Us (Jordan Peele, March 22, 2019) Movie • Page 11

”Hardened by an American system that literally created them and then discarded them to a prison below our feet, we are either oblivious or pretend to not see their plight. And when that despair turns into anger, those who’ve lived a life as charmed as Gabe cannot comprehend how they’re Americans or why they’d be so cruel. The violent horror movie plot of Us is a warning (or perhaps a prophecy) about what happens when income inequality gets so great that the only way to gain attention is to make a statement—statements that may not be channeled through peaceful means.”
Really good point

 

Tickets booked for 8 tonight!!

 

Idk about anyone else, but the whole time I was definitely expecting there to be more explicit racial themes, and it was honestly simply because the family was black (though I guess to be fair there’s also Get Out in the back of my mind the whole time). Found an interview where Peele makes a good point about it:

“There are a lot of hurdles with that. The biggest hurdle is with yourself as a creator. It’s easy to get distracted by the fact that a black family in a scene can conjure different ideas and thoughts than their white counterparts in the same scene. As much as the point of Us is setting out to make a movie where it’s not about race, America is about race. It’s always about race. So you can’t really get away from that and people’s experience of the film.

I think it only highlights how important it is that we try and forge into the territory where a black family is just a black family and that’s it. I think one of the things about this movie that makes it an even trickier one to pull off — a movie that’s “not about race” — is that the word “us” is subjective and ambiguous. It can mean anything. If a black person were to watch this movie and have the experience of how “us” means black people, I can’t take away that experience. All I wanted to put into place was the simple notion that for every “us” there is a “them.” And that whoever the “us” is that you identify with, there is a way we relate to them.“

Jordan Peele on piecing together Us in the wake of Get Out

 

I love Jordan Peele’s mind

 

Why did the son doppelgänger walk backwards into the fire? And how did the son know that it would work?...

 

When Jason and his doppelgänger were in the closet, he realized (1) that Pluto mirrors what he does and (2) that he's terrified of fire.

 

Pivoting from race to class was smart, considering the more or less symbiotic relationship between the two

More I think and read about this, the more I’m impressed

 

I think I agree with everything here except for the writer’s interpretation of Jason putting his mask on at the end. It’s open ended so it could be read the way it’s stated here, but my interpretation was a little different. Earlier in the film Jason discovers through Pluto that Pluto shadows his movements. Horrified by the physical trauma inflicted upon his face, Jason puts the mask back on so that Pluto can as well. Later he walks Pluto backward into the fire using this discovered technique. He is taken underground and placed in a locker (where I presume Red kept Pluto caged) and listens in as Red walks Adelaide through their shared history. He then watches Adelaide adopt the violence of her counterpart by brutally murdering Red. Jason does this a few times throughout the film (his reaction to his sister brutally murdering one of the twins) and always appears horrified by what he’s witnessing. Taken back up into the light and driven away to safety, he carefully eyes his mother while reconsidering who she really is. She smiles and he puts his mask back on, just like his counterpart Pluto. Jason, to me, has finally discovered the secret to the magic trick being played on all of “us”. He is literally the next generation putting himself in his counterpart’s (in the class divide) shoes, no longer able to deny the truth in front of him.

 

Plans changed, I’m in the theater for this right now!

 

This is why I love critical film analysis. Awesome takeaway, thank you.

 

Yeah, I think I love this movie now. Haha.

 

wow

he just really knocked it out of the park again with this

so amazing to see him solidifying all the aesthetic choices he made in get out and make something equally as rich in a whole new way. The opening credits with the slow zoom out just feels like you’re watching a classic. The score was phenomenal. There is a lot to take in and i know that like with get out when i see this again knowing how it plays out i will take away a lot more from it. Can’t wait to see this again!

 

I think I like this better than Get Out tbh. But i also wasn't/wouldn't compare the two. It would be like comparing Halloween to The Thing

 

There’s so much to unpack here! I loved it but it was VERY different than I expected.

I saw the ending coming for most of it, but I also was equally expecting it to turn out to be a false reality or something related to her trauma at the boardwalk. I got the references to things like Thriller and Hands Across America from the start, but didn’t expect them to be so literally part of how the Americans came about, more a peek into her mind and what was actually going on.

I totally agree that Jason is aware of what went on and who his mother is and cannot go back to pretending that he doesn’t. He has been changed by what happened and has to figure out for himself what that means going forward. I haven’t read that review though, need to do that soon.

I was really shocked when the Tylers had doubles. I assumed that we were dealing with something really contained to the Wilsons, so it being some national crisis with infinite doubles came out of nowhere for me.

Heidecker absolutely killed me. When he psyched her out on the floor I cackled way too loud. I also thought it was really interesting that he was able to use humor and emote more than most of the others. Led to some super funny stuff and is also pretty thought provoking for that universe.
I was pleased that it wasn’t as gory as it could have been. I always worry going into things totally blind, but this time it ended up doing right by me. I didn’t find it particularly scary, but I will be thinking about the themes for a while.

Now that I know how it goes I think I can convince my mom to give it a go safely. I’m definitely down to see it again knowing everything coming.

 

I do have some questions about how the connection between the Tethered and the Above Grounders works. So I’m assuming that Adelaide quit dancing and began feeling uneasy when she was 14 because she’s tethered to the real Adelaide/Red (Redelaide?) and that’s when Redelaide quit dancing and started revolutionizing down below. So she could feel it coming for years and lived in terror right up to the moment she returned to Santa Cruz. That said, Redelaide tells the family that every choice Adelaide made above ground over the years forced her to make the same ones down below. For example, she was forced to be with Abraham even though she didn’t want to, nor did she love him. So has the tethered connection switched from Adelaide to Redelaide simply by proxy of being below or is there still some form of experimentation going on? Is that also why she didn’t manage to get out (ha) from the tunnels until just now? If she was able to start a revolution like that, why wasn’t she able to find her way out and locate law enforcement and be like “Hey I’m the real me and I’ve been switched with a doppelgänger and there’s something real weird going on underground and I can prove it because I just got out and I can literally walk you down there right now”?

Edit: Though I guess, since Abraham is a tethered, once Adelaide began seeing Gabe then Abraham forced himself on Redelaide and she had no say which...ugh. Perhaps that’s partially what she meant when she spoke about what kind of man he was.

 

I'm also little confused by the logic tying this concept together.

Peele's ability to use humor to diffuse tension but never release it is so good and really well-balanced. I wish his movies were a little scarier, but he's operating at a very high level right now. That sequence where one of the Tyler girls is still alive and attacks Adelaide was freaky, though. Credit to that actress.

 

Just bought tickets to this. The wife and I haven’t been to a horror movie in years. Not really sure what we are in for here haha

She will likely be mad at me I bet

 

I wouldn’t bother sharing this if it was simply a shitty review, but this genuinely reads like it’s from The Onion

'Us' Review: Intense Warning About the Horrors of Socialism | Breitbart

 

Yeah I’m not clicking on that.

 

It’s basically the most surface-level, literal interpretation possible. They are a good wealthy respectful hard working family with no dysfunction or secret dark side and who deserve everything they have, and the doppelgängers and the evil greedy side of us that feels entitled to what other people earned. The family are normal people just trying to live their lives and these disgusting leeches are simply jealous

 

The fuck did I just watch? Lol. So many questions. No idea how I feel.

 

I haven’t stopped thinking about this since I left the theatre

I can’t do spoilers because I’m not home yet so I’ll keep it vague but the black flag symbolism everywhere is probably my favorite detail, I do need someone to explain the significance of the man with the sign though

 

Jeremiah 11:11

Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.

 

And the context of this verse is in response to the idolatry of Israel so it parallels the themes of materialism gone amuck in this film. Also, crazy how it applies to both Adelaide and Red. Everything more or less ends in disaster for both of them.
That’s how I interpret that part anyway.

 

That’s pretty dope