Movie Review: Us

nicolasb5194 After watching Get Out, which was a phenomenal film, I was excited to see if Jordan Peele can make another masterpiece. The reviews were promising, so I gave it a watch. Sadly, Jordan Peele didn’t hit the mark. The trailer was chilling, but the film unfortunately failed to deliver that.

In the film, it features a family of four, who, one night, find their home invaded by what appears to be evil doppelgängers of them. And so, the film is them trying to survive the attack, escape , and possibly find out why all of this is happening. Even though I didn’t like this film, there has to be some positive aspects to it. And there’s some. Firstly, Jordan Peele’s directing techniques than he does in Get Out, from start to finish, he definitely excels in this regard. Another area of positivity is the performances across the board are great. Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke have fantastic chemistry on screen, as does the rest of the family. Lupita’s acting was absolutely amazing. Her delivery is always intense and strong, no matter what character she’s playing. As soon as the film starts, you by into the family dynamic. Also, Elizabeth Moss and her family are also good in moments and definitely are in some of the more interesting scenes. The production values were great as well. The cinematography and soundtrack was excellent.

Now for the negative stuff. This is one of those films that makes its viewers ask a lot of questions but isn’t afraid to answer them. Sometimes it can work in a film like 2001: A Space Odyssey (What is the purpose and source of the monoliths and why does Hal become murderous?) or A Quiet Place (Where did the creatures come from?) but with Us, the fact that the film never reveals much about the doppelgängers, their purpose, that serve as a great source of frustration for me. The main problem for me is that I just found the story so boring and never got invested in the main story of the Dopplegangers of the family, it just went over my head. I wanted the film to end, which is a shame because I was really looking forward to it. There’s also a lot of horror clichés that you see coming a mile off and are nothing new or refreshing. The ending is a mess which you can also see coming and any twists they put in are also visible from a mile off. The ending also didn’t make any sense. It didn’t explain the idea behind the story. One of the bigger twists in the film is so dumb it just raises more questions which serve only to irritate the more you think about it. I’m not gonna spoil what the twist is, it was creative, but it came to late and followed too much nonsense for it to be effective. The pacing of the film is off with a slow buildup to more of the same again and again when the others finally do show up, I was bored. People coming out of the film afterwards were also grumbling at the same. The characters, to me, are boring and I didn’t care for them. I found myself laughing more at their stupidity than caring for their situation. Right from the start, they constantly make stupid decision after stupid decision.

Overall, Us is a mediocre follow up to Get Out. There are a few good qualities to the film, but I didn’t enjoy the experience. I don’t hate it, but after a successful debut film is just very disappointing. I have faith in Peele as a director. I know that he can do better. This is probably by far the most overrated film of this year so far.

Score: 5/10

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