Us (Jordan Peele)

[Morris Schæffer]

https://denachtvlinders.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/US-jordan-peele.jpg

[Irish]

Who's going opening weekend?

[Dukefrukem]

Wife and I are going tomorrow.

[Morris Schæffer]

I'm saying nothing! :cool:

[megladon8]

OVviously only racist beta cucks are going to see this SJW bullshit on opening weekend!!






It’s actually my most anticipated of the year.

[DavidSeven]

I was a little disappointed by this, but my expectations were really high. Get Out was probably my favorite movie of 2017.

Like Get Out, this is compelling as a cultural statement. However, Get Out also worked on multiple levels -- as a genre exercise, as cultural commentary, and as just a straight-up compelling story with interesting characters. For me, Us is really only exemplary on an intellectual level and is not as clear-eyed and incisive as Get Out on that front either. Where I think it falls a little short is in the actual movie-making. From craft standpoint, it's extremely well-made, but at it's core, it's a pretty hokey concept that doesn't explore any unique terrain from a narrative and filmmaking aspect. Here, Peele is really hung up on the academic pursuit that got Get Out so much acclaim, and his hyper focus on various forms of symbolism is clear. As a result, I think character development and plotting got a short shrift. It just seems to lack a necessary depth of emotion that would make his messaging cut deeper, and the film is almost embarrassingly straight-forward and predictable as a bare story, even by regular genre film standards.

Given its subtle messaging, I think it's a film that warrants revisiting in spite of my initial reservations. It's fun enough, paced well, and ambitiously political. The performances are truly stellar. If Lupita Nyong'o does nothing else after this, she will still forever be remembered as a legend for her work here alone.

[Ivan Drago]

Seeing on Sunday in Dolby Cinema. I'm stoked.

[Dukefrukem]

Wife and I are going tomorrow.

Whelp. Wife has the flu. So cancel all my plans I guess...

[Irish]

Can I have her ticket?

[Dukefrukem]

The cool thing with Fandango, is you can refund your tickets and use them for either another showtime or another movie.

[Irish]

LOL, well at least I gave it a shot :D

[Mal]

This really tried to go places but almost none of it was satisfying nor well conceived. It looks fine. Cast is fine. But the scripting is so strangely clunky and slight in developing the characters compared to Get Out that it shocks me that he didn't write US first. The ending was just... ugh. Lucky for Peele its going to make a shitload and he can continue to do whatever he wants- I'm frustrated but likely will have no qualms showing up for what he does next.

[Ezee E]

You all have beat me to the punch. It's well crafted, and if this were simply a horror film director, it'd probably be considered excellent. However, with Jordan Peele, higher expectations have been made, and it comes short. While the first half could probably be admired for its craft and tension alone, it gets a bit tiresome when the family goes to the second house. From there on, it definitely tries to be something bigger, but it's not particularly clever, and dare I say that there isn't a secondary character that's remotely interesting. And this includes the family too. This is where it falls short compared to Get Out which has characters screaming from the inside or thirsting for others.

Lupita carries it extremely well though, so I have to say that I was at least interested to see where she'd go and how it'd end. The twist can be seen pretty early on.

So like Zac Efron, the inevitable success will at least carry Peele on to a third movie of his own choice. And I'll still see it.

[Morris Schæffer]

I love the bit when Adelaide finishes off the perpetrator in the other house while her son is watching and then casually tosses away the scissors which I took as 'aw you didn't have to see that boy, mommy ain't like that', but which in hindsight turns out to be the exact opposite.

[Henry Gale]

I really did love this. Perfect case of something that's worth basking in its unique triumphs enough that it doesn't feel worth condemning for its less successful elements.

From the opening sequences Peele's game feels raised not just formally, but with his scale and amount of ambition, and his especially his assurance with classically deliberate, steadily measured pacing. I had the thought in those first 20 mins during my sold-out Friday night crowd that this might be the most arthouse-y movie many general audiences may come across at the multiplex this year. The title sequence is particularly hypnotic in not just simply requiring the audience to remember a time when they the patience for such a thing, but also beautifully setting the tone with that long visual and bit of score.

There's so much going on in those second and third acts narratively, thematically, allegorically (and you could argue some of those things in ways that are at odds with itself and even contradictorily), but the sensation of the buffet of tones, gripping setpieces, and especially the way Peele holds for moments of absurd texture (the Moss' make-up mirror particularly comes to mind) while still keeping all the tension going is a feat that not only makes me excited in the moment, but also for how he may continue to use his talents as a director in the future. Since even if you see Us as a "lesser" or less overall successful work than Get Out, it still showcases whole new avenue of his talents as a visual stylist, world and atmosphere-builder and artist in general.

The ballet cross-cutting sequence is so virtuously entertaining that I no longer cared that the exposition that preceded it was a little too extensive for my liking. I felt like I was floating in my seat often enough with those types of scenes that it was harder to worry about its potential issues amongst them. The less literal the mythology is to me, the more effectively it functions when the spell it casts is so largely in what doesn't tell you and forces you to draw for yourself.

Did it completely engage and elate me and then haunt me after it ended? Yes it did, and as much as I hope any theatrical experience to. And sometimes that's as important to me as whether or not something is "perfectly" crafted or not.

[Ezee E]

Despite saying that Lupita carried the movie, I think I underestimated her performance(s). The use of voice and being able to clearly have two different characters without any confusion at all is pretty admirable. It's far beyond a "scream queen" type of performance, and one that probably can carry on to multiple viewings.

The others... including Moss though...

[Skitch]

Coming from someone avoiding extra trailers and only skimming reviews...please tell me this is more Get Out + over Hereditary?

[Henry Gale]

Coming from someone avoiding extra trailers and only skimming reviews...please tell me this is more Get Out + over Hereditary?

I mean, I hate to compare it to anything to possibly have your mind draw conclusions about where it goes, but luckily it's its own special hybrid beast. It's definitely more like the former since it's still very clearly Peele's mind at work, just in a different playground. It's not as steeped in morbid, satanic, nightmarishness like Aster's (also excellent) movie was.

[Dukefrukem]

Yeh, mild yay for me. Definitely not the must see that Get Out was. It's really hard to make a movie, that looks and feels like it's grounded in reality, but needs some kind of disclaimer equivalent of "check your brain at the door": Watch this movie for what it is, and stop trying to apply logic and reason to decisions and what is on the screen.

A perfect example: the Mummy; after the steamboat fire and our stars are stranded on the side of the river, one might try and question how they would find the supplies and transportation to cross a giant desert. Nevertheless, our stars are on camel-back arriving at the destination the same time as their opposers. I can enjoy this movie for what it is, because the point of the movie is NOT trying to understand how a Mummy is able to come back to live and attack people.

This movie, even within the explanation, is so profoundly absurd, that it's really hard to grasp. The horror rules are hard to define. Outside of that, I didn't find this movie the least bit tense which is probably the biggest disappointment for me. It's light-years away from Get Out.

[Spinal]

I guess I should chime in to say that I liked this every bit as much as Peele's first film. Get Out is probably a tighter film and this one takes a while to get going. But it explores a deep dark sadness at the heart of the country this is profoundly haunting.

[Dukefrukem]

That twist ending though?

[Milky Joe]

yeah it ruled. I was left rather shaken.

[Spinal]

That twist ending though?

I like the ending even though it wasn't too surprising. It fits well with the film's theme of a nation divided. The other isn't something completely alien. It's us with different circumstances.

[MadMan]

Shrug I loved this a lot. Knowing the twist a second viewing would be pretty interesting.

[Peng]

I kinda love Jordan Peele's Get Out follow-up in its bigger, ambitious almost(-intentional?)-mess even more than his debut. Would love it more if that ambition and scope haven't seemingly sprawled out of his hands so that there is a need for full exposition dump stop during the climax though, but oh well (maybe Peele knows this, and spices it up mightily with that striking diopter shot).

Still, while Get Out is a great, peerless, precise screenplay turned into a very solid film, Us almost seems like the reverse: a tantalizingly slippery, messily one-size-fits-all screenplay turned into a sensational horror-comedy experience. This is such a step-up formally for Peele, in which he switches up tension, terror, and humor expertly, often in the span of one scene. So many imaginative set pieces and evocative images (an overhead shot of family on the beach with long shadows trailing them, a steady 360° camera pan during home invasion to put us in the family's headspace, etc.), done to tight pacing and carried off by so many deft performances, headed by Lupita Nyong'o's phenomenal double turn. More than one watch might be needed to parse out the film's expansive themes, but a rewatch's main pleasure will undoubtedly be to revel in Nyong'o's physical performance and subtle character nuances throughout. 8/10

[Pop Trash]

Holy shit. Is anybody old enough here (Spinal?) to even remember 'Hands Across America'? That was a real thing that happened and was kind of a miracle. It came through New Mexico and my hippy parents made me wake up on a Saturday(?) morning when I was 6-years-old to participate in it. So using that as a story device (I think? If I'm interpreting the ending properly) gets major points from me. It's weirdly half forgotten compared to other events around that time (the Challenger blowing up which I also witnessed live in my kindergarten class and was probably the closest thing to childhood 9/11 moment for me).

Anyways, I think I really like this, but I suspect my feelings are biased due to directly participating in said event. I found the ending weirdly moving and profound. Jordan Peele is my age and probably wrote this after wondering if such an event could even happen today. Twitter and the thinkpiece police would find something "problematic" about it and people would neglect to participate.

[Spinal]

Holy shit. Is anybody old enough here (Spinal?) to even remember 'Hands Across America'?

Hey! :(

Yes, I am. :)

[Pop Trash]

Hey! :(

Yes, I am. :)

Are we the only ones north of 35 here? I think some former MCs like Raiders, Kurosawa Fan, and that dude who loves George Miller and Paul Verhoeven (I can't think of his name) are in their late 30s / 40s but they never post anymore : (

I suspect Irish might be older, but maybe that's just because he gets grouchy ; -)

[Spinal]

That's cool you were part of the event. I was in Oregon. Didn't go near me.

[Pop Trash]

That's cool you were part of the event. I was in Oregon. Didn't go near me.

It really was like this strange, miraculous thing. To be fair, I believe there were holes (people aren't going to stand around in the middle of a desert or on mountains), but the line was clearly unbroken for miles in Albuquerque, NM (apparently Don Johnson was in our line!)... and I believe in other cities as well. Both Reagan loving Christians who got involved with their churches and decidedly less Reagan loving bleeding heart liberals (like my parents) who probably heard about it through non-profits participated. It was a sincere kumbaya moment [wipes away tears].

[Morris Schæffer]

42, but from Europe.

And that sounds awesome Pop. Didn't realize haa was real.

[MadMan]

33 here, but I could have sworn I read about Hands Across America as a kid.

Btw after looking up the Bible verse the creepy guy had on his sign in the early part of the film I realized it was a big clue. Well that and the daughter mentioning mind control and the end of the world in the car. Also I guessed the twist but still found that shot of her looking at her son, who realized something was up, to be really blood chilling.

[Milky Joe]

^ yes. I get chills thinking about the final scene.

I still don't quite understand...

how the son figured out that he had some kind of control over his doppelganger. when he says "it's a trick!" and then mimes the action of walking backward which causes his doppelganger to do the same thing, winding up in the fire. the mechanism of how the Tethered are connected to their counterparts is left pretty ambiguous. but that's alright with me.

[Morris Schæffer]

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/15-spoiler-facts-jordan-peele-us/

[Dukefrukem]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy_mDcUOnBA

[MadMan]

^ yes. I get chills thinking about the final scene.

I still don't quite understand...

how the son figured out that he had some kind of control over his doppelganger. when he says "it's a trick!" and then mimes the action of walking backward which causes his doppelganger to do the same thing, winding up in the fire. the mechanism of how the Tethered are connected to their counterparts is left pretty ambiguous. but that's alright with me.

Lucky guess, maybe? Or he knew from the encounter in the closet.

[MadMan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy_mDcUOnBA

Oh dear God...

[Grouchy]

I agree with DavidSeven's post in the first page of this thread. This film is viciously entertaining and fun to analyze because of the intellectual and symbolic challenges it presents... but it's not a good genre movie like Get Out also was. I believe some of that is intentional, with Peele developing a high concept that's so outlandish it dares the audience to take it seriously from a practical standpoint. But I also believe the movie sacrifices its uniqueness for a few extra plot twists and the obvious desire to make it bigger than Get Out in both scope and meaning. It's also weird to me how none of the family members ever die or get hurt by the attackers - as well directed as the movie is that made the antagonists extra weaker and non-threatening by the end.

The info about Hands Across America is fascinating.

[Peng]

It's also weird to me how none of the family members ever die or get hurt by the attackers

Winston Duke got batted in one leg, which has him limping and being slow throughout the film. I didn't know at that point how violent this film might get so the whole first break-in sequence had me so distressed, with all its steady long takes and menace, and I almost covered my eyes when Duke got hit.

[Grouchy]

I remember that moment but after that the family becomes quite adept at killing the intruders and they never get hurt. Even the father's limp is downplayed.

[Ezee E]

I remember that moment but after that the family becomes quite adept at killing the intruders and they never get hurt. Even the father's limp is downplayed.

The whole line about "kill count" is very weird.

[Irish]

Jesus this was bad. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

"Get Out" worked because Peele took his time with it. He worked on that script for years. (It was shallow as hell, but it had a polished superficiality about it.)

"Us" suffers from the usual quick Hollywood turnaround. It's a half dozen ideas roughly slapped together. This isn't well crafted. The whole thing is too jerry-rigged. I couldn't believe that Peele stopped his movie not once but twice so Lupita could literally explain that massive, unweildy backstory, talking about years of action and choice that happened offscreen. Peele is an Oscar winning screenwriter but writes exposition like a TV hack.

The ending doesn't make and sense and the "twist" is telegraphed early, especially for anyone who has seen this type of horror before. Zac and Duke kinda nailed it. The movie isn't plausible within its own context. (I burst out laughing at the "Hands Across America" thing. For one, it's just silly. For two, like wow, lay on your themes with a fucking trowel whydoncha.)

I can''t believe this has such a high rating on RT. Even grading on a massive curve, it's a terrible movie.

[MadMan]

Armond White, is that you?

[TGM]

Armond White, is that you?

I'm in complete agreement with him, so unless we're both Armond White...

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/456/415/cfc.jpg

[Irish]

HOLY SHIT TGM!

Good to see ya man!!!!

[TGM]

HOLY SHIT TGM!

Good to see ya man!!!!

https://i.redd.it/xmlmfyyx9e611.jpg

;)

[Dukefrukem]

Dood! Welcome back.

[MadMan]

Hah I don't agree with either of you, but hi again TGM.

[Pop Trash]

I burst out laughing at the "Hands Across America" thing. For one, it's just silly. For two, like wow, lay on your themes with a fucking trowel whydoncha.

I mean, I think it's supposed to be kinda funny? Jordan Peele obviously comes out of sketch comedy, so I don't think that element is ever going to go away. There's something absurd -but at the same time oddly moving- about millions of zombieish-cum-body snatcher doppelgangers coming together to form their own 'hands across America' because in their own brainmelt way, they think that's something that should be done once they reach the overground. It's their version of Apollo 11 planting an American flag on the moon.

[Dukefrukem]

I mean, I think it's supposed to be kinda funny? Jordan Peele obviously comes out of sketch comedy, so I don't think that element is ever going to go away. There's something absurd -but at the same time oddly moving- about millions of zombieish-cum-body snatcher doppelgangers coming together to form their own 'hands across America' because in their own brainmelt way, they think that's something that should be done once they reach the overground. It's their version of Apollo 11 planting an American flag on the moon.

I didn't see it that way. I saw it as all the clones wanted was to NOT eat rabbit. Hands across America was supposed to be the solution to that because it was the only thing the kid remembered from the commercials on TV. There was a reason why they were doing it. They weren't doing it for scary shock factor. They wanted food. lol.

[Philip J. Fry]

Just watched it last night. I was very entertained, but I was not a big fan of the final twist.