Us (2019)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Us (2019) – J. Peele

I had high hopes for Jordan Peele’s second directorial feature (after the excellent Get Out, 2017) but by the 90-minute mark of Us, I was hoping that the expected twist in the third act would be enough to save the film.  Perhaps I don’t love eighties horror enough to enjoy the action of the chase, attack, and defence moments when the Wilson family meets their evil doppelgangers?  Sure, these parts of the film are deftly executed with interesting horror set-pieces and a demonstration of complicated technical mastery as each actor plays two parts, often onscreen at the same time.  But I was really hoping for deeper insights here (akin to those that Peele managed to expose about racism in his first feature). So, when the much-needed facts about where the doppelgangers come from – and the gaps in the backstory of Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o) -- are finally revealed, yes, the mind races to understand what has gone before in light of this new information.  Perhaps though, it’s too much, too late.  Indeed, there are a number of rich and important ideas that are stirred up – but I had to rely on the interviews with Peele in the special features to really piece things together (my bad).  The conceit may be too weird, or too heavy-handed, to really capture the false consciousness and bad faith that Americans (and/or other societies with large middle/upper classes) possess.  Perhaps this is more explicit for black Americans with the painful reminders of slavery and their group’s persistent economic suppression making ignorance/neglect (absence of wokeness) more difficult/painful (and the doppelgangers do play on stereotypes of the poor), although the inclusion of a white family justly extends the point.  Peele’s creativity and playfulness are still here, particularly in the way he has inserted references to other horror films and countless “doubles” (mainly the number 11) that I’m sure I didn’t catch.  At the end, however, I felt that the film would have benefited from less straight slasher/zombie genre horror and a deeper exploration of the tethered – but perhaps anything more than the sketch we get wouldn’t have held up as a proper analogy.