Ambiguity, Artistic Vision, and Spectacular Cinematography

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2019)

Don't believe the haters. Jordan Peele's second horror film is probably the most ambitious movie in the genre since Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining. I was amazed by what the film tries to do--and by what it succeeds in accomplishing. Replete with references to other films (Hitchcock, Jaws, The Lost Boys, Halloween, etc...) to TV (particularly The Twilight Zone), to literature (the plot runs on a social dynamic similar to the one depicted in H.G. Welles's The Time Machine), and to Painting (the mirror image at the film's beginning is remarkably like René Magritte's 1937 piece, "Reproduction Prohibited"), Us is driven by intense performances and tightly constructed scenes. In the end, it's a brilliant allegory for and deconstruction of class in America, but, beyond all of that, it's a riveting film full of irony and clever twists. Do yourself a favor and see it.