Jordan Peele's 'Us'
- Thread starter lurok
- Start date
Saw it this past week-end. I think I'm going to have to see it again because of the density of the story, the symbolism, etc. For a mere $20 million there was a lot on screen.
It was creepy as hell with a great performance by Lupita Nyong'o.
I was cool with the fact that they didn't spoon feed us a complete explanation of what happened and why. It's more fun to speculate. Jordan Peele certainly knows his way around a scary premise and executes same with authority.
It was creepy as hell with a great performance by Lupita Nyong'o.
I was cool with the fact that they didn't spoon feed us a complete explanation of what happened and why. It's more fun to speculate. Jordan Peele certainly knows his way around a scary premise and executes same with authority.
Saw it last night.
I really enjoyed Get Out, but was very underwhelmed with Us. It’s very funny, but not remotely scary, and too often Peele undercuts any creepiness, especially with the dad who seemed to have wandered in from a broad comedy. The central premise, and allusions to an underclass are intriguing but I'm not sure what kind of film Peele is trying to make, there's a rule in screenwriting about the audience accepting one fantastical element per film, and whilst not always true, in this case Peele heaps preposterousness atop preposterousness and throws so many ideas against the wall that it falls apart if you give it any thought: where did the jumpsuits and scissors come from for example? And don’t get me started on what a diet of only rabbit does to you!
The cast are excellent, and Peele can write and direct well. It may be that I appreciate it more with a second viewing now I know what kind of film it is, but as I left the cinema I couldn't help but think of M. Night Shyamalan, only where it took him three or four films to disappear up his own bottom, Peele seems to have done it in two.
Oddly the second film I’ve seen this year featuring rabbit iconography, The Favourite was way better.
I really enjoyed Get Out, but was very underwhelmed with Us. It’s very funny, but not remotely scary, and too often Peele undercuts any creepiness, especially with the dad who seemed to have wandered in from a broad comedy. The central premise, and allusions to an underclass are intriguing but I'm not sure what kind of film Peele is trying to make, there's a rule in screenwriting about the audience accepting one fantastical element per film, and whilst not always true, in this case Peele heaps preposterousness atop preposterousness and throws so many ideas against the wall that it falls apart if you give it any thought: where did the jumpsuits and scissors come from for example? And don’t get me started on what a diet of only rabbit does to you!
The cast are excellent, and Peele can write and direct well. It may be that I appreciate it more with a second viewing now I know what kind of film it is, but as I left the cinema I couldn't help but think of M. Night Shyamalan, only where it took him three or four films to disappear up his own bottom, Peele seems to have done it in two.
Oddly the second film I’ve seen this year featuring rabbit iconography, The Favourite was way better.
Number one movie at the box office, beat out two-week champ Captain Marvel. $71 million at the box office.
Why would you think it wouldn't be seen by folks who post here?
I went Saturday night with my buddy Cody, pretty crowded in the theater. It was a good movie, we both liked it. I may be going to see it again later.
As for Winston Duke and the humor in the movie, I liked it. Get Out had the same sort of comic relief with the TSA agent.
I went to see it tonight. Very interesting. I'll post some thoughts below, in full spoiler code.
I'd give it a B. There's a lot of good performances here, particularly Lupita Nyong'o's darker role as Red. I can see where some people took issues with the comedic elements, which aren't inherently bad but could be seen as detracting from the horror elements.
My main complaint has to do with the last act of the movie, where Red describes her theory as to how the Tethered originated. It's got some interesting elements on paper, but the problem is none of them really piece together in such a way as to make a coherent picture. Red is arguably a rather insane and unreliable narrator, but that too could have been used better. Supposedly, the Tethered are the remnant of some secret government project designed to clone people, on the premise that the connection between the original and the Tethered copy would allow those behind the project to manipulate the originals by how the Tethered behave.
This is a pretty cool concept, on paper, but it's not really clear if that's the correct case or not. Red speculates that the project failed several decades ago (generations even) and the Tethered were simply abandoned underground, to spend their lives blindly mimicking the actions of their "progenitors." The movie never explains how this connection actually exists between the two or the extent to which it works, and I wish that had been better utilized. It's implied that the environment and behavioral conditioning they're exposed to can be overcome in time, as happened with Adelaide after she swapped places with the real Red (her counterpart from the normal world). I'd also infer that, since the Tethered age in real time with their counterparts and no one seems to have more than one copy, then any genetic samples would have been acquired by the government when the person is an infant.
If the Tethered were really and truly abandoned by their "creators" in the project, then why are the warrens they live in apparently well supplied with many of the things necessary to sustain them (power, clothing and water, for example)? The movie implies they eat nothing but rabbits, which isn't the best diet, but they presumably can't supply themselves with food because they're locked into the connection of what their other selves are doing. And if the project officially ended long ago, why are the Tethered we see copies of the most recent generations (implying that someone is at least still copying the genetic parameters necessary to make Tethered)? These are all interesting possibilities, but the movie doesn't really do anything with them. And it's a little vague why Red didn't try to escape, before she presumably accepted some elements of the conditioning after the switch, or how the dancing apparently helped her find the "divine" mission for the Tethered. It would have made a bit more sense if she and Adelaide developed a shared talent for singing (IMO), since Red seems to be the only Tethered who can speak to some degree. That would have certainly made her seem special to the others.
Overall, it's a pretty good film. I've read a lot of comparisons to Peele's other film, Get Out, but I can't offer a comparison because I haven't seen that one. I just wish that elements of the Tethered were better thought out for the origin given in the film, and maybe it would have been better to have them as a more supernatural element (as many inferred from the initial trailers).
My main complaint has to do with the last act of the movie, where Red describes her theory as to how the Tethered originated. It's got some interesting elements on paper, but the problem is none of them really piece together in such a way as to make a coherent picture. Red is arguably a rather insane and unreliable narrator, but that too could have been used better. Supposedly, the Tethered are the remnant of some secret government project designed to clone people, on the premise that the connection between the original and the Tethered copy would allow those behind the project to manipulate the originals by how the Tethered behave.
This is a pretty cool concept, on paper, but it's not really clear if that's the correct case or not. Red speculates that the project failed several decades ago (generations even) and the Tethered were simply abandoned underground, to spend their lives blindly mimicking the actions of their "progenitors." The movie never explains how this connection actually exists between the two or the extent to which it works, and I wish that had been better utilized. It's implied that the environment and behavioral conditioning they're exposed to can be overcome in time, as happened with Adelaide after she swapped places with the real Red (her counterpart from the normal world). I'd also infer that, since the Tethered age in real time with their counterparts and no one seems to have more than one copy, then any genetic samples would have been acquired by the government when the person is an infant.
If the Tethered were really and truly abandoned by their "creators" in the project, then why are the warrens they live in apparently well supplied with many of the things necessary to sustain them (power, clothing and water, for example)? The movie implies they eat nothing but rabbits, which isn't the best diet, but they presumably can't supply themselves with food because they're locked into the connection of what their other selves are doing. And if the project officially ended long ago, why are the Tethered we see copies of the most recent generations (implying that someone is at least still copying the genetic parameters necessary to make Tethered)? These are all interesting possibilities, but the movie doesn't really do anything with them. And it's a little vague why Red didn't try to escape, before she presumably accepted some elements of the conditioning after the switch, or how the dancing apparently helped her find the "divine" mission for the Tethered. It would have made a bit more sense if she and Adelaide developed a shared talent for singing (IMO), since Red seems to be the only Tethered who can speak to some degree. That would have certainly made her seem special to the others.
Overall, it's a pretty good film. I've read a lot of comparisons to Peele's other film, Get Out, but I can't offer a comparison because I haven't seen that one. I just wish that elements of the Tethered were better thought out for the origin given in the film, and maybe it would have been better to have them as a more supernatural element (as many inferred from the initial trailers).
Trying to use spoiler tags...
The seemingly discordant elements I think resolve if you view the undersea tunnels as code for the social underworld in the US, a ghetto. The rabbits there signify the superior vitality of the denizens. The notion that Red advances about them being an attempt to control the ubermenschen is an ubermensch projecting the goal of the topsiders to control the downworlders, like Jason does to Pluto. The Hands Across America expresses the real solidarity between the authentic members of the underclass, as opposed to the depraved self-serving but empty individualism of the overlords. The father is the only authentic member of the ruling class, which is why he's so fake and imitative and useless. That's why he loses any right to make decisions, thought he manages to contribute enough to be tolerated for sentimental reasons.
The larger part of the movie is the Wilsons killing their neighbors. The other As such this is a carnival of the oppressed, not really a horror movie. The whole movie can be viewed as fundamentally a comedy in the most basic sense, a story with a happy ending.
The larger part of the movie is the Wilsons killing their neighbors. The other As such this is a carnival of the oppressed, not really a horror movie. The whole movie can be viewed as fundamentally a comedy in the most basic sense, a story with a happy ending.
