Lupita Nyong’o stars in Jordan Peele’s newest horror thriller depicting a family’s chaos when a group of doppelgängers begins to terrorize them.
Pam says: “Us” starts off strong, but becomes a typical slasher film with gruesome brutality. Thankfully, Peele’s sense of humor is a constant throughout the movie lightening these gory scenes. Strong performances elevate the film, but Peele seems to focus too much on out-doing his last feature that he forgets to focus on the story at hand. The plot twists don’t always add up and there are too many red herrings that create a sense of disappointment as Peele doesn’t follow through. It’s a strong second feature, but doesn’t live up to the creativity and storytelling of “Get Out.”
Chuck says: Combining horror with humor is no easy feat and Peele does this with aplomb here as he did in “Get Out.” It’s this film’s strongest suit as he expertly manipulates us to drop our guard only to have us lurching back in our seats throughout. The movie’s first two acts are very strong, setting up a sense of dread that promises a big payoff. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come as the third act is overlong and the explanation for all that we’ve seen just doesn’t add up. Without question, Peele has a great deal to say about the world we live in and gets some of his points across but in the end, “Us” ends up being a film aspires to greatness but ultimately falls short.
