LogFAQs > #930003229

25. Us (2019 film) (20.5 points)
Nominated by: MetalmindStats (1/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNCmb-4oXJA

Importance: 5
Fear: 7.5
Snake: 8

Us is the kind of film any filmmaker would hope to make as their sophomoric follow-up to a huge hit. Jordan Peele's Get Out was a cultural touchstone, deftly tackling race issues head-on with a blend of comedy and existentialism with great touches of modern, viral horror sensibilities that the made the film super accessible for anyone who watched it. It was a film you never really had to look too deeply into to get a clear sense of, and if you did, the attention to detail that was there was extremely rewarding and gave the film a rich texture. Us is a bit of a different beast however.

Peele doubles down on the modern horror aspects that made Get Out so enjoyable, but in doing so, he makes the deeper narrative much more complex and not as clear cut as Get Out was. It's not just about race anymore, it's about our identities, our true selves, our inner demons, learning to speak out against unfairness, the things that divide us. Get Out almost feels like the thesis statement for Us, transforming the "sunken place" into a physical realm that contains parallel versions of ourselves. In 1986, a young girl named Adelaide meets her counterpart here, in a moment of great surrealism that showcases Peele's excellent eye for detail. This experience definitely left an impact on her, but she grew up fine and is now part of a big, loving family. Peele particular uses this family set-up to dispel any notions of stereotypes regrading black characters in film. The stereotypes are instead shifted towards your typical nuclear family structure, in that this is just your averaged flawed but loving family that ends up on the wrong side of some bad things. The first part of Us feels like it pulls a page out of a Strangers sequel, or Funny Games if you prefer, but there's a lot of intrigue in the fact that their assailants are voiceless copies of themselves. This is the part of the film that will satisfy the crowd who would merely want scares, but it's the subtext that truly sells it, even if you won't always notice it, especially on a first watch. And yet, it's a double edged-sword that ultimately detracts from the film for me. There's a huge expository dump near the end of the film that explains a lot of what's going on, and I just think back to Get Out and just how satisfyingly simple it all was.

And, to contradict myself one more time, I think that's why Us is such an incredible effort for Jordan Peele. It's absolutely bold and ambitious, it's clunky and flawed in all the best ways, always interesting, scary, and darkly hilarious. Us demands your attention like nearly no other mainstream horror film today, and I can only hope we continue to see more films like this with a strong creative edge that gets us away from the haunted house jump scare rides we see too often nowadays.
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What I am about to do has not been approved by the Vatican.
https://imgur.com/MmrKwGZ - https://imgur.com/ntWVGyh