Jordan Peele’s debut film, Get Out, was an un-subtle but effective race allegory. His follow-up gives us more to chew on, but perhaps to its detriment.
Us opens up with a news report covering Hands Across America. It’s 1986 in Reagan’s America. That choice is very important, because Reagan symbolizes the dichotomy of the American experience. Those who were successful in the eighties tend to look back on the man as our last great president, a bastion of righteous yet pragmatic leadership. Those who were less fortunate might revile him as the epitome of the “rich get richer” philosophy, still waiting for his promised prosperity to trickle down. Us is all about dichotomy, about those who are born entitled to a better life versus those who are destined to strive unsuccessfully to keep up. We spend the majority of the movie in present day with the Wilsons, a family consisting of protective but loving mother Adelaide, goofball dad Gabe, older sister Zora, a track star, and peculiar younger brother Jason. They are a charismatic bunch, with a sense of shared history and believable foibles. They represent both sides of the dichotomy.
On the surface, the Wilsons are the entitled and fortunate. That’s because the plot involves a shadow community of sub-human doppelgangers, occupying a network of subterranean tunnels hidden away from society with nothing to eat but raw rabbit. They are tethered to all of us on the surface, forced to mirror our lives in the most hideously contorted fashion. In this reading, we are all the fortunate ones, even the hobo lurking around the boardwalk with a sign that foretells our doom via cryptic bible verse. The tethered are rising up, however, ready to take their turn as the dominant half of America’s population. That uprising drives the plot of the film, leading to creepiness and violence and at least one shocking twist. Yet the movie’s theme is laid out more plainly in the Wilsons’ relationship with their friends, not necessarily their clones. Josh is Gabe’s buddy, also vacationing at the beach with his wife and children. Their relationship as a family has curdled, and they are clearly unhappy. Yet, to Gabe at least, they are something to aspire to. Gabe’s modest house looks paltry next to Josh’s mansion, and he can’t wait to show off his cut-rate boat to his rich friend, having clearly suffered through years of off-hand bragging about status symbols that are out of his reach. In this relationship, the Wilsons’ are the tethered, doomed to worked harder for less reward, constantly making due with a sub-standard version of what their friends enjoy and take for granted.
The trailer for Us is scary as hell. Like Hereditary, it amped me up for such a terrifying experience that the film itself couldn’t quite live up to it. The film is scary though, even if it isn’t as spine-tingling as promised, and it fortifies my belief that Jordan Peele is a preternaturally gifted horror director. The thematic density of the movie is impressive, but that actually works against it in some ways. I watched it in the theater when it came out in spring of this year, but stalled out when it came to writing up a review. It wasn’t until my second viewing that I was able to piece together what I think the film is about*, and even then it took quit a bit of reflection. You have duality represented by the the doppelgangers, obviously, but also their weapon of choice, scissors, with their dual components joined at the middle. The scissors recall bunny ears (as I mentioned, the tethered’s primary food source), and they also tie to the Hands Across America imagery through the old grade-school craft of making a chain of paper people joined by their hands and feet. The tethered’s orange jumpsuits clearly recall that of prisoners, another portion of society living a life of degradation out of sight from polite society. All of this meticulous story-craft is, again, impressive, but it muddies the waters so much that its hard to tell what Peele really wants us to take away from the tale. It doesn’t help that he also tries a little too hard to explain the mechanics of what is happening. Get Out suffered from this a little, but Us really strains under the need to tell us who the tethered are, and how they came to be left in those tunnels.
For the record, I like Us. The acting is uniformly excellent, especially considering that all of the actors are playing two roles. Peele is no doubt made for horror as much, if not more, than comedy. I feel like it misses the opportunity to be truly transcendent, however, by trying to do too much. Regardless, any horror movie that refuses to be generic or derivative is going to get my recommendation, and this is no exception.
* I’m sure there are a million articles, videos and Buzzfeed lists that deem to articulate all the finer points of a movie like this, but I do my best to avoid those types of things until I’ve written my review so that I can offer my own opinion, uninfluenced by the internet echo chamber.**
** Aren’t I so pretentiously uncompromising? This is all clearly so important… allow me to roll my eyes for the both of us.
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