Entertaining Nonsense

Rating: 5/10 (26 March 2019)

I didn't like it. I wanted to, but I just... didn't. It's a shame, too. As an avid movie-going African-American man married to a dreadlocked wife, a teenage girl and a young boy, no movie embodies my world better than the family dynamic in "Us". I am the dad in this movie. It's like he interviewed me. That said, this was two hours of what can best be described as entertaining nonsense. There's something there, just out of reach. A point to be mulled over, considered, talked about. I even saw it twice to be sure but... nah, it's definitely garbage. Maybe. Probably. The fact that I'm not sure is problematic and concerning.
I'm smarter than the average bear and honestly, like most art (and this IS art, no question) I feel like, if someone has to explain it, the artist did it wrong. Movies are not like other media. You get one, maybe two chances to make me relate and love your characters enough to care what happens to them - to make me watch the movie over and over again. I related and loved these characters, and tho I was captivated, I felt unsatisfied by anemic explanation of exactly what is going on in this movie's world, so at the end (two hours later), instead of what was obviously supposed to be an OMG moment of earth-shattering revelation, I'm wincing quizzically at the screen like, "Hmm. That's probably not good." (Yawn.)
In the horror movie genre, that's the definition of a dud.
I'll give it some time to marinate, as there's clearly a fton of subtext and Easter eggy iconography happening around the edges. Maybe it's a sleeper masterpiece and I just didn't get it yet (I'm hopeful). Still, if I'm leaving the theater twice unsatisfied, and not buzzing about what I just saw, wasn't the opportunity lost? Time will tell.