We are Americans

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2019)

Us is not necessarily as traditional a horror movie as it's being marketed as. It is visually an incredibly beautiful film. The performances from the cast are stellar as well. It seems that many people have walked away from this film feeling like it doesn't have as much to say as Get Out did, and have found it lacking for that. But in reality, this movie is less about the literal plot points and more about the abstract representations of the characters and settings. The Tethered representing lower class citizens that the upper class ignores, so much so in this case that they live in caves underground and no one even knows they exist. The upper class here are represented by our protagonist family, who are maybe not as privileged as some of the characters in the movie but have enough privilege to be ignorant of the Tethered, the way that you or I might be ignorant of the plight of people suffering from homelessness. There's something poignant to be said about the chains that society puts on people of different classes as well. And without spoiling it, one of the late twists of the movie can even be interpreted as a call for all of us to examine who we really are.
If the plot of the movie is taken completely on face value without looking into the subtext it could easily be considered a lesser entry in Jordan Peele's filmography, but taking into consideration all of the concepts Peele has managed to explore with this film, it truly stands out as an instant classic.