US: FILM REVIEW
Us is often talked about like the little cousin of Jordan Peele’s earthshattering debut film, Get Out. But, over the years since each was released, Us is the one that has stuck in my brain. The weirdness and nuance of the film are unmatched, and its political message is a whole lot subtler than Get Out. Us is one of the best horror movies of the last decade and solidified Peele’s place among a pantheon of young great horror directors.
The film centers on the Wilson family: a Black, upper-middle-class family with two young children who take a weekend trip out to a house by the beach to spend time with family friends. From the start, it’s clear that something is off about this trip. One of our main characters, Adelaide, immediately expresses doubt about the beach, seemingly stemming from an event in her childhood. While at the beach, they encounter a family of doppelgangers called “the tethered,” people who appear exactly the same as them but act extremely different. When the tethered show up at their door, the Wilsons confront them, kicking off a violent drive for survival.
Most of Us centers around the tension between the Wilsons and their “tethered” doppelgangers who have somehow found a way to break out of their shadowy underworld. The Wilsons exist in a world of privilege, completely ignorant of the world that exists below them. As we find out, while the Wilsons go hang out on the beach, their counterparts are trapped doing those same tasks in the world below, joylessly mirroring their clones. This dichotomy sets up a constant tension in the film.
While the action keeps the film entertaining, at the heart of the film, the tethered people are shown to have their own complex motivations. The tethered are not evil and are really only after their own liberation. They no longer want to be blind followers of the humans above, and they each have their own feelings, which include a deep regret for their place in the world. This draws parallels to the prison industrial complex: people locked in a separate society who have no real chance at redemption through legal channels. The tethered’s quest for power feels completely rational as they see the world around them continuing without them.
While both adult actors, Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke perform well, the child actors actually steal the show. Evan Alex, who plays the youngest son, delivers a couple of the most beautiful moments in the film, one coming toward the end when he steps backward into engulfing flames. The daughter in the family, played by Shahadi Wright Joseph, has one of the most expressive faces I’ve ever seen in film. She elevates so many moments, whether by providing a second of levity or playing the hero.
Jordan Peele’s vision is imprinted all over the film. His sense of drama is powerful and he takes so many mundane moments and elevates them to extreme drama. Every second with the tethered makes your skin crawl. The way they speak, move, and act is terrifying. At the same time, the tethered always feel human. There is never any real distance between the humans and the tethered, which makes their depiction all the more powerful.
Us is a wild and unpredictable movie that will have you thinking for a long time after. The more you think, the more insidious the entire notion of a tethered population seems. While get out created a world where there was a clear good and evil, Us allows you to make up your own mind.