US by jordan peele

ok I'll come back here on thursday night

Im not a horror fan but the premise of this one has me right intrigued.

It's not bad. Lupita Nyong'o becomes a star. The ending is illogical.

ooh illogical

(i'm seeing it thursday too)

Lupita Nyong'o becomes a star.

This is the first time she's commanded a movie. Without spoiling the last half hour, she becomes Sigourney Weaver in Aliens.

this movie will disappoint those who want A Message About Our Times from Peele, I should point out.

lupita in a power loader is an instant ticket sale for me xp

this movie will disappoint those who want A Message About Our Times from Peele, I should point out.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 20, 2019 7:10 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

excellent

the audience, however, loved it. Don't think they want A Message, which is a relief.

the letter ‘s’ is not capitalized in the titles of this film

Vanity Fair has a lukewarm take

this movie kicked ass

i saw the illogical ending coming but as farfetched endings in horror movies go: it also kicked ass

this was decent. there's a 90-minute cut in my head that absolutely ruled.

acting uniformly strong, Nyong'o great, obv. Heidecker/Moss a hilarious double act and they were in it just the right amount.

lastly, Miriam Bale is otm here

I saw Jordan Peele compared to Hitchcock but, after US, it's clear Larry Cohen (with a budget) is a better comparison.

— Miriam Bale (@mimbale) March 10, 2019

Coming to this with higher expectations than a genre film well-realized (mostly) will disappoint you.

"A genre film well-realized" is the highest expectation I can think of.

larry cohen! that's a deep cut!
used to sing "the stuff" jingle at school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dLtSNlzanU

The Larry Cohen that made Full Moon High? Because that is a fun little movie.

as per usual I concur w/ Adam Nayman

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/3/22/18277051/us-jordan-peele-review-get-out

who writes the headlines for the ringer, i ask bc they're very good at making me not want to read anything beyond them

Adam's completely incorrect opinion that an unhappy ending to Get Our would have been better (for, I dunno, George Romero's sake) makes me distrust him on this movie.

in general I prefer my horror movies (and satires) to have downer endings

also whether or not you agree w/ him, his argument is a little more than "for Romero's sake" there, c'mon

Interesting - I didn't really enjoy Get Out but the ending belatedly converted me. I thought "He's doing the Romero ending, that's nice but kinda boring" and was pleased it ended with a bit of kickass silliness instead.

can i start talking spoilers yet or would everyone rather i not

give it a week at least!

ok done

maybe i can vaguely allude to how enjoyable the musical cues are

#goodvibrations

Was going to say the same with the music cues. Really enjoyed this all around in a packed theater.

I should add that everyone I saw it with was head-over-heels for it.

yes my preview audience went wild over it, laughing and clapping

ooh illogical

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Wednesday, March 20, 2019 8:42 AM

the low standards of horror fans in a nutshell

thanks morbs

maybe i can vaguely allude to how enjoyable the musical cues are

I was going to see it any event, but nothing piques my interest more. (I've gotta find the right, off-peak time to see it; a big-deal horror film with a packed house is the last audience I want to be part of, even I understand the argument that that's the absolute best way to see such a film.)

It was the first time in a couple years I'd been in that situation, and I was out of practice.

I don't want to sound like a drudge--laughing and clapping (and screaming), great, I do enjoy that. Unfortunately, talking-talking-talking is usually part of the package.

Some stranger sat next to me and he was alternating between audibly whimpering and nervously looking at his phone. He even took a call at one point. (heard behind me: "Is this motherfucker on the phone?"; I so badly wanted to indicate that no, I didn't know this dude)

this movie was a hot mess, the basic premise was pretty interesting but it was over-explained to all hell, and worse, that explanation just didn't really make any sense. i would have liked it much more in a leaner and more ambiguous form. Also, I found the tone to be all over the place -- yeah, jokes can work in this type of film, but I found that they were placed poorly. They often undercut whatever suspense/horror was playing out. Still, there were a lot of good ideas and awesome sequences in the film - the opening funhouse scene was terrifying, and the good vibrations kill scene was pretty beautiful imo

The matinee crowd today was cool, mostly quiet (rapt?) except for a well-timed "that's right!" after Adelaide's "I'll be the one making the decisions from now on."

I really liked everything about this, not sure I see how any part of it was illogical. Most people won't go up the down escalator, right?

This is the first time she's commanded a movie.

That she did.

Skillfully done rather than a rewrite-the-rules effort but I think most of us who have seen it and like it agree there. The implications of the ending (well, last fifteen minutes) are sometimes lost in the crush to get things done, but as I walked home I thought more about Nyong'o's acting choices as well as the initially-hidden beats of the script a bit more and I think it's really striking. It's not a Message On Our Times specifically, no, but it's got more to say about trauma as well as who gets lucky and who doesn't than I thought.

And it may not have been a downer ending on the small scale but the large scale suggests otherwise! Hell of a repurposing of that particular 1986 tidbit.

Oh yeah and interesting to see with a packed-out and fairly vocal crowd that I realized was probably generally at least twenty years younger than me. I kept wondering why people were more audibly spooked than I was but then it made obvious sense later.

Oh and: remembering how Peele rates Branagh's Dead Again means all the scissors stuff makes for an intriguing callback.

I don’t know... certainly was gripping, solid performances, one very impressive shot (toward the end - red Adelaide ECU frame right, Adelaide in BG), paced well, but the “message” here - there is one, it’s spelled out early on (“who are you?” “we’re Americans” - give me a break) - is too obtuse or simply not fleshed out enough to work. “US” double entendre, the MAGA red jumpsuits, people “rising up.” It’s reasonable to be disappointed by a movie that clearly sets out to say something and fails. No one but horror fans would care about this movie if it wasn’t made by the guy that did Get Out.

I suspect the millions who made Get Out a smash thought it a reasonably well done horror film. They do well in the box office, you know! People don't think about messages. The far worse A Quiet Place was a massive hit last year, remember?

but the “message” here - there is one, it’s spelled out early on (“who are you?” “we’re Americans” - give me a break) - is too obtuse or simply not fleshed out enough to work.

Just posted about the can't-miss symbolism in the Trump Films thread. I don't know, I think that's probably the best thing about the film (and Get Out). Peele is really talented, but I agree with the David Edelstein review I just read: the horror-film stuff almost holds him back--I find all that stuff a clever collage of other horror films at best, rather conventional at worst.

Sure, reasonably well done - that is a disappointment after Get Out, and the crowd I saw it with was totally tepid on it. Not that everyone will go in expecting a new social horror from Jordan Peele (though I know many will), but the “message” in Get Out is fully integrated into its dramaturgy. The horror and the message are one and the same. That’s what made Get Out so powerful, and it’s a high bar. This one is so much more obscure & confusing frankly.

Would love to talk spoilers because I have a problem with a pivotal monologue and the ending

I think this should be expected/assumed to be a spoilery space by now. Mark them with warnings if yer concerned.

yes

I did not get what the final twist added to the story tbh

made clear the Tethered's behavior was a matter of nurture and not nature, for one

that said I sort of assumed the twist before it was made explicit

Spoiler warning...To go back to the illogicality, though: if you've got mom and shadow-mom, and they spend the film going at each other, how, at the last minute, can you say that mom is shadow-mom? That doesn't work.

Another minor quibble. Before shadow-family shows up, mom tells dad that there have been all these coincidences anticipating their arrival. What were there, maybe three? The bible guy being taken away in an ambulance, okay, but the others were pretty weak: frisbee lands on a circle, clock shows 11:11...they're not even coincidences.

Spoiler warning...To go back to the illogicality, though: if you've got mom and shadow-mom, and they spend the film going at each other, how, at the last minute, can you say that mom is shadow-mom? That doesn't work.

This was my problem too.

i'm excited to watch it again

ending at the very least has at least caused me to think about this movie for days

Spoilers-I guess the twist shows that there's no intrinsic difference between the characters and their shadow selves, but I agree the twist wasn't necessary to drive this home. I've been trying to decide whether, if there was a message here, the twist strengthened or weakened it. I'm leaning towards thinking the movie would have been better without it.
When the presumed-shadow mom said to the actual-shadow mom, "You could have taken me with you" doesn't a line like that have more resonance without them having been switched?
I also would have liked it better without so much explanation, like that monologue at the chalkboard. (And while Lupita N'yongo was great, I found that voice difficult)

I thought the two most effective scenes were the opening in the funhouse, particularly where the girl spots her double from behind (interesting that this is what Rod Serling said inspired the TZ episode that Jordan Peele cites as inspiration for this) and the scene with the shadow family standing silently in the driveway, After that there was really no tension in the movie for me-and it was very early in the movie for the tension to be broken. It was still fun and entertaining, and the performances were all good.

that said I sort of assumed the twist before it was made explicit

Man, crazy that Larry Cohen's passed away this weekend given Miriam Bale's quite apt call via that tweet posted above. Us really DOES feel like a Cohen film, and I mean that incredibly positively.

As for said twist, I honestly was surprised, which may explain something of me more than anything else. But that made me more intrigued, not less.

Saw this friday night with a tipsy and excitable crowd, so much fun. Everyone really connecting on a visceral level.

I didn't assume the twist, but it occurred to me from the scene at the beginning with the the child psychologist. I'm not the biggest fan of twists in general. At least I'm still thinking about this one.
Maybe the twist and exposition were partly a way of explaining away the horror-movie convention of the central characters being treated so differently from others who were seemingly dispatched so expediently, but I don't think it was really necessary.

the shadow family standing silently in the driveway

Probably my favourite image in the film.

As you can tell, I have problems with the execution of the film. Most of all how prolonged the last 15 or 20 minutes felt, but, more broadly, from the moment the shadow-mom explains her life in the living room, right up until the final twist, it's basically just one long attempt by the Wilsons to escape; I don't know that there's a single new bit of information in that stretch, and that's half the film.

The more I think about it, though, I think the conception of the film--the Trump interpretation, which to me is inescapable (not to say that there aren't valid psychological interpretations concerning the self)--is fantastic. Family looks uncomprehendingly on some monstrous version of itself, one fueled by rage and resentment that has literally crawled up from the sewer (which, speaking honestly, is how most Democrats view most Trump voters).

"Who are you people?"
"We're Americans."

That's perfect--and coming from an African-American filmmaker, generous and empathetic above and beyond. I've always thought that at moments of great peril, a horror film can go places that more literal films can't get anywhere near. Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary's Baby confronting 1968, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for Watergate and the Nixon meltdown, etc. Us is pretty great at that level, I'd say.

This was decent
Didn't enjoy as much as Get Out

I was looking forward to a hysterical Armond White review, but they assigned it to someone else (to be fair? doubtful):

http://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/jordan-peeles-get-out-follow-up/

Kinda ok with the twist. I mean it makes sense in that Red was weirdly the only tethered that spoke, and why she refused to kill the doppelganger kids and screamed when Pluto immolated.

And it does reframe her fear - someone is a lot more likely to fear someone coming back to take revenge if they know they wronged somebody violently years ago....and are inadvertently returning to their lair. Though are we really meant to believe that as many years as they visited that summer home, they never went to Santa Cruz beach once? Wouldn't Adelaide be anxious vacationing in a summer home that close to the scene of the crime?

But I also wonder how the tethered broke free enough of their hosts to be independent. Presumably that's what Red taught them to do? Since both bodies shared one soul. Explains why Pluto was weaker and just copied his host whereas the others didn't.

Thought it was pretty good. May see again.

“We’re Americans” is the clunkiest bit in the movie! MAGA red jumpsuit sewer people “rising up” gets the message across fine. What does the line even mean? I also take back what I said about it being well paced, it’s not, like others have said above it’s half an hour of build up and then a thrilling chase, and an exposition dump in the last 20 minutes. There’s no space to expand on whatever sociopolitical message was intended because of the very long chase. So we get the Americans line which sticks out like a sore thumb, and the wall across America of MAGA red shadow people at the end.

Good ingredients here. Shockingly bad execution.

They were mimicking Hands Across America, which the young Adelaide saw a commercial for on TV. One of the clues that Red was really Adelaide. They even reminded the audience of this before the twist.

It's not clunky at all. If you think it's overkill, then get rid of the red jumpsuits--I do not believe that most people (I certainly didn't) immediately equate red with MAGA; I don't believe red has been subsumed under that one very specific meaning.

In addition to the line showing solidarity amongst the Tethered, a show of power and uprising, it could also be seen as a critique of fundraisers like HAA, which made people feel warm and fuzzy inside, but fell way short of its fundraising goal and is looked upon with cynicism in retrospect

Xpost

I don't believe red has been subsumed under that one very specific meaning

What about the phrase "red America"? (I haven't seen the movie yet.)

What does the line even mean?

Doesn't seem especially opaque. It means they're Americans, just like the Wilsons.

(xpost) Okay, but historically, red also the meant the red scare of the '50s--it meant the opposite. For me, "We're Americans" states very simply and very eloquently the heart of the film.

Having just re-watched Malcolm X for the umpteenth time, I'd also say it turns Malcolm's great "Before we were Democrats or Republicans..." speech on its head. That ends (or is situated close to the end) with "Before we were Americans, we were black."

my problem with "We're Americans" is it suddenly foregrounds a political statement in a movie otherwise full of vague & far less didactic commentary. I shouldn't have asked what it means, really I want to know why it's there to stand alone right before an hour of apolitical horror thriller chase begins. a wall of zombie shadow people wearing red jumpsuits stretched across America seems obviously a Trump image to me. But this movie doesn't give us enough to go off of to say one way or another.

They were mimicking Hands Across America, which the young Adelaide saw a commercial for on TV. One of the clues that Red was really Adelaide. They even reminded the audience of this before the twist.

― early to board the Buttigieg train (Neanderthal)

I know. All of this is impossible to miss. Doesn't make the metaphor any clearer, particularly when all this is shoved into the very beginning and very ending of the movie.

The red jumpsuits didn't automatically bring Trump to my mind. The connection does seem obvious, but the symbolism of the color red, particularly in a horror context, are vague enough that I wouldn't just flatly equate the two.

I do agree that the "We're Americans" line felt awkward, but specifically because that moment felt markedly more pointed and topical than the rest of the symbolism, including the red jumpsuits.

Could the red suits be a nod to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, wherein the slave apes wear red jumpsuits?

I do agree that the "We're Americans" line felt awkward, but specifically because that moment felt markedly more pointed and topical than the rest of the symbolism, including the red jumpsuits.

Exactly, and that line alone is what suggests the jumpsuits are MAGA red. yes, of course the color red has many, many symbolic meanings, but that line - which comes out of nowhere - invites a Trumpist/"red America" reading of the rest of the (much more vague) symbolism in the movie.

Pointed and topical is not inherently bad. I'm not ceding an inch on this--that line has to stay. If you want, keep it in for dummies like me. I mean, you've just said that the line is what gives the jumpsuits their meaning...I don't know why you'd prefer vague symbolism to something concrete. It's not like he piles on one Trump reference after another.

I was thinking that maybe the ending operates on a Fight Club level. Edward Norton does battle with Brad Pitt (sometimes), in the end they're the same person. I think, anyway--I hate Fight Club.

Being pointed and topical can be amazing (Get Out), but imo Peele doesn't follow through on that line. The line doesn't give their jumpsuits their meaning, but it's the only point we have to go off of. The line makes it obvious there's something to the horror beyond a genre exercise, so................... what is it? and the twist totally complicates all of this.

I don't know why you'd prefer vague symbolism to something concrete

More to think about. But again, it's not that there isn't much to mull over here, I just have no idea what Peele wants us to mull over in the first place.

Saw it again. Now that i wasn't trying to guess the damn twist, I loved it. Genuinely unsettling.

I like the ending. I think though the key to the awkwardness of how previous dialogue seems not to make sense is that Adelaide actually doesn't remember she is the kidnapper until the end. Whereas Red has been underground for 30+ years not talking so it stands to reason her voice is labored from disuse. And she's probably gone a little mad.

It STILL doesn't work perfectly but hey, there have been much more egregious "unreliable narrator" twists.

I did like how Adelaide's language degrades into a primal scream when killing Red. A bit of remembrance of her past prior to having to "act" as Adelaide again when she finds her son.

Vox (yea fuck off) pointed out the line to Elizabeth Moss about "sometimes having trouble talking" might have been subconsciously
a literal statement. Since she had to learn English after being almost ten years behind her peers. Plus old instincts etc

not bad, but nowhere near as good as Get Out

twist was so east to guess cmon

Neanderthal's post makes me understand something very basic that I was missing for some reason--they simply switched places in that funhouse 30 years ago. I was fixated on the idea that mom was somehow simultaneously herself and shadow-mom at the same time. So the ending isn't illogical; you can complain about it on other grounds, but it does make sense, I guess.

Why did Adelaide stay in the tunnels all those years when Red was able to escape fairly easily?

“we’re americans” is an amazing and awesome line

that it’s difficult to derive a single clear message from this movie is... good

and i’m just gonna say i liked this better than get out

The line doesn't give their jumpsuits their meaning, but it's the only point we have to go off of. The line makes it obvious there's something to the horror beyond a genre exercise, so................... what is it? and the twist totally complicates all of this.

you want an explainer not a movie

I agree that the thematic ambiguity is good. I did find the actual script needlessly overburdened with content to interpret, incl "we're americans" tbh. things left unstated are much more unsettling.

I think “we’re Americans” works as deadpan, that’s how my engaged crowd seemed to take it, any other level aside.

Why did Adelaide stay in the tunnels all those years when Red was able to escape fairly easily?

― Chris L, Monday, March 25, 2019 7:38 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

She was handcuffed to her bed. Presumably someone eventually helped her out of it but perhaps it had been so long that she had no idea how she would get out and find her parents?

From 14 on she seemed more interested in inspiring the others.

that it’s difficult to derive a single clear message from this movie is... good

Yeah, agreed. I mean, does everyone finish their first watch of The Shining frustrated that the message isn’t clear?

“We’re Americans” sets up that there are two classes of people who are tethered but do not visibly overlap. While watching it, I thought the Tethered were from a world where slaves were never freed...but in the end the story feels as much about class as race. You grow up in the underworld, you don’t get to heal your face, and so on. And what does the main family owe that underworld, whether they are their ancestors or themselves if not for good luck?

I think “we’re Americans” works as deadpan.

That too, definitely.

/The line doesn't give their jumpsuits their meaning, but it's the only point we have to go off of. The line makes it obvious there's something to the horror beyond a genre exercise, so................... what is it? and the twist totally complicates all of this./

you want an explainer not a movie

Go watch Magic Mike then

But there’s only two of them

Just skimmed this--unqualified rave.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/review-jordan-peeles-us-is-a-colossal-cinematic-achievement

Just saw this, flopson otm about the twist being easy to spot. Seemed like an obv possibility from the start if you’ve like ever seen anything before, and then when she’s finishing off the one twin and grunting just like the tethered ppl do and the son comes in and stares at her horrified, clearly suggesting that he’s starting to figure something out, and then they keep on piling on massive hints from there... cmon is right

I liked how the men were awful on both sides

I'm in love with Gus.

Gabe rather

he was great

here's my review fwiw

(The Dad from Get Out) I just thought Get Out had so much more to say about white liberalism.

-@samzorn

— Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable) March 25, 2019

I really liked this and found the way it fit together (or didn’t) really satisfying but I could definitely have done with more of the shadow family because I found them really frightening esp the husband and daughter

Elizabeth Moss’s fake devastation turning to mocking laughter - you know it’s coming, I feel like I’ve seen this so many times but the way she did it was great

Actually I’m not sure the devastation was fake

her best screen performance

can we change thread title to ‘Us’

Film people are really into ALL CAPS TITLES idgi myself

ya but in this case it’s confusing because titles only two letters so it looks like an abbrev. bothers me

It's just a titling convention, sheesh

it's not tho is the thing

see promotional material for the film and listings.

simon was saying what wins said. it's true that the title and thematic concerns of this movie mean that the standard titling convention creates confusion. the world's just a big ol mystery :(

peruse new answers and you'll see several all-caps movies and TV titles

i realize it’s insanely pedantic ok

Are we all tethered now

saw it again. decided that the ending isn’t illogical at all really, it makes the film make sense

my main take was that an excellent way to have your audience leave with a more positive impression of your film than they previously had is by sticking Les Fleurs on at the end of it

saw it tonight

flappy is nutso w/ this relentless "MAGA red jumpsuit" thing, as if jumpsuits or any red clothing items beyond transplant-protecting caps were associated with Trump

there's a broader melange of on-the-nose allusions: people wearing prison-style jumpsuits, chained and tethered and joined to each other, an underclass marked by this clothing and colour rising up

good night

good morning!

sic otm

also on top of the excellent performances from the central cast, tim heidecker and elizabeth moss are both phenomenal in this

Heidecker was born to play a murderous subterranean ape who is also somehow still just an asshole

I don't know if I ultimately more than merely liked the movie, but there was enough going for it that I loved, important stuff, like acting and direction and score, that I'd still recommend it to someone. I mostly wished there was less explaining and more sticking to the metaphors and fairy tale motifs.

I actually like it more the morning after than I did right after I saw it. Plenty of fuel for thought in this one, and I look forward to reading a bunch of think pieces. Honestly I agree that the MAGA metaphor is the most coherent one at work here (bar the unnecessary twist), but obviously there's a lot of other stuff going on as well.

Oh, and the uppercase US can't be a coincidence. US=U.S.

yeah it's not uppercase though, is the point

Actually Us stands for "Universal Soldier" and the twist is this movie is in that universe

The title in the opening credits is ambiguous re: upper v lowercase.

no it isn't

the allusion is obvious, but the title is written as Us in the film and every piece of promotional material

Still not a coincidence, imo.

well they say we’re americans

Oh, and the uppercase US can't be a coincidence. US=U.S.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, March 29, 2019 10:06 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

look what you did Simon

jesUs christ

justice, or just us?

The very beginning in the funhouse was great, and that twist at the end - which I winced at right after it happened (didn't see it but I never try to work stuff out in advance) and then it worked its way through as mirroring the kind of confusion that we find ourselves in. Until then this settled into a serviceable enough Romero-by-numbers with a hint of Haneke's Funny Games, with its play and violence in those well-off settings, but that ending hasn't yet let go.

Haunting. Movie will stick with me. Great performance all around.

this was great, all the performances were so excellent. i did sense the twist coming, starting from that early scene in the psychologist's office, but the movie didn't depend on the twist being surprising, necessarily.

Re: the final twist, is there anything really gained by that? I suppose it's just the final character beat of a villain who has played a veeeeeeery long game, but even so it (like the film) might have been a little more effective with some more ambiguity, though to be fair the movie's already ambiguous enough to bear a few different interpretations. Anyway, it's the rare movie definitely worth thinking about despite any number of elements that you're better off not thinking about. Peele toes a pretty precarious line with the exposition drop and the final twist, but he's such a good director and the acting is so good that he pretty much pulls it off.

Ending, fwiw, reminded me of the ending of "The Invitation." Lots and lots of echoes of "The Birds" in this, too, ending and all.

all the performances were so excellent.

yeah, I'd give this the imaginary casting Oscar

Ending, fwiw, reminded me of the ending of "The Invitation." Lots and lots of echoes of "The Birds" in this, too, ending and all.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, March 31, 2019 10:05 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

something i read pointed out that the final shot of lupita was a wink towards the final shot of the thriller music video and that makes so much sense

Huh. Yeah, I like that!

That owns

I was always struck at what a good actor Peele was (along with Key) in their show, which made the parodies and skits really convincing, but the downside is that every time I see him interviewed now I keep thinking he's playing a character.

lol maybe he is, did you see his Jack Torrance outfit?

Winston Duke as Gabe = Winston Duke as Jordan Peele

saw it again. decided that the ending isn’t illogical at all really, it makes the film make sense

i think it’s undercooked

feels like ‘the metaphor’ was left ambiguous for the sake of interpretive ambiguity, but there’s not actually much there for rich inrerpretating...

Haven’t seen again but my sense is that the “nonsensical” part is not at all the carefully foreshadowed ending but the expository speech in the dénouement, which was the one part I struggled with when I saw it.

i mean yes, it totally is, and yet i'm also not really bothered by the expository speech especially bc, even without the twist, it's much less expository than it seems

my feeling is that adelaide's submerged memory of being one of the tethered resurfaces gradually over the course of the movie though it also doesn't require this reading at all to *work* bc either way... she's a survivor in every negative and positive sense, whether she's aware of how corrupt her moral compass is or not

also, the script wasn’t actually that good..? the dialogue between the family in the beginning felt stiff, most of the character development was cliched; dad is goofy (the scene with the boat fell flat, like the physical comedy wasn’t even well-timed), daughter’s on her phone, mom stares out window with uneasy dread... i really think this is a huge drop off after get out

All fair enough, I need to rewatch both (and I am never your man to talk to about “character development”)

yeah I thought the same thing about the script flopson, remarkably awkward & stilted dialogue, and not the actors' fault (who were all great in this)

i'm probably ruined forever re: being able to tell when dialogue is stilted but also i don't really care. all the character development seemed credible and felt to me

Eh, family stuff was pretty solid, imo. Dad was a buffoon, but a plausible one. There was a really good line in the Lane review:

What the Wilsons encounter, in the course of the plot, is harrowing and outlandish, but they have too many wits to be frightened out of them, and it’s the very normality of the family that sees them through. If Pixar made an animated version of “Us,” it would be called “The Credibles.”

I think this is one of the best aspects of the film. They're freaked out to begin with, but it doesn't take them long to get into the swing of things (so to speak), and during the brief respite when it transitions from a take on a home invasion movie to, essentially, a zombie comedy, the family dynamic played out pretty amusingly. Speaking of swinging, what was up with the golf gloves the morlocks had on? Or, for that matter, the bloody handed guy who is the first of his kind we encounter on the surface?

I also don't know what to make of all the 11:11 stuff, other than ... twin numbers. By why those numbers? Anyway, Red Letter Media guys made a really clever observation that the Golden Gate Bridge and Twin Towers from the Hands Across America video are visually pairs of "11," too.

Or, for that matter, the bloody handed guy who is the first of his kind we encounter on the surface?

blood dripping from his hand was from his double whom he had just killed

i didn't notice the first viewing that he's the first person in the hands across america chain

11:11 is explicitly linked to a bible verse, that’s why those numbers

it was also pointed out to me that the black flag logo is 1111

pretty sure this isn't significant but it's funny

Black Flag shirts show up twice, iirc.

I thought Lupita's double was the first to lead them up, but I guess it was already in progress? So the "real" 11:11 guy, the one being loaded into the ambulance, had he then apparently been killed by his double? He seemed really old, but the bloody guy seemed young.

And xpost my friend and I both thought Jeremiah was a made up book of the bible!

So the "real" 11:11 guy, the one being loaded into the ambulance, had he then apparently been killed by his double

yes

the bloody guy seemed young

you don't see his actual face until later in the film and he's the same actor so ... idgi

I probably just missed it. I guess 11:11 guy just jumped the invasion gun.

11:11 guy was there freaking out red before she even went into the funhouse so both versions of him are kind of outside of the plot

Yeah, he was there in 1986. But that wasn't "red" then, that was "real" Adelaide. Right? So he was probably just the "real" version of 11:11 guy, and bloody guy at the end was the tethered one who had replaced him. Def. a lot of things to miss/catch in this, I look forward to seeing it again.

NIV: "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."

KJV: "Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them."

i mean wins is still technically correct. but yes def see it again josh xp

AD: "And As It Is Such, So Also As Such Is It Unto You"

Yes, red is “real” Adelaide sorry for spoiler josh

But before she first went into the funhouse and was kidnapped and brainwashed she was just regular ol' Adelaide, right? So the first time she sees 11:11 guy he is just weird 11:11 guy, but the second time, as an adult (and only in her son's picture, right?) 11:11 guy is her bud from the Underneath. Right?

Yeah the person we know as red is the grown up version of the original Adelaide

My whole point is that that guy already points to what’s up in the “normal” world, hence “kinda outside the plot”.

Literalist version: proximity to tunnel entrance and marginal status make him sensitive to the underground world

Non-literalist version: it’s a freaky thing that peele put there

In both versions it makes sense that he’d be in the vanguard of the invasion

overworld Adelaide sees overworld 11:11 guy before going into the funhouse and getting snatched

underworld Adelaide does not have active memories of the underworld for the next thirty years, so we don't know if dead overworld 11:11 body reminds her of an underworld 11:11 pal, or of the first overworld human she set eyes on when she swapped

but either way it reminds her of the 30-years-ago trauma she has been trying to avoid by staying away from the beach

some have theorized her voice was so labored not because she hadn't spoken in 30 years and was out of practicce, but that her voicebox was injured due to the choking she was subjected to by her tether and of course, no doctors below, so the damage was never repaired and she was Tha D.O.C.-ed

I assumed it was Red violently lunge-choking her (plus disuse) as soon as Red violently lunge-choked her

So last night for our mom/son movie weekend, I picked “The Shawshank Redemption”. Tonight he picked “Us”. 😳 #NoComparison #IWillBeSleepingWithTheLightsOn@JordanPeele

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) May 5, 2019

This was kinda bad...? Just on a structural level - too little characterization, way too much exposition (which still managed to somehow leave tons unexplained), a “twist” ending that I had watched the whole film assuming was the case, loads of flubbed beats/things that should’ve been scary but just came off stupid. Great cast all around, looked great, good score, loved the Santa Cruz stuff but all in the service of some not-too-well thought out ideas.

yup. huge disapointment

I'll still watch whatever he does next - I liked that one Twilight Zone episode of his that I saw - but it was weird how slapdash this felt, plot-wise. Really everything that was wrong with it came down to the writing.

At least Heidecker was reliably hilarious.

This really seemed like a script that had been gathering dust until Peele had the breakthrough hit, and then it got made without anyone giving it a good old once-over like it needed. Still looking forward to his next move though.

'antebellum' apparently... trailer looked intersting

thought it was interesting, with the dichotomy of “them” and “us”, where the monsters are almost exactly like the heroes

as he said, the fear of american society

and Lupita Nyong'o was amazing I thought

This really seemed like a script that had been gathering dust until Peele had the breakthrough hit, and then it got made without anyone giving it a good old once-over like it needed. Still looking forward to his next move though.

― Sent me the wrong t-shirt it says let’s summon demons (Matt #2), Monday, December 9, 2019 8:10 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm, although apparently he only started writing it after Get Out was a hit. It shows - huge expository dump at the end just sinks the whole thing.

It's no more egregious in length or scope than any other horror denouement.

i also thought this was kinda bad. although i didn't really love get out either tbh. *runs away and hides*

still love this movie, its looseness is what makes it great imo

yeah I was hesitant the first time, but loved it the second.

they had an Us haunted house at Halloween Horror nights and it ended with the "hands across America" thing, it was really dope.

don't think it would make much sense as a house to anybody who didn't see the movie though

the expository dump at the end is especially weird because it's between two characters who both already know that shit

they both know they switched places that night. The tether who escaped sure as hell didn't know anything beyond that, she never visited the person she swapped with.

The tether has no idea what the real Nyong'o was doing below the surface all of those years, or how she organized the tethers to kill their surface overlords.

here is the entirety or Red's speech. It's safe to say the Adelaide knows all the bolded stuff. This is bad writing.

How it must have been to grow up with the sky. To feel the sun, the wind, the trees. But your people took it for granted. We’re human too, you know. Eyes. Teeth. Hands. Blood. Exactly like you.

And yet, it was humans that built this place. I believe they figured out how to make a copy of the body, but not the soul. The soul remains one, shared by two. They created the Tethered so they could use them to control the ones above. Like puppets.

But they failed, and they abandoned the Tethered. For generations the Tethered continued without direction. They all went mad down here. And then... there was us.

You remember? We were born special. God brought us together that night.

Years after we met, the miracle happened. That’s when I saw God, and he showed me my path. You felt it too. The end of our dance the Tethered saw that I was different, that I would deliver them from this misery. I found my faith and I began to prepare. It took years to plan. Everything had to be perfect. I didn’t just need to kill you. I needed to make a statement that the whole world would see. It’s our time now. Our time up there. And to think, if it weren’t for you, I never would’ve danced at all.

it was humans that built this place. I believe they figured out how to make a copy of the body, but not the soul. The soul remains one, shared by two. They created the Tethered so they could use them to control the ones above. Like puppets.

But they failed, and they abandoned the Tethered.

this chunk especially - never alluded to in the film before, but basically explains the entire setup in one fell swoop while just raising more (mostly stupid) questions. (Humans? Which humans? Why? How did it work? What was the goal? Why would they leave people alive down there if it was a failed experiment? How did they stay alive? etc etc)

if your explanation doesn't actually explain anything, better to just leave it totally ambiguous and leave the audience wondering imo

does red know that adelaide knows it

my read has always been that they were young when it happened and their environments changed so drastically and permanently that they legit forgot the switch happened, idk

they stayed alive by eating the rabbits obviously but i don't particularly care that the exposition is stupid

also adelaide was a kid when she transitioned into the outer world, she wouldn't necessarily know anything about the whole project

they both know they switched places that night. The tether who escaped sure as hell didn't know anything beyond that, she never visited the person she swapped with.

The tether has no idea what the real Nyong'o was doing below the surface all of those years, or how she organized the tethers to kill their surface overlords.

― master of nuggets (Neanderthal), Thursday, December 12, 2019 2:36 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

or, you know, this post, which nothing you've said contradicts shakey

yeah, it very much read like the tether had remembered events to where she was the victim. after killing the people in the friends house, she starts making primitive, animalistic noises after the act was done, same when she fights Red at the end. her son hears some of it and is actually scared of her in the van, it appears. sounds like she regressed enough that she remembered at the end of the movie that she was the one who swapped places.

and obv I know Hollywood always treats repressed memories in a very unrealistic way but who cares.

"why would the devil spin the little girl's head in The Exorcist, surely the girl would be dead as soon as the devil left her body, the same laws of biology apply!"

they legit forgot the switch happened

they both felt some kind of mystical connection during the dance, which is explicitly stated and is decades earlier than the main events in the film

one more time

Years after we met, the miracle happened. That’s when I saw God, and he showed me my path. You felt it too.

I mean *they share a fucking soul* how much more connected could they be

yes they felt some kind of mystical connection during the dance but does that mean they automatically know the entire context of the government project

or at least, that doesn't mean that adelaide does!

so yeah i'm finding more reasons for the exposition dump to exist

the entire context of the government project

government is not referenced

idk why I'm bothering tbh

i don't know why you're bothering either

or why it matters that the government isn't referenced

as a specific point it doesn't matter, but I'm suspicious of any reading that isn't firmly rooted in actual details of what's on-screen.

they stayed alive by eating the rabbits obviously but i don't particularly care that the exposition is stupid

The fun thing about this detail is that if you eat a diet solely composed of rabbit you will starve to death

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

so they couldn't have picked a worse food source for their nonsensical plan!

thanks for that one cinema sins

and a merry christmas to you too

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/ef6b539e-4be2-4388-8d00-05251d9aee20

I loved the first 45 mins, and then spent the rest of the time alternately amused and exasperated. The middle part is definitely the weakest, as it basically becomes a home invasion thriller with this one kooky hook. The final reveal worked ok for me even if it doesn't entirely play fair with the lead character's childhood trauma.

it's a good home invasion thriller! also iirc the part where Peele gets to work more humour than elsewhere into the movie?

I loved this movie a lot and my takeaway from this thread is that I would thoroughly hate watching a movie with most of you

I also have some incredibly unkind thoughts on subconscious bias as expressed in some of the complaints about this movie but they are possibly more about my interpretation of the complaints than the actual complaints themselves.

(Primary being "the dialog was stilted" = "black people don't talk like that")

(I guess I do feel like going there)

thread revive got me all mixed up in light of other recent events. Jordan Peele threatening pre-emptive Iran strike, do I have that right?

say what now?

this is the us politics thread not the us politics thread

there's a broader melange of on-the-nose allusions: people wearing prison-style jumpsuits, chained and tethered and joined to each other, an underclass marked by this clothing and colour rising up

Probably should start a new thread but

☁️ pic.twitter.com/iiDRwVLmbr

— Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) July 22, 2021

And I just posted this in the "No" thread.

Hoping for a "Oh Hell No" director's cut.

NOPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgmq_8PlRY

Separate thread, my friend

Nope (dir. Jordan Peele)