Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Tim Heidecker, Elizabeth Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Evan Alex

(7-Very Good Film)

Illusive. Adept. Messy.

A group of doppelgangers terrorizes an affluent African-American family. Expecting a horror film that reflected ideas of the duality of man, Us is instead about privilege and classism. There’s the Wilson family-mom (Nyong’o), dad (Duke), daughter (Joseph), son (Alex)-vacationing in beautiful Santa Cruz, the perfect nuclear family, and there’s “the tethered,” doppelgangers dwelling in tunnels below society, voiceless and inconsequential. This is, at least, how I came to understand red-hot filmmaker, Jordan Peele’s, latest, a film abundant in metaphors, foreshadowing, and red herrings. It’s difficult to put your finger on what exactly it all means. Especially with the amount of questions I still have. What’s clear for me is that I will be revisiting this film at some point. Us failed to satisfy me viscerally or cathartically. It becomes obvious all too soon, who would live and who would die, diluting some of the suspense. Us appeals more to the intellect, and as a result, time and repeated viewings will tell how good it actually is.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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