Review of Us (2019) by Alinzpark — 17 Jun 2019

Us’, the sophomore effort of the comedian-turned filmmaker Jordan Peele (who directs, writes and produces the film), is a slasher-thriller about a family who, when they go to visit Santa Cruz, are terrorized by grotesque, misshapen clones of themselves. For only being Peele’s second film, the director has remarkably already found his voice. The camerawork is subtle; never drawing attention to itself, but still technically proficient. Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (It Follows, Glass) proves to be instrumental to the film as much of the tension and unease developed is done thanks to his understated, methodical camerawork.

Speaking of which, the tone is easily the strongest part of the movie. Peele channels David Lynch in this movie by creating a feeling of unease and peril that emanates out of every frame. This is largely helped along by the nervy, string-driven soundtrack by Michael Abels, who scored Peele’s previous film ‘Get Out’. While all performances in the film are great, the standout by far is Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave); whose clone serves as the matriarchal leader for the doubles. Her performance is spasmodic and inhuman and considering the minimalistic makeup on her, the terror inspired by the character relies solely on Nyong’o’s charisma.

The film does have its fair share of flaws, though, and though the script is largely well done, there are a couple of distracting plot-holes and unnecessary twists that end up being more head-scratching than engaging. Also, during the third act of the film, the terror set up in the first two acts are largely lost in favour of tension. Some may also be disappointed if they are expecting the layered, satire of 2017’s ‘Get Out’ as this film is fairly surface-level in its message.

None of these flaws are fatal, though, and as when one considers how filmmakers have performed in the past whilst trying to follow up their breakout hits, ‘Us’ is a rare, pleasant surprise in the sense that the drop in quality between films is nearly invisible. Jordan Peele is slowly proving himself to be one of the most exciting filmmakers to surface in the last few years and he certainly has ‘us’ engaged.