The Movie: Us
The Director: Jordan Peele
The Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop
The Story: A family's serene beach vacation turns to chaos when their doppelgängers appear and begin to terrorize them.
The Review:
After the cultural phenomenon that was Get Out, a ton of expectation was placed on Jordan Peele for what he would be up to next. The layers of social commentary and the complexity of a story that also plays very well as a comedic thriller put Peele's directorial debut at the top of most people best of lists for 2017 and people wanted more of the same. Us is very heavy on social commentary to the point where I think it's a bit too much or, more to the point, less subtle and a lot more hey look at all the social commentary I'm giving you!
The story feels so heavy handed and the endless exposition bogs down the story so much that it was hard for me to stay engaged. I really don't understand how Peele was able to masterfully tell the story of Get Out in such a sneaky, fun way and then totally flip that around by spoon feeding the audience every bit of plot and story this time around. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to like, I just wasn't fond of how it was all executed.
What was executed almost to perfection was Lupita Nyong'o's dual and dueling performance as Adelaide Wilson and Red, a performance that is stunningly good and impossible to take your eyes off of. After seeing her work in 12 Years a Slave, Queen of Katwe, and Black Panther, I was waiting for her to take on a role that would really showcase her abilities and this is that movie.
Us is a good movie with an original idea that takes too much time explaining itself. I liked it just not nearly as much as I was hoping or expecting.
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