“Us” (2019)
“Us” (2019)
“It has a philosophy. That is what makes it dangerous.” — David Cronenberg, VIDEODROME (1983)
You know, in retrospect, I should kick myself for not seeing Jordan Peele coming. Almost every episode of his eponymous television series (with Keegan Michael Keyes) featured a skit that combined fantasy, social commentary, hilarious comedy, and something genuinely uncomfortable to watch or consider. He was ALWAYS pushing edges. And while I have no idea what percentage of those skits he wrote and/or directed himself, it was obviousl y an amazing learning/growth environment for a hungry young artist. Keyes was the rubber man, exploding with enough crazy energy for six ordinary comedians. Peele was the Yin to his Yang…but what precisely did that imply? When you combine that with his excellent capacity for mimicry 9essential for modeling excellence)…what did you see?
(The notion that SNL didn’t snap him up after “Mad TV” ended tells you something not entirely joyful. He’d have blown most of the people who have EVER been on that show right out of the water. Andy Samburg’s videos would have looked like fingerpainting)
I should have seen it. Well, all America is about to see it now. To put is simply, “Get Out” was no fluke. It was a work of cinematic excellence (I think “brilliance”) by a man who could combine those things: humor, horror, social commentary…all together with that “Keye and Peele” ability to take a story and twist it into a totally new direction.
I SAW THAT the very first episode of the show, where the two friends were using the word “bitch” in increasing distances from their wives, who were really in control of the marriage. Started in a hallway, ended up on a space shuttle. Wha..?
Oh, right!
In retrospect, it made perfect sense.
But only in retrospect.
##
Peele seems to be creating something…not new, but different and potentially important in his mastery of the core pieces of the puzzle, and his willingness to push edges and speak forbidden truths. “Get Out” explored deep fractures in race relations in America, motivating black people to ask “is there anyone we can trust?” and white people “can we ever be trusted? Is there too much damage?” and triggering conversations of I frankly have never heard, conversations that we’ve needed to have for four hundred years, wrapped up in a genre piece seasoned with enough humor to take the edge off.
HONESTY HEALS when combined with a genuine love of humanity. And a sense of humor. Humor enables us to release tension. It is a life saver.
What genuinely amused me was the people who felt “Get Out” was PRIMARILY a comedy.
Yeah…if you don’t believe black concerns with violence and racism are real. The same people who said this seemed to be in the same group arguing against BLM concerns. Of COURSE it seemed like humor to them. Pry open the box and look at the spiders crawling out, and it’s a lot less funny.
##
Which brings me, finally, to “Us.” Unfortunately, this is a movie to be fully discussed AFTER you experience it. All I can offer right now is the set-up, already seen in the trailers. Don’t worry: you only know the set-up, maybe images from the first act through the mid-act climax. He’s got a lotta mo’, as Mr. T used to say.
The set up: a family on summer vacation finds themselves stalked by a family of dopplegangers, triggering a fight for survival. What you need to know is that it delivers the horror goods, but is less frightening than it is disturbing.
It isn’t like a traditional American genre film with neat answers. More like a mash-up of Dario Argento and J-horror. The “external” logic is less important than the integrity of a succession of increasingly intense and sometimes surreal images. I’ll go as far as to say that the core questions and conflicts are not racial. That’s as much as you get.
##
The direction is crisp and under total control. The music is so damned mischievous that you can’t always believe Peele had the nerve to do what you are watching him do with it. Holy crap.
The performances: from Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex as the children, to Winston Duke (in many ways Peele’s avatar here, comic relief without buffoonery), to Lupita Nyong’o are all wonderful…
But as good as the others are, Lupita is just out-of-the-box stunning. As each actor is playing dual roles, they all must shine, or the conceit falls apart. But Lupita’s mirror-play as both Adelaide and her “shadow” is so powerful you will forget it’s the same actress. I knew her physicality from a Comic-Con video clip where masked, she danced and prowled the crowd without them ever realizing a queen was in their midst.
Here, she is sinewy and vulnerable, terrified and terrifying, hateful and loving, machine-precise and haphazard, tragic and triumphant…often ALL IN THE SAME SCENE. She is totally in control of her craft, dressing down as only an actress totally confident in her sensuality and beauty will ever do, a performance which, in a non-genre piece would be an instant award nominee. We’ll see.
I say it delivers the genre goods. Oh, yes. But does it pay off? Is it totally successful?
Here…I will leave it to the audience to decide. But 80% of an attempted masterpiece is 10X better than 100% of what passes for most “entertainment” in the world. The success of a film is in proportion to the degree it communicates emotion to its audience. There are few objective realities to film other than their duration.
The revelation, the twist, the meaning of all that has come before will hit some people HARD, and others will swear there is nothing there. It’s gonna be interesting. People are going to argue about this one…AND I THINK THAT’S THE POINT.
Much like Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing”, which sought to ask questions rather than propose answers, Peele is pointing his formidable intellect and artistic sensibility at something that touches his heart DEEPLY. Make no mistake: despite its larger scale, this is a blisteringly personal film. And it uses “dream logic” rather than “reality logic” to connect its dots. Try to figure out how every piece fits together with strict logic and you’ll miss it.
I think a LOT of people are going to go along for the ride, and what a ride it is. Make no mistake: if he can pull off one more movie as good as “Us” and “Get Out” we are dealing with a master. And it doesn’t’ need to be his next one, or even the one after that: if he decides to just have fun for a while, he’s earned it.
But if he does? If he can pull off a career as consistent as the names he’s being compared to? He will be something different, a genuine artist, with a perspective that is clear and deep, with tools unlike anyone I’ve seen in America with that perspective. That makes him new, and important.
And like “Videodrome” (which film is not mentioned randomly. Last hint), because he has a philosophy…the man is dangerous.
I’ve got five on it.
Namaste
Steven Barnes