Review: Us (2019)

Us (2019)

Directed by Jordan Peele

Starring Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss

Universal Pictures

By definition (from Google Translate), “auteur” is “a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie.” This definition can be subjective. For me, Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher, and Steven Spielberg are definitely an auteur. When you watch a movie with a Trent Reznor score, crisp image, and micro camera movement paralleling how the character within the frame moves, you’d be like, “Oh, it’s a Fincher film.” Same with that soft lighting that particularly captures a character’s eyes and extremely talented kid actors that you recognize it is a Spielberg film. I believe Jordan Peele has reached this level with his sophomore attempt, Us.

Us tells the story of a family consisting of the mother Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o at her best), the father Gabe (Winston Duke spouting your best funny-because-it’s-so-lame dad jokes), the older sister Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph who is in Lion King on Broadway), and the younger brother Jason (the ever cute Evan Alex) going to their beach house on holiday. However, this brought stress and anxiety to Adelaide who in 1986, met her doppelgänger at this some sort of haunted house on that very beach. Her fear is realized when one night, a group of people who bear more than a striking resemblance to her family actually does visit their house and terrorize them. And yadda, yadda, yadda.

Auteurism may not merely about style—as I can only able to almost-explain to you (or maybe it is). I personally believe it is more… arbitrary. What it is, though, is consistency. With Get Out and our knowledge of the subsequent deconstructions and distilling of it, Peele put himself out there as a filmmaker whose work reflects a depth that many have attempted but not quite nailed. I have heard him made a statement, either from a podcast I listened or from a YouTube interview (I can’t remember), that goes along these lines, “Your second attempt, you don’t want to go intricate, you want to be simple.” However, he has proved that he is more than capable to do that and actually continued this trend. On the surface layer, the premise of Us might be simpler than Get Out and that corresponds to his statement, but I’d argue that it is way more layered and thicker to digest than the latter. Peele is a smart artist and a very good storyteller. One that dares us to think but still entertains us in the process by not drowning us with the notion of “This means something, and we have to figure this out!” If you want to enjoy it “straightly”, then be his guest, but that is almost a waste because the cake is too delicious if you only want to eat the icing.

I will not try to go into what Us means with its countless symbolisms, allegories, and what have you because it requires a thorough research—and a very long essay—to be done adequately (especially not by someone who is me) and because I want to make a spoiler-free review and preserve your movie-going experience. What I want to do—aside from fangirling to Peele as I have been doing so far—is tell you that Us is a very rich movie, and there is so many angles you can appreciate it from.

If we want to go beyond (or actually scale back?) the arbitrary notion of auteurism to the one that is about style, Us is also a technical delight. The score by Michael Abels is both fitting and haunting, perfectly integrated to every scene but still having an entity to make you notice. The cinematography by Mike Gioulakis resulted in some nice homages to older horror movies and some creepy images that may be preserved in the genre’s history such as the visual of the doppelgänger family on the front yard, unlit beneath the shadows, the yellowish underground facility, or the hall of mirrors. And don’t forget that performance by Lupita Nyong’o, successfully capturing two people, both at the opposite ends of the spectrum. It is a joy to watch, really.

Tackling the issue of privilege and our tendency to brush off or modify the past as a way to move on (I don’t know). Us is a gift of a puzzle that keeps on giving and has cemented Peele as one of the best talents in the entire history of the horror genre. Let us see if he can keep this consistency up.