Back in 1986, little Adelaide in Santa Cruz at the fair left her parents, went into the mysterious pavilion of visual objects and there she began to laugh so much that she stopped talking.
Thirty years have passed. Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) grew up, talked, married the good-natured Gabe Wilson (Winston Duke) and bore him two children: a girl, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and a boy, Jason (Ewen Alex).
Gabe bought a summer house near Santa Cruz, and the whole family went there on vacation. Gabe has arranged to meet Tyler’s family – Josh (Tim Heidecker) and Kitty (Elizabeth Moss) – right on the beach next to the attraction that once scared Adelaide so much as a child. Adelaide at first refuses to go there, but then agrees, otherwise what kind of horror movie will it be?
Little Jason went to the toilet on the beach, and when he came out, he saw a scary man in a red overalls, with blood dripping from his hands.
In the evening, mysterious people in red overalls came to the territory of the Wilson house. They crawled out of underground utilities, where they ate only rabbits. They are very similar to the Wilsons, but they hold scissors in their hands and their intentions are clearly unfriendly. blood. There will be a lot of blood. Some Americans will slaughter other Americans in the name of social justice. How do you like that, Donald Trump?!
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Comedian and serial actor Jordan Peele made his directorial debut with a very outstanding film “Get Out”, which delighted viewers and critics, and Peele almost grabbed the main “Oscar” (four nominations, including “Best Picture”, and a victory for “Best Screenplay”
Of course, his next film was awaited with great interest: if the guy started so powerfully, then what will happen next?
And here is his new film with the name “US” (“we”), which is also an abbreviation of the United States (US).
Initially, this is all built as a completely typical horror movie. A little girl wandered somewhere, saw exactly the same girl as she, and was dumb with happiness. Many years later. A friendly family comes to the same places, they are attacked by their shadow double monsters for some reason with scissors (Bublik the cat insisted that I use the tricky term doppelganger, but let him use this crap himself), and it only seems that the old -good rubilovo-mochilovo and blood-guts on the glass, how suddenly all this disgrace for some reason turns into a comedy, while simultaneously retaining all the outward signs of a horror movie.
Lupita Nyong’o diligently, although not too impressively depicts animal horror, and Winston Duke (another alter ego of Jordan Peele himself – he loves this business) plays something similar to buffoonery comedy. At first, the kids also seem to be very afraid, but then they start to wet the monsters from the sewer so that only the dust stands. And somehow they are not very afraid – these are such brave guys!
The ease with which Peel combines seemingly horror with rollicking comedy is somewhat puzzling. Because it’s still not a parody of a horror movie, as one might think. Some of the characters act in a completely serious way, and the audience is kind of invited to worry about them. The other part of the characters is openly joking and not afraid of a damn thing, as if Peel gave them the script to read in advance and they know that they won’t be killed.
The story that all these sewer doubles will take over the human world is no more believable than the story of how these doubles came into existence in the first place. Because according to the film, the twins are frail, miserable (and try to eat only rabbits and live without fresh air), and besides, the only weapons they have are these stupid scissors, with which to cut a jumpsuit is a couple of trifles, but to kill someone is very, very difficult. Therefore, it is clear that a couple of California Rangers with automatic weapons will snap these nasty ones to shreds, so why should we, the audience, be afraid for the glorious state of California? Nefig and be afraid, they will definitely succeed.
Well, separate congratulations to Peel for the final twist, which completely crosses out all the previous events of the picture and was clearly made only in order to do something like that. It looks rather stupid. As, however, and the entire film.
Critics of the film are mostly enthusiastic. A couple of quotes.
“Peel wittily denounces a welfare and consumer society that does not pay attention to those who fall out of their circle. And their twins show the other side of the general hypocrisy.”
Us is an original, poignant, equally scary and funny horror film, and by far the best genre film of the year. For those interested in the living evolution of horror cinema, it is a crime to miss it.”
And, of course, I waited for the phrase “Peel ruthlessly showed modern Trumpov’s America”, well, how could it be without it? One of the critics must have blurted out this nonsense.
The critics basically all terribly liked the idea that somewhere in the sewers there live twins of people from the Earth, where they were bred either by the special services, or the Masons, or some other scoundrels. And that these doubles also “have the right”, so they must get out and stab all the little people with scissors. Ah, what a significant social subtext, oh, what a harsh social statement, to which the great master Peeled.
By the way, I clearly found one social statement there. Peel put on a Jackson Thriller T-shirt on a little girl. Did I understand the message of this social statement correctly? And then Bublik and I didn’t know what to think.
I summarize. I am mortally disappointed. The script is frankly stupid and strained. Yes, there are all sorts of “mysterious” references to the Bible (“Jeremiah 11:11”) and not at all mysterious cinephile references to a couple of dozen other films (a flirtatious leather glove on the hand of each monster – hello Freddy Krueger, bye Freddy Krueger), but it didn’t make the right impression on me.
Of course, who needs it – they will find tough social statements there, but I found only a weird horror movie that at times looks like a self-parody. No, it’s set decently: a bright, juicy picture, spectacular murders with various improvised tools, well-chosen music. But it was very, very boring to watch. After “Get Out” completely disappointed.
However, I note that the criticism is mostly favorable, the box office is excellent, the rating on IMDB is quite high. This means that the picture has entered its target audience, and Bagel and I are not this target audience. Amen.
PS By the way, it was cool to see the grown daughter of Ross and Rachel from “Friends”, which was then played by the twins Kali and Noel Sheldon. They play the nasty daughters of the Tyler family here. But don’t worry, they are quickly and very brutally killed.
We / US movie meaning
Director: Jordan Peele Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Elisabeth Moss, Winston Duke, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Anna Diop, Kali Sheldon, Noel Sheldon
Budget: $20 million, Global gross: $254 million
Comedy horror, USA-Japan-China, 2019, 116 min.