Struggles a bit early on and at the end, but overall a good movie

Rating: 6/10 (4 April 2019)

Let me lose a few words on "Us", a new American 2019 movie, and the most recent work by writer and director Jordan Peele, an Oscar winner for his screenplay on "Get Out". So he found an even shorter title this time and a cast list that is topped by Lupita Nyong'o, another Oscar winner and the one and only lead actor in this film. Feel free to check the supporting actor list yourself as I will spare you the names with the exception of Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men and The West Wing, always a favorite and the way she portrayaed her evil twin was great fun. But first things first: The film runs for almost 2 hours and is about a family of four who goes on a holiday the mother is not too fond of. By the way anybody else felt Lupita to be too young here, at least for being the mother of the girl? Anyway at the very beginning, Peele just like with Get Out, used a prologue scene that lies back quite a bit in the past before the action of the actual movie we have here. Even way further than Get Out if we are specific, not just a year or so. Seems to be something Peele likes to do, while other directors/writers prefer scenes from the middle/end of the movie and then lead us to how they happened, Peele sticks with actual chronology. I like the idea. But except that I was not too impressed by the early parts of this movie and found everything before the actual twinvasion pretty forgettable. This includes for example the scene when the boy disappears at the beach which was really ridiculous and over-the-top how she panicked. But when the family is attacked and approached inside that house, things get far more entertaining finally. The hostage situation somehow reminded me of Haneke's Funny Games, even if I was wondering why the police wasn't coming. But I guess we find out about that later on as they are just too busy, but did they take the call then? Or did the character lie about the police? I am not sure. It is not essential anyway, you can appreciate the scene without that too. I did like the red costumes by all the "bad" guys by the way. As for the scissor part, this sure was a trademark, but sadly it did not feel as memorable and iconic as it could have been.
As for the ending and with that I am talking about the scene down there with the two Lupitas, the location was great, but the revelation was not as epic as I hoped it could be. A nice fight scene and that's it. They sure could have gotten a lot more out of that, also with where the boy is hidden. The final plot twist thumbs-up to you if you saw it coming that it was the clone all the time. I didn't, even if thinking back I could have given how much of a talented dancer she was and it's tough to create that artifically, but most of all how she is apparently the only twin that can talk, or do more than uttering lets say like we hear it from the man's twin. And the shrink session when we hear how her parents think she has changed so much. So this was a good idea that makes sense too. And she did trick the most of us I am sure. But it also fits in with the idea that the other ones are not evil, just desperate. They are just different, but they are humans as well and want the better life and are genuinely scared of the other life. Overall, Peele got in quite a few funny references again too, even if the main idea was horror obviously, not as much comedy probably as in Get Out where there is one character that almost only deals with comedy, the chubby one coming to the rescue eventually, but still here with Us you will have a moment when you smile too. Many of these moments actually. You will know what I mean when you see them. In addition, let me lose a few words on the scene when the boy's twin is killed, the one with the severe burns on his face. On the one hand I disliked the scene because it hardly could have been planned this way by the fake mother that the "real" boy would take these steps backwards to have the other one walk into the fire. But still, it shows us that the other mother is giving up on her "son" this way. Or lets say better "the boy" because there are no real maternal feelings involved, otherwise she wouldn't. Just like there were no feelings involved for the hunky other man, they are just thrown together like their sane counterparts are. In Germany we would say "Zweckgemeinschaft". And it is inevitable. They don't have free choice. They are forced to follow up and react. One thing I personally found very unimpressive was the gigantic twin chain that is referenced several times, briefly early on and much longer later on. This did absolutely nothing for me in terms of significance and metaphoric meaning and should have been left out completely for all I care. Now this film overall is sadly weaker than Get Out, but mostly because of how good Get Out was, not because this one here was bad whatsoever. It's a decent watch, especially in the middle and from the atmospheric perspective. I am curious how much awards attention Lupita will attract here. Certainly not none, but I am undecided if she can get in at the Oscars a second time. It happened frequently for previous winner that they manage a follow-up nomination not much later afterwards (Rockwell, Bridges only to mention two, but these were immediately afterwards). We will see. From the first half of the film, I think she is likely to get in, from the second not as likely except the ending perhaps. She sure won't win a second time, but I think she has a shot at making the top5 again, this time for lead and the film's unfortunate release date I would not pay too much attention to as Peele managed to get in Kaluuya too and win for screenplay with Get Out being reelased at a similar time I believe. We will see. Overall, I give Us a positive recommendation. Go watch if you like horror films.