Topping it off you have a near universal acclaim from mainstream critics which only set my internal alarms off even further; given that getting the seal of approval from a modern film critic is about the equivalent of a day-care centre getting an A+ from the McCanns.
I also admit that I may very well have been missing out on what is a genuinely decent satirical horror film that eschews any of the worries of SJWism I may have had upon my first viewing of the trailer. But YOU also have to admit that Peele's own comments haven't exactly helped when it comes to this perception.
Back in 2019 Peele remarked that, "I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie. Not that I don’t like white dudes. But I’ve seen that movie."
Now look; on the face of it, there's really nothing wrong with this. I'm a pretty libertarian guy. If Jordan Peele doesn't want to cast white dudes in lead roles then that's his decision and there's nothing wrong with that. It really shouldn't be a big deal.
But let's be real here; we all know fine that such a statement would not have received such a tepid backlash bordering on outright indifference if it had been made by say Michael Bay, and that is somewhat of an issue. But what really confuses me is the "I've seen that movie" part. What the hell does that even mean? Is he trying to tell me 'The Conjuring' would have been a much more original movie had they cast Snoop Dog instead of Ron Livingston?
"But Glenn!" I hear you stupid from afar, "You just don't get it! Jordan Peele is an auteur! His films are from the black perspective and are thus highly original!"
Oh yes, breathtakingly original. Whereas other lowly and lamentably white film directors make films about an average white family moving into an idyllic suburban house only to run afoul of a supernatural threat; Jordan Peele on the contrary makes a film about... an average BLACK family moving into an idyllic suburban house only to run afoul of a supernatural threat. Man, you can really taste that originality can't you?
And don't get me started on the "black perspective". You mean to tell me there aren't any films about the black perspective? Ever heard of Spike Lee? And apart from anything else, what IS the black perspective exactly? Navy blue cords?
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| Edgy Joke Quota met |
Okay, I'm mostly being facetious here. As things are 'Us' isn't a bad movie, no matter what that 93% critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes may tell you. But whilst I will concede to the shills that this one isn't nearly the abortion that other critically lauded efforts have been in the past... it still isn't as great as they're saying.
The film follows the Wilson family as they go on vacation to their second home near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The mother, Adelaide, is reluctant to even go near the beach due to a traumatizing incident she had as a child at the Hall of Mirrors in which she claims to have seen a double of herself.
After a few ominous happenings Adelaide and her family are suddenly attacked by another family, who all turn out to be fucked up doppelgangers of each of the Wilsons.
Inspired partly by the 'Twilight Zone' episode 'Mirror Image', Jordan Peele's second directed movie 'Us' starts off pretty compelling. The direction and visuals are more than solid and at times border on Shining-esque in their composition. The cinematography does an excellent job creating memorable imagery that is mimicked later on in the film and it all contributes to what is a thoroughly surreal atmosphere that's consistent throughout.
Pretty much nobody gives a bad performance, with particular attention to be paid to Lupita Nyong'o who plays the beautiful and doting mother, Adelaide; and contrasts this with her creepy and entertaining performance as Adelaide's psychotic doppelganger, 'Red'.
Winston Duke gives an amusing performance as the family patriarch, Gabe Wilson, who portrays a mostly stereotypical soft suburban middle class dad character; and even manages to maintain that humour in the portrayal of his own doppelganger, the hulking and mentally inferior 'Abraham'.
Given this and Peele's background in sketch comedy, the film maintains a sense of humour which is welcome for someone like me who enjoys their horror with a few dark laughs thrown in for good measure. All of this contributes nicely to a creepy, weird and genuinely fun horror experience.... for at least an hour or so.
Don't get me wrong, the second half of 'Us' isn't bad strictly speaking. Like the rest of the film it's well made and fairly entertaining. Where I think it falls apart though is when the film attempts to explain the phenomena of the doppelgangers away, and at the same time engage in some level of satire that I believe was outside of the movie's scope. Let me explain, and yes, there will be spoilers so, spoiler alert.
After a fairly tense cat and mouse sequence where individual family members duel separately with their own doubles, it's revealed that the Wilsons are far from the only people dealing with the prospect of psychotic versions of themselves appearing out of nowhere to yeet them to Hell with a pair of scissors. Indeed the phenomena is nation wide.
The movie went in a direction I honestly didn't expect. What I expected was an almost Strangers-esque film with doppelgangers replacing the masked Mansons in that film. It starts off that way but then suddenly shifts into something of an apocalyptic movie with satirical overtones. It's later explained that the doppelgangers, or the 'Tethered' as they are referred to, are the result of a failed government experiment involving an attempt to control people on the surface. They now remain abandoned inside the miles and miles of tunnels underneath the continental United States, brainlessly and often horrifically mimicking their surface-world doubles.
Red, having made contact with her own double in the beginning flashback, then becomes a semi-messianic figure, staging an uprising she refers to as 'The Great Untethering'; which, true to form, involves genocidal levels of fucking violence.
This is where the film kind of lost me if I'm totally honest. One of the best things about this film is actually the mystery and intrigue surrounding the origins of these 'Tethered' people, and when you find out it's all the result of some nonsensical government mind control plot it weirdly becomes a bit banal.
I mean, we all know the government's trying to control our minds, this isn't a secret. In a world of online conspiracy theories, gay frogs, fact checkers that don't check facts and obvious mainstream Fake News (TM), the concept of government mind control in a horror film is kind of passé really.
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| Don't worry Alex, you'll have a place in our hearts. |
And then there's the problem of over-explaining things. As Stephen King once said, 'there's little fun to be had in explanations' and this is particularly true with horror. But once you do explain something away like this, all that does is demand further explanation. Like, I know the Tethered are supposed to be eating the rabbits that roam freely down in the tunnels, but what do the rabbits eat? Who tends the rabbits? Is there a government employee who goes down every now and then to fill up their water bottles and clean out their hay? I've owned rabbits, they are messy motherfuckers. They shit everywhere, and those tunnels look pretty damn clean to me.
Who pays for this? The taxpayer? Is this in one of those 5000 page budget proposals that Rand Paul tries his level best to summarize on Twitter to the detriment of his own sanity? Why do they even bother to keep them down there? If it's a failure why not just kill them all? What, do we care about human rights now? Does Joe Biden have his own doppelganger he feels sentimental about? Maybe he helped him fight Cornpop back in the day.
If there are potentially limitless amounts of people in government who know about this then surely someone's said something. This is the age of the internet and, more importantly, Alex Jones. You mean to tell me not one person has done a Snowden and tried to reveal this to the public? This is the US government; they couldn't run a two door shithouse. They couldn't keep election fraud secret, what makes you think they can do this?
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| Oh fuck off Susan, it was a joke. |
My point is that the film could have left a few more things in the shadows but I think Peele was probably making an attempt at satire. I've seen people try to make this an allegory for the treatment of blacks in America. Eh, maybe if you're a race ideologue who thinks only black people are ever poor or treated poorly, as many critics are. Anyone else would probably see it as a fairly standard 'haves an have-nots' class warfare allegory in the vain of 'Snowpiercer', and the direct reference to and use of the 'Hands Across America' event in the film lends some credence to that idea.
In summary I think it kind of shows off too many of its cards and ends up going a little beyond what I think it should have been. I'm not against satire or social commentary in horror films and if you dig it then more power to you, but it didn't really gel for me. I think the idea probably would have been better served had it had stuck with being a small-scale home-invasion horror flick as the idea of the mysterious doppelganger antagonists provides enough originality to keep things interesting.
Outside of all that, I know I praised the humour before but as the film goes on Peele does go a little bit overboard. As stated previously the film begins quite surreal, ominous and Shining-esque, but as it goes on it becomes more humorous. Many of the jokes do land but you kind of feel like they probably shouldn't be there. Some of it is outright cringey Millennial humour though, for example when Gabe makes a reference to 'Home Alone' and then Adelaide makes a joke about having referenced 'Home Alone'.
Desist, Jordan.
Add to this one or two non-sensical and confusing moments later on and you get a film that's... almost a fine film. Nowhere near bad and also not quite the 93% rating either.
Overall Quality Rating - 3/5
It's well made, atmospheric and funny in mostly the right places. The horror sequences early on are tense and there's a lot of a memorable imagery. It just kind of fell apart for me when it tried to be something more than what it ultimately was. It goes in an unexpected direction but that's not always a good thing, as Kevin Smith's 'Red State' will attest.
Again, maybe I just don't dig Peele's attempts at social commentary, and I will say the twist at the end was a good one, even if I was able to telegraph it shortly before it happened. It's worth a watch if you have Netflix and you're in the mood for a fun little nightmare.
Idiot Rating - 2/5
As I said it has a sense of humour and most of the jokes got at the very least a chuckle out of me, like when Elizabeth Moss tries to get her version of an Alexa type bot to call the police while she lies bleeding to death and the thing starts blaring out 'Fuck the Police' instead. Problem was a fair few of them felt like they shouldn't have been there and along with other problems it helps to undermine what could have been a much better horror film. It certainly doesn't go so overboard that it becomes a full blown idiot movie though.
Having finally exposed myself to a Peele film I'll say that guy knows what he's doing for the most part. But does this make me want to check out the new 'Candyman' film co-scripted by him? Eh, even if 'Us' had turned out to be a rousing success I'd be cagey about that one, being that 'Candyman' is one of my favourite horror movies. But we'll see, maybe it'll be decent like the last 'Halloween' movie.
I'm Deadeye and fuck da police.
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