Mark Reviews Movies: US

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 21, 2019

About two centuries' worth of literature, an additional couple hundred years' worth of drama, and many millennia's worth of mythology and tall tales have taught us that it's typically an ill omen to see one's doppelgänger. It's certainly bad news for the young girl who sees her own double at the start of Us, writer/director Jordan Peele's sophomore film. She grows up with the sinking feeling that the double has been following her, waiting for just the right moment to appear again.

Obviously, that's going to happen here, and one of the genuine thrills of this eerie horror film is that Peele doesn't simply go with the obvious. He's doesn't just double down on his premise, either. When the girl, now an adult with a husband and two children, does see her lookalike again, the doppelgänger brings company. To reveal more than the apparent identities of that company might be unfair, but the point is that Peele isn't one to let a good idea go to waste. He keeps escalating the conceit, right up to the point of ludicrousness, but each new piece throws us for enough of a loop that we don't really care if he crosses that line.

It's probably safe to say that Peele doesn't care if he crosses that line, either. His new film is assured in its tone, which goes from dread to comedy without missing a beat. Sometimes, you need that in a horror film, just to get through the oppressive sense of helplessness. Here, though, Peele seems to know that certain clichés and even certain aspects of his premise are worth a laugh or two. He admirably follows through on the inherent logic of this setup, but perhaps more importantly, he's not afraid to acknowledge that the inherent logic of this setup is absurd enough to make a few jokes along the way.

During a prologue set in 1986, the year of Hands Across America (which, despite seeming like a throwaway bit of nostalgia, actually becomes a significant plot point, because there is something of a puzzle behind this plot), a young Adelaide (Madison Curry) sneaks away from her bickering parents at a boardwalk amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. Exploring a funhouse maze filled with mirrors, the girl comes across an apparent reflection of herself—albeit one that doesn't move when she does. The sight of another version of herself traumatizes young Adelaide.

Decades later in the present day, Adelaide, now played by Lupita Nyong'o, is a wife to Gabe (Winston Duke, quite funny as a cheesy dad who can't help but make terrible jokes—even when his life is at risk) and a mother to two children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex). They're on a routine family vacation to Adelaide's childhood home, now her own family's beach house. They spend some time with Kitty (Elisabeth Moss) and Josh (Tim Heidecker), some old friends, at the Santa Cruz beach, but Adelaide fears that she's witnessing too many coincidences for it to be, well, a coincidence.

Back at the house that night, four strangers—a man, a woman, and two children—appear on the driveway. They won't leave. Then, they force their way into the house. Up close and in the dim light, the four strangers don't look like strangers at all. They look exactly like the four members of this family, and each of them has a golden pair of scissors.

Most of the plot can be described as an extended chase, as Adelaide's family members are separated and pursued by his or her respective double. Each pair of doubles gets something unique to do. Gabe and his lookalike, named Abraham and only speaking in grunts, have a fight on a boat with a motor that stops—and, more importantly, re-starts—without warning. Flora, a runner, is chased by her double through the neighborhood. While hiding in a closet, the toy-loving Jason plays the old mirror game with his twin, who wears a mask to cover the burn scars on the lower half of his face.

The only doppelgänger capable of intelligible speech is Adelaide's. She's called Red, and she resents that the course of her life has been "tethered" to that of Adelaide. Everything Adelaide has done, Red has had to do, too—whether she wanted to or not.

Nyong'o's dual performance here is a marvel on two, distinct levels. As Adelaide, she transforms from a pent-up ball of trauma into a cool-headed but fearsome fighter when her family is in jeopardy. As Red, Nyong'o doesn't speak as much as she exhales. Every word is a raspy, guttural struggle, as if she's choking on the very concept of language.

There's something otherworldly to this character (as well as the other doubles), who looks and mostly sounds human but comes across as a mere impersonation of one. We've provided a reason for this, explained in a climactic doling out of exposition. There's a second reason, too, which is so predictable that it's unfortunate Peele saved it for the very end, instead of taking the time to explore what the truth means for the character.

If the explanation for what's happening is underwhelming (As ambitiously weird as it may be, the finale introduces too many juicy ideas that, because it's the end, are dismissed immediately), that's almost irrelevant to the experience of watching Peele's core concept unfold and gradually expand to cataclysmic proportions. The chases, the fights, and, eventually, the scenes of brutal violence are staged with a calculated but intense sense of choreography and timing, as well as a knowing sense of humor. Too many horror movies settle for the obvious, but Us goes beyond the obvious—and comes close to daring to go beyond that.

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