Us (Jordan Peele, March 22, 2019) Movie • Page 15

About to head in

 

There has to be SOMETHING supernatural at play here, they are linked in ways that are very specific. I feel like Get Out really explained the surgery idea and had the Sunken Place has a psychological metaphor (not a real thing), but then this never really explains who they are, where they came from, how they work, why they only copy the actions of their doubles sometimes. It doesn't make enough sense for me to get over it. Get Out paired the metaphor with the logistics in a way where it was balanced, this is way too much metaphor that whenever they get into even a bit of logistics I'm lost.

 

Unfortunately, making the clones a supernatural phenomenon would’ve undermined the movie’s message, which is strenghened by them being government-created and government-abandoned. But making them man-made has the side effect of setting off the “movies need to make perfect complete real-world logical sense”, CinemaSins-type people. So Jordan really couldn’t win either way here.

 

I think that lets him off the hook too easy. Every movie has plot holes, but there are unresolved issues here that could have strengthened the movie both on a metaphorical and logistical level if they had been tightened up.

 

this feels reductive. not everything needs to make real world sense, but stuff like the tethered version of the game runner giving tethered Adelaide the shirt that idk he apparently just had because reasons doesn’t earn its place other than “this needs to happen or else this plot hook doesn’t work”. why doesn’t tethered Adelaide taking the shirt from real Adelaide after dragging her to the underground and walking off in it work well enough on its own?

 

I thought this was way better than Get Out, but I know I’m way in the minority on that one.

 

idk i really don’t think this movie “making sense” would make it better in any way

 

You have to believe that there is a religious/god concept with the film. It’s really the only way you can put logic to it.

 

Yeah see this stuff also. I don’t know why this matters. But if you need a reason just pretend there are tethered versions of the people who made the real shirt above ground who also made the shirt below ground when the people above ground made it, and then tethered versions of the people who delivered it to the above ground game runner, and so on and so on. If everything above ground is happening below ground too, then every time something gets made above ground it also gets made below ground. There.

Idk, it just seems like this kind of stuff isn’t really important to be concerned about.

 

Got out of this about 45 minutes ago and almost ran over a rabbit right outside our neighborhood. Cool.

 

The movie asks us to sympathize with the tethers but it's kind of hard to get on board with their violent revolution (and reconciling that with their mockery of those they kill) when we don't really know how they come to be, or if the above ground folks actually bear the responsibility, and if their crusade is actually righteous.

I'm not demanding it all make logical sense from a real-world perspective and I don't need each and every iota explained to me, but the in-universe logic is fairly loose and inconsistent in a way that is legitimately worth taking a look at. Trust me I hate the cinema sins shit too.

But moments like The twist directly conflicting with Red's monologue, Red's monologue itself being a really forced exposition dump and Jason being able to force Pluto into the fire because the plot calls for it legitimately had me taken out of the film multiple times.

The film just feels so at odds with itself narratively and even tonally at times.

 

That also just doesn't make sense.

They're government created to control people, but also when left alone they just mimic the actions of the above world, but also they don't have influence over the above people, only the above people can pull the strings. But also they can ignore these strings and just come up out the sewer and kill their counterparts. But also above ground if you put your hands up the right way they have to follow that. The whole concept just didn't even begin to be fleshed out enough for it to make logical sense.

If its government it doesn't make sense that its every person in the world and also all of their kids forever, it doesn't add up, the scale is too ridiculous. If its alternate reality/underground supernatural something then the only thing that'd need to change is the government facility, it'd be in like a Stranger Things esque upside down world, which could still be based on some loose science instead of pure fiction. Whatever it is, it doesn't fully work, it isn't fully fleshed out, and too much contradicts, I'm left very frustrated.

 

I didn't see it that way at all.

Jason knew Pluto mimicked his every move when he mirrored him the closet. It was clearly part of their connection and it was explained during their very first interaction.

 

if he mimics his every move how does he even get to set up a trap? That's my issue with it it's mimicking his every movie at the plot's convenience? I don't think it's ever clear if there is a distinct trigger that causes him to go into full mimic mode you know?

That's definitely a more minor point, all things considered, it only briefly bothered me. The stuff with Red is way more problematic in regards to the narrative.

 

I still enjoyed this movie a lot, but I hate seeing a lot of criticism of it being swept aside as unfounded and that folks shouldn't "overthink" it.

 

Think about what happens when they first interact...

Jason trapped Pluto in the closet by scaring him with the sparking magic trick. Pluto was attempting to trap the Wilson's with fire. That's how Jason knew it was a trap. It ties together pretty neatly if you ask me.

I don't find it hard to think that when they are actually face to face that the connection is stronger. Jason has control over Pluto because they are still tethered.

This has nothing to do with "overthinking" things either. It's right in front of our faces.

 

Fair enough, I didn't consider the inciting (hah) factor to be the presence of a flame, but that checks out.
I wish the film delved a little more into that with the other tethers beyond that moment specifically, Red's dance kinda gets there, but that's really the only other instance

 

Idk, the movie didn’t spoon feed us the answer to every single rule about the world because it isn’t important. And look, the one time we got *some* answers in the movie everyone calls it an exposition dump. While criticizing the movie for not having more exposition dumps?

It’s enough that *this* version of the US government clearly has the ability to create these clones and set up the psychic link, regardless of whether the real world government can do it. Got it. So we don’t know why Red has to now follow what Adelaide does once they switch, maybe it’s because the link works one way (surface controls underground no matter which one it is up there) and the government was planning on flipping the polarity at some point and using the underground people to control the above people. It’s all irrelevant because the experiment was abandoned. Clearly Pluto has some kind of fascination with Jason that has nothing to do with their tether, which the movie clearly established in the closet sequence. As for Tethereds’ ability to rise up and go to the surface, Red being from the surface originally gave them the ability to do it, her presence below changed something in them that made them able to follow her directions.

And if people are not willing to suspend disbelief about the scale of the experiment (which the movie makes clear is just the United States, not the whole world) and the kids being identical and the logistics of the goddamn rabbits then idk I guess that’s a person-by-person thing. But I can’t imagine why any of that is important in any way either. A lot of this just feels like saying Marsellus Wallace’s character motivation is unclear because we never find out what’s in the briefcase.

 

The monologue doesn't work because it slows the film down because of where it is A) placed, B) the split diopter shot is distractingly bad and C) again, directly conflicts with the twist, because her MOTIVATIONS are off, the logic of it is secondary, agreed
I also think there are larger thematic concerns with trying to show them as either good, or morally grey villains we should sympathize with when they clearly have a sadistic streak (And is really the only time the horror/comedy synergize together well in this movie during Tyler family house sequence, it kind of becomes a rather simplistic "We're all sort of bad aren't we?" deal for me (And yes I'm aware of the readings of this as a critique of capitalism/class/imperialism but it feels pretty clumsy to me)

The movie desperately wants us to reconsider their actions, but so fundamentally paints them as garish monsters from the start that I just can't, and I think buying into this film as a complete work hinges on that.

 

Yeah if this is a metaphor for eating the rich under capitalism, the "poor" are treated as soulless monsters who murder without regrets and need a deserving upper class person to lead them, while we're left to sympathize with the rich. Jordan Peele got too much Get Out money i guess.

 

also I feel like any theory people have Jordan is like yeah dude I totally meant that

 

I think there is total validity in a film being read 800 different ways and working on a metaphorical/allegorical level as opposed to reality (I loved Mother! after all), but there is also total validity in feeling conflicted on those themes too, and I just didn't get a lot out of whatever this was trying to say in addition to not getting a lot of laughs or much in scares.

An enjoyable enough time at the theater and I'm interested in seeing whatever Peele does next in terms of feature-length film, but it never crosses into great territory for me, I want to see him dive full hog into the genre which we were promised here but never really got.

 

Not every single little thread needs to be tied up neatly, all movies have plot holes. But Peele has clearly established the tethered as a real, concrete thing and it’s not ridiculous to treat it as such.

Compare that to the idea of the Sunken Place, which works effortlessly as both a metaphor for the silencing of black people and a visual representation of consciousness being separated from the body. The audience knows Kaluuya’s character isn’t *actually* floating in space, I’ve never heard anyone express any confusion about what they are watching there because it’s obvious.

That doesn’t work for the tethered because Peele has established them as being a literal, physical underground society being forced (by whatever method) to mimic the movements of the people above. This isn’t really explored, and the rules don’t follow much logic externally or internally (ie it’s never clear how much agency the tethered have or when that agency comes and goes). There is room to incorporate that into the metaphor (ie do less privileged classes simply “accept their station” without questioning it) but I’m not sure if Peele is going that deep - maybe?

That, and the retrospective lack of logic around the private conversations between the Adelaides (once you know the twist) are the major problems. And both of them are solvable.

 

idk to me it was just trying to convey that “hey there is someone out there just like you with the same dreams and wants but living in the lowest of low conditions”
i think the tethered only being a able to communicate in yells and screams can very much seen as upper class people “policing” the grammar and way poorer people speak without actually hearing what they are saying, i’ve definitely seen that happen, they just sort of tune them out.

idk want to see it again