#12: Us

It took me 2 days to write this review.

"Get Out" made a splash 2 years ago with its message of 'liberal white people are just as dangerous as their conservative counterparts'

Now, Jordan Peele is back with....something.

Did I enjoy this as much as "Get Out"?

Don't compare it to "Get Out". That being said, it does not put a horror spin on a modern social issue - white liberals - but instead goes for out and out disarming horror.

The review contains spoilers - including the twist. Which will be marked near the end. You can't miss it.

Every time I ask a question here, it's just puzzling out. I don't expect everything to be answered. I don't want everything to be.



You have the kind of corny black family;

Aloof daughter with a few sports-related talents.
Goofball dad.
Curious and 'different' little boy.
Doting mother.

And the typical white family;

Asshole dad.
Alcoholic mother.
Non fleshed out but kind of dickish daughters who both do some sport. Flipping?


When people said this movie was violent, and that there are bloody deaths, I was ready, but fairly disappointed. There's blood splatters, but only once do we actually see someone churned up in blades a bit.

It felt like a connection of events, not a real cohesive story. The end goal is presumably to survive, but...then you see that this thing is happening all over America and they do not have the one-up that this family has (See spoilers below), so...what now?

The idea that "We are our own worst enemy" is a concept I wish was presented stronger. Unless the idea was that "our darker selves will pop up to......kill us." Weakly presented.

And yet... I still feel an unsettling edge about the idea of a self-sabotaging doppelganger.

If "Get Out" could ride the momentum for nearly a year to get some Oscar recognition in the form of Best Picture, Actor, Director, I hope it can do the same, at least with Actress for Lupita because goddamn. Even as 'predictable' (I didn't find it predictable, but so many people were like 'Oh I knew the twist after 5 minutes') as it was, the show is hers.

I am probably going to have to read the script and revisit the movie. I feel that some of my questions could be answered that I just missed.

There are lots of tiny things, callbacks and forwards, but I need more story and less nods.

SPOILERS

The hero was the villain all along, in a way.

Aboveground!Addy being the actual tethered doppelganger who escaped the underground is an interesting twist, and I can't tell if the look towards Jason at the end is him knowing that his mother is 'different' now, or - Well, I was going to say it was really his doppelganger's (Pluto) clone of him instead of the real boy but Pluto never talked....and I don't recall Jason ever talking again after he was rescued, so maybe there's some hybrid-doppelganger-clone-ness happening here.

Also, how did she forget that she kidnapped her double until the end. Or maybe she didn't.

Also now that the UnTethered Addy is dead, will that be an awkward reunion in an afterlife or what. "Yeah hey the reason I was different is because I was pulled down into an underworld by a shadow version of me and was replaced by her and she was struggling to learn how to be a human."

Frankly, the story of a shadow clone escaping and living a life while the real girl fights her way out is not creative, but a lot more interesting than "What are you gonna do? Stab me?"