Didn't Really Work For Me

Rating: 1/10 (5 July 2019)

This movie has a lot of promising elements. The cinematography is gorgeous, the art direction is nice, the cast is lovely, the music is phenomenal, and it's got a pretty cool concept. Unfortunately, none of it really comes together or works.
I have a slight problem with Jordan Peele's writing. He comes up with brilliant concepts. Get Out and Us are both great ideas. However, I think he lacks detail and specificity. His characters feel somewhat hallow but are occasionally heightened by great actors. With Us, the twists and scares feel cheap, the story really has no logic, but at the same time has too much logic. The story is bizarre and really makes no sense at all, but I've seen plenty of films that do that too, but they establish a sort of odd, surrealist nature right from the start. Us attempts to constantly over-explain itself. It attempts to pull logic out of absurdity.
Peele's themes are muddled here. I'm not sure I understand, even after two watches and plenty of discussion, what the point of the film is. It attempts to pass itself off as an artsy horror film like Get Out, Hereditary, The Babadook, Midsommar, etc., but all of those films have defined themes. I just don't get the point of this film.
Lupita is good. Not great. She never even gets close to the brilliance of Daniel Kaluuya's performance in Get Out. Winston Duke is only ok and the kids shouldn't even be in the film. All they do is muddle up the film even further. Elisabeth Moss is funny and great in a parody of the typical white woman in a horror film. Unfortunately, none of them are fully formed characters and I didn't really care what happened to any of them, which is kind of an issue.
It is nice to see a black family at the center of a horror film, or really any film at all. Unfortunately, the movie just doesn't really work. It's kind of just a lot of noise that isn't really saying anything.
*on a second watching my opinion is harsher. This movie is bad. Good Cinematography, but it just doesn't make an sort of sense, isn't scary, and the acting is poor. This is the most overhyped film of the year.