This Is US.
116 Mins. Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Madison Curry, Anna Diop, Yahya Abdul-Matten II, Tim Heidecker & Elizabeth Moss. Director: Jordan Peele.
Get 5 on this. What about 'Us'? Jordan Peele rules. The executive producer of Spike Lee's Oscar winning 'BlackKklansman' (who first brought the pitch, "black man infiltrates Klux Klan" to Lee. Which was all the words needed to pique Spike's screenplay interest and inspiration) is about to tune our household television sets back into 'The Twilight Zone' of the 1950's. And those who thought the comedy half to Key couldn't master horror like 'A Quiet Place' in this 'Hereditary', Halloween reboot golden age of King of horror, 'IT' and 'Pet Sematary' chapters of the genre were told to 'Get Out' like their initial reaction once they saw that movie. Just like the romanticism of cinema and the fright night genre in this Netflix age redefined, people popping popcorn too loud during the Krasinski and Blunt partner up, family movie (I think not) classic (absolutely). There's a reason Jordan has produced the last two Oscar winning 'Best Screenplays' (original and adapted). Peeling back the layers of movie metaphors and social commentary in cinema face masked as entertainment, Jordan like his last namesake in the fourth scares the Timothy Dalton playing Bond in 1987 out of us. Shaken AND stirred. When I was a kid I used to think my mum's sewing scissors were so sharp they could take my head clean off. And with the iconic gold brass ones outfitted here with symbolic crimson blood red jumpsuit, this fear is paper chain brought around and daisy, hand-in-hand around again for a writer so scared of horror movies he once said "nah I'm good" to a Jack White gig (a musical hero) a week after watching the demon in 'Sinister'. My excuse of "I always preferred Meg" didn't fly. Now this film will make you scared of the sunny smiles of The Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations'. Giving you actual bad vibes for sands sake. Let alone N.W.A.'s 'F### The Police' and the Luniz tune for you old school hip hop heads which is about to get the s### Spotify streamed out of it. Even more so then when the terrific trailer first came out and back in nostalgia. You'll never hear those iconic chords the same way again as now they are turned into sinister strings that haunt like a horror opera, timeless classic for a formidable finale by the curtain cut. Not some dope 90's song about weed. Smoke my previous scaredy cat ways however. Finally falling in love with the hauntingly old horror genre has never been so wickedly wonderful in all its dark delights. As one classic deserves another. And after 'Get Out' changed the genre and the subversive subtext of such movies, giving Daniel Kaluuya a Oscar golden ticket to Wakanda, its Academy Award winning screenwriter and director Peele enlists the help of two more of 'Black Panther's' biggest stars and shining lights in warrior queen Lupita and the scene stealing Duke for 'Us'. Even the June of Elizabeth Moss is here in this rabbits tale in Handmaiden red. Now if you want to get crazy, baseball bat to palm...we can get crazy.
Our greatest fears are shelled and shocked to our very collective core here. Forget hiding behind that couch. Horror monster Jordan is going to phone book tear it in half. There's nowhere to run. There's nowhere to hide. From yourself. From 'Us'. Watching, waiting ("anticipaaaating"). Safe as suburbia? You tell me when your white picket fence is home invaded by the very monsters that hide beneath your own beds. Better pull up those sheets tighter than how they tuck them in in hotel rooms. Just watch man. The Rorschach test ink blot Easter signs are all there for you to make shape of. Like a 'Jaws' t-shirt underscoring homage to the seaside paradise boardwalk by the beach, before a real predator da-dums its way on shore. And there's more biblical references in implication and character name here than the draw of your bedside table in said hotel room. If I go to bed tonight and the clock reads 11:11 tonight in digital red I swear. And speaking of hotel rooms, there's so many horror tropes and references to classics of the genre. Like opening the door and peering your head round in a 'Scooby Doo' like meddling fashion. Or welcoming home to play what looks like the twins from 'The Shining' all grown up. This coupling is part and parcel of the dual dichotomy of this circling, hands across time story that all comes around like karmic energy. So much so that right from the reflective hall of mirrors opening in a 'Joyland' homage to the amusement arcade carnival setting of Stephen King's 80's era horrors like this 4th of July's 'Stranger Things' season, you won't want to Alice your way through the rabbit hole of this looking glass turned inside out, as it cracks and scissor cuts you with shear scarring scares. One insane membrane, under pressure moment, cracking and splitting heads on a coffee table is so taught and terrifyingly tense you'll never be able to put your feet up again in your living room of undead nightmares. You won't want to meet your Jesse Eisenberg 'Double' doppelgänger after leaving this theatre like two Spider-Man's pointing at each other. It might be your worst 'Enemy' like Jake Gyllenhaal if that isn't already you. And like said films in this two-by-two, like for like genre there's more to read into here than mere chapter and verse. Is this an exploration of our own dark sides we try to hide? The evil we do to each other? To ourselves? The outside and inside halves of our personality? Our innocence offset by our inner guilt? The masks we show to the outer world and the face we reveal only to ourselves? The face we use as a front and the one we have like a knife in our back? The society of slavery? A railroaded class? Or a bunker reveal of the government on the brink of a nuclear war in the age of a digital battlefield? Is this 'Hands Across America' reference a stand against what that movement actually did in protest? Or is it a metaphor for Trump's wall with its bordering run to Mexico reference? Whichever way you cut this paper chain it doesn't waltz around some blade sharp harsh truths. All the way down to a real 'Black Swan' song, strong ballet of brutality, as we dance with our own pale moonlight devils here in poetic, demonic form. 'Us' really does take an inward look at U.S. 'Us' is America.
"We're American's", Lupita Nyong'o dryly and slyly replies to herself when the classic horror line "what are you" through single fallen tears and scared stuttered speech is uttered. And that's about the size of this run rabbit run parable as you follow the white one like the matrix of a Jefferson Airplane tattoo. An awakening force, the 'Star Wars' actress Nyong'o is out of this world here in her dual parallels. Playing both parts perfectly, Lupita is legendary legacy making in her best feature role since the gold statue she received for '12 Years A Slave'. Polish another one because in this 'Face/Off' she ying and yang plays both sides of the coin with heads and tails distinct, dual definitive differences. From the eyes of fear to the piercing pupils that induce them as fingers rap tap on cheeks as this taps into even more, much deeper fears itself. And good lord that voice and those movements. Whilst her 'Panther' partner Winston Duke who stole the show from T'Challa with his charisma, is the dad joke fun of this comic-relief, horror satire. Costume complete in Peele bifocals and a Howard university sweater. And how about the outstanding offspring? All their children and their alters played by a crazy good Shahadi Wright Joseph and a feral in 'Us' form Evan Alex, covered with a Chewie mask better than Candace Payne. Now how about the introduction of Madison Curry? Who brings haunting 'Exorcist' expression as a child star of the future in her first thrilling role in an oversized Michael Jackson (erm...) t-shirt that will really stay with you like hand me downs. Parented by the trappings talent of Anna Diop and 'Aquaman's' Black Manta showman Yahya Abdul-Matten II, who really is coming into his own on the seconds of his name double. With a drunk, Dutch courage charisma punch to the big-top and wheel carnival here. But it's hilarious comedian Tim Heidecker's mad man and the 'Handmaid' T.V. star of Elizabeth Moss that bloom from the beach to a house scene that is a party to this horror themes slash and grab tense tributes to the whole, "I just heard and saw something outside" terror tease. Go check! Moss in particular in front of a flashbulb popping vanity mirror makes and marks the most of her emotions and the further reflecting expressions they evoke. Her made up and below the foundation masks are the comedy and tragedy (another reason why Peele is perfect for the what lies beneath genre of hidden horrors) fine line faces of a false goddess millennial culture whose self esteem is lost in a screen and not what reflects off that when they switch that distracting light off. With so many themes and elements to this terrifyingly good, horror epic there are so many creepy pictures you can crayon draw from all of this as shadows collide with people. But either way you will be tethered to this one like the man in the mirror. And if like those who don't believe in ghost stories, you aren't scared of your own shadow then you're about to be. This sophomore screenplay and directing production from Jordan Peele gets as good as it's identical twin 'Get Out'. And with rumours of a trilogy there is more to 'Us' than meets the eye. How leather glove fitting for the final frame that won't remain on the cutting room floor. We need to get more out on the double. Because otherwise whose going to save us from ourselves? TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Get Out', 'Black Panther', 'Enemy'.
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