2/3rds of a Perfect Movie Is Still a GREAT Movie

Rating: 8/10 (29 March 2019)

God Bless Jordan Peele, who seems to be singlehandedly working to bring oddness back to big horror. You could rightfully compare him to "The David's" (Lynch and Cronenberg), but I really think he's our generations Hitchcock. The way he utilizes every aspect of filmmaking to present uniquely terrifying visions with provocative aplomb and even humor is nearly unparalleled in modern Hollywood. With Us, he continues the path he so perfectly blazed by Get Out, only with something much more mysteriously weird and visually bold, even if it's not quite perfect.
A young family's summer vacation is brought to a screeching halt when some unhinged doppelgangers show up to kill them. Things unravel with wild insanity, with Nyong'o showcasing unhinged brilliance as both the matriarch of the family and her menacing counterpart, while Peele gives us a truly unique take on the zombie / alien invasion horrors of yesteryear. So unique that, at times, the tone takes getting into; when you settle in, the mix of demented terror and welcome humor really works. You begin to realize that this won't be a movie with easy answers, but works instead as an exercise in pitch-black absurdity, one that warrants plenty of thought and discussion long after its over.
In fact, as the film ends and hidden plot points come into the light (most naturally, though some pretty clunkily), the logic unravels a bit, introducing a "twist" that is both not hard to foresee and also completely unnecessary. Still, just the fact that a movie this entertaining and this gloriously insane is willing to tackle the vast chasm between the haves and the have-nots is more than worthy of recommendation.