New Classic Movie Review: Jordan Peele's 'Us'

Us was a horror movie event when it was released in 2019. Jordan Peele has turned his every work into something everyone needs to see, something confirmed by his recent film Nope. Following the breakout success of his Academy Award winning Get Out, Peele busted through some very high expectations and created another masterful horror movie. Us is a chilling, gripping, watch-it-through-your-fingers, entertaining creepfest. That it is also masterfully acted and directed is an example of how too many filmmakers allow genre to hold them back. The best filmmakers, like Peele elevate the genre rather than lower themselves to it.

Us stars Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a suburban mother of two. Adelaide is happily married to Gabe (Winston Duke) and the two of them have a daughter, Zora (Shahadi Wright), and a son, Jason (Evan Alex). As we meet them, the family is on their way to Adelaide’s mother’s former home where they will spend the weekend and go to the nearby beach to spend time with their friends, party boy, Josh (Tim Heidecker) and wine-mom Kitty (Elizabeth Moss).

Adelaide is putting on a strong face but as she tells Gabe, she really doesn’t want to be here. The beach holds a very specific and terrifying memory for Adelaide. When she was 12 years old, she was separated from her parents and wound up in a creepy hall of mirrors. There, she encountered a 12 year old girl who looked exactly like her in every way. This was no mere reflection, it was a flesh and blood twin with an otherworldly, dangerous look in her eyes.

Adelaide was changed forever that day and it took years for her to begin speaking and acting as herself again. Now, returning to the beach, Adelaide has begun seeing signs of things to come and old fears begin to re-emerge. Is her doppelganger still out there? What about the terrible menace in those young twins’ cold, laughing eyes? While Gabe remains oblivious, Adelaide has a distinct feeling of dread.

I won’t go any further discussing the plot. That said, there are plenty of elements of Us that you will not see coming. Writer-Director Jordan Peele once again, as he did in Get Out, tapped a thicket of social commentary and metaphor for audiences to either disentangle or simply bare witness to. Peele’s direction is sharply focused and his story and characters have depth, drama and humor.

Lupita Nyong’o is an Academy Award contender in anything she chooses to do but Us especially calls forth our appreciation for her talent. Nyong’o deserved Academy consideration for her dense and provocative performance as two halves of a whole person, the dark and the light, demon and the suburban mother of two. Nyong’o switches effortlessly between the stressed mom on the edge and a psychopath with a severe, sharp edged intensity and manner as her family appears threatened.

Winston Duke, who rose to fame as the massive M’Baku, Black Panther’s rival turned ally in Black Panther and Avengers, plays the comic relief of Us. While Nyong’o is the standout dramatist, holding us in the palm of her hand throughout, Duke plays the comedy heavy, using his 6 plus foot 275 pound frame to give a comic framework to a living, breathing, walking, dad joke. Duke also gets moments to be menacing and intense, but his comic work is what I loved about Us.

Us is one of the best horror movies of this young century. It ranks next to Peele’s Get Out as one of the landmarks of the genre in recent memory. I’m perhaps over-hyping it but I legitimately believe every word of this, Jordan Peele is hitting home runs each time he steps to the plate thus far. I watched Us through my fingers while I squirmed in my laid back, feet-up, movie theater easy chair. I wasn’t still for more than a few moments before my pulse raced again over a new development.

The ending of Us is one of those great, gut-punch endings that even if you are able to predict it, it will still have a strong impact. Jordan Peele is just that damned talented. Us just works that well from a horror construction standpoint. The tension and suspense along with some surprisingly loud laughs and gasps, make for an insanely good time at the movies. Whether you are a fan of horror movies or not, I urge you, if you haven't seen Us, you need to see Us. It's a must see new classic.

Find my 20+ year archive of Movie Reviews now all together at SeanAtTheMovies.Blogspot.com. Follow me on Twitter @PodcastSean or @SeanAttheMovies where I share some of my archive everyday. You can also listen to me talk about movies on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast on your favorite podcasting app.