Us

No sophomore jinx for writer/director Jordan Peale with this year's US, but the questions raised by it are as much a frustration as an asset to its highly thought provoking screenplay.  Mainly, it's that climatic twist that troubled me, that caused me to reexamine the entire film.  That's intentional, of course, but also reveals some inconsistencies in the plot, and with character behavior.  To go into more detail would serve to spoil.

Honestly, the very premise of US is a potential spoiler, and knowing little about it ahead of time will lead to a more rewarding experience.  But......here we go.  The Wilson family makes a trip to their lake house in Santa Cruz.  Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) is reluctant as she had a traumatic experience nearby in a beach funhouse many years earlier, enough to leave her mute for some time.  Her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) feels she should get over it and enjoy herself.  They have two children: Zora (Shadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex).   Everything feels ominous. A meetup with their friends is not comforting.

Then one night a mysterious family appears in the Wilson driveway.  They invade the home and are revealed to be dopplegangers.  Where did they come from? What do they want?

The answers come. Somehow, that '80s rally "Hands Across America" is involved.  It is clear that Peale is a fan of Rod Serling, and in fact helped create a new Twilight Zone series, currently streaming on CBS All Access.  Both US and GET OUT, Jordan's breakout film, consider the fantastic to make several points about racism, socio-economics, politics, and the general state of contemporary life in the U.S. Get it? It is fairly easy to read a take on Trump's America, all those folks marginalized, many of whom wear the red hats.  Here, the dopplegangers wear red outfits and identify themselves as Americans.  The arguments you can have over this movie are only limited by your absorption of cable news and the periodicals of your choice.  But even a cursory eavesdrop of people in diners and department stores have not gone unnoticed by the writer/director.

As a horror film, US often succeeds, maybe a bit too eagerly engaging in the familiar tropes. You could enjoy this film on the surface, entertained by narrow escapes, gruesome murders, and Michael Abel's nicely retro (80s-ish) scoring.  It's also clear that Peale was inspired by THE SHINING; some later shots seem like duplications of well known scenes.   In some ways, Peale's direction is stronger this time out, and he's less willing to use B-movie trappings than in GET OUT.  But the cumulative effect was less potent.  The final "gotcha" was fascinating, but the strange illogic and plethora of inquiries I had by the close were quite unnerving.  I suppose that was the idea.