that’s the best vehicle for presenting important ideas or commentary? Where does, say science fiction sit? Or comedy? How about westerns? How would you present Jordan Peele’s ideas in a less low-brow way.
Oh wait...you haven’t even seen the movie.
81
@Benjamin Teral
Well it's your loss. Who can predict where a brillant performance will appear?
24
@Benjamin Teral
How do you feel about murder mysteries? Walter Benjamin and others have written about how they express the paranoid sense, omnipresent in modern life, that malign actors we can’t identify are trying to harm us in an alienated society Similarly, the rise of science fiction alien-invasion movies after WWII expressed our terror of war technology and massive death, as well as industrial zombification. These are horror stories too. Of course there’s bad horror, which is just violence and gore. But the genre holds all the opportunities for metaphor of any art form.
30
Meh...
Loved "Get Out." Not a huge fan of Lupita Nyong'o. But, glad to see she is able to get a variety of roles.
6
@East Right, meh. It was not in the least bit scary, maybe conceptually scary, but scary is not a thought, it’s a gut feeling. Acting was weak. Story too convoluted. Drawing on a cornucopia of other movie scenes and ideas means you have nothing new to show. And did I say the acting was terrible? Oh! Yes I did. It was.
8