Us (2019) - new Jordan Peele movie

[Sebastian Cobb]

I like how he's not really saying anything regarding various theories.

I think this might be the biggest reach:
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/qvyq7v/us-is-a-complex-metaphor-for-black-mental-health

[zomgmouse]

The ending ruined it.

[Puce Moment]

I haven't seen it yet but it is clear during interviews that he didn't really want to do a racial issue film, but rather a taut, imaginative horror-thriller. That's how I intend to watch it, rather than decoding it like some fucking Childish Gambino video.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I haven't seen it yet but it is clear during interviews that he didn't really want to do a racial issue film, but rather a taut, imaginative horror-thriller. That's how I intend to watch it, rather than decoding it like some fucking Childish Gambino video.

Yeah, it seems inevitable that people are going to overthink it, but he's said himself he's probably not going to put a 'white dude' in his films as a protagonist because someone's made that film already and he's been given a platform where people trust/let him put black actors in those roles, so why wouldn't he?

[Mister Six]

The Hot Fuzz to Get Out's Shaun of the Dead, I reckon... which is to say, narratively all over the place, but crammed full of ideas and images and jokes. I also felt it was legitimately gutsy and a bit perverse of Peele to make a film about class (and its various intersections) when most viewers would be expecting another film strictly about race. I liked it more than everyone else here seemingly - but then again I care very little about narrative logic, in fairness.

I think I would have liked it if the film didn't attempt to crowbar narrative logic into the film. If there was no attempt to explain the Tethered and no attempt to paint the protagonists as psychologically plausible at the start, and if Peele were able to conjure up the kind of eerie dreamlike ambience that, say, Lynch can, I would have rolled with it. As it was, though, it felt less like he was reaching for symbolic abstraction and more like he just couldn't quite wrestle the themes and images in his head into a cohesive, coherent film. Maybe earlier drafts left things unexplained, and that hokey "bad guy explains everything" scene followed by a hokier (and theme-buggering) last-minute "twist" came late after too many people complained they didn't get it.

It reminded me a bit of Twin Peaks: The Return, where Lynch stops all the weirdness towards the end, to drop in some rather flat exposition. But then he ramps up the weirdness again, and lets the narrative unspool completely, giving the impression that he was knowingly faking out the audience, whereas this film keeps veering back onto the road of narrative conformity in a way that suggests Peele intends to make a mainstream film. Then again, Lynch has been writing and directing stuff for about forty years, whereas this is Peele's second flick. Maybe this is his Dune, and more exciting things are to come. I think so and fervently hope so.

[Puce Moment]

Yeah, it seems inevitable that people are going to overthink it, but he's said himself he's probably not going to put a 'white dude' in his films as a protagonist because someone's made that film already and he's been given a platform where people trust/let him put black actors in those roles, so why wouldn't he?

I couldn't be happier that he said he won't do that sort of film given that he must have Hollywood's Most Successful Sunburnt Crackers queuing up to work with him for some residual cred. I thought that statement was bold and brilliant. So there we have it - tons of films with white actors where race is not necessarily a theme. And now, maybe a new crop of films with black actors where race is not necessarily a theme. That's getting closer to some kind of equality, surely?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Well exactly. I'd be interested to see how often people end up attributing unintended 'woke' subtext and he's just going to be like, 'nah it's just a family that happens to be black in this situation mate'.

[garbed_attic]

Well exactly. I'd be interested to see how often people end up attributing unintended 'woke' subtext and he's just going to be like, 'nah it's just a family that happens to be black in this situation mate'.

Yeah... but at the same time, those red jumpsuits are surely intended to recall prison jumpsuits, which really invites an allegorical reading

[thugler]

Found myself trying to work out what the film was getting at for the majority of its running time. Some sort of allegory on class, yes, but it was a bit confusing. Even though i felt the central theme was strong and it was acted well, it just tailed off badly. The red suited people's special abilities didn't seem to give them any advantage over their original's. I think I'll put it down to a promising failure unless there's something I'm missing.

[Noodle Lizard]

Yeah... but at the same time, those red jumpsuits are surely intended to recall prison jumpsuits, which really invites an allegorical reading

My guess is that he allowed and deliberately threw a bunch of stuff in there which appears as if it could have some vague allegorical/symbolic relevance.  That way you can allow the audience to project whatever they want, maybe even do the work for you and come up with an explanation that beats any concept you could have intended.  He certainly wouldn't be the first filmmaker to do that.  Problem is, if the filmmaker doesn't have a solid idea of what they want to convey, these theories will all inevitably be flawed and there'll be other stuff in there that contradicts them.  See It Follows, a film where no theory works because the filmmaker (self-admittedly) didn't have any one meaning in mind when writing/making it.

[garbed_attic]

So... is it a call for 3rd world militant revolution?

[SteveDave]

Was there anything about how most of the Tethered were suddenly able to move independently from their above ground person? I can't remember.

[Mister Six]

Was there anything about how most of the Tethered were suddenly able to move independently from their above ground person? I can't remember.

I guess Red reversed the one-way escalator... And then reversed it again for the climax.

[Puce Moment]

This is now HD ready.

For me this was utter balls. After a short time, no tension, a fucking ridiculous and lazy infodump of exposition that amounted to even fuck-all less than the risible masterplan in Get Out.

[Sebastian Cobb]

'here boss, reckon we should destroy these clones so we don't have to keep feeding them, or they suddenly gain sentience or sometone finds the evidence of our shady experiment?'

'nah, be alright won't it?'

[olliebean]

So many plot holes in this.

[Mister Six]

'here boss, reckon we should destroy these clones so we don't have to keep feeding them, or they suddenly gain sentience or sometone finds the evidence of our shady experiment?'

'nah, be alright won't it?'

"What about walling up that escalator that for some reason connects to the hall of mirrors? Or sacking the bloke whose job is to make clothing for the clones to march whatever the people on the surface are wearing?"

"Nah."

"Well what about the 30 million pairs of shiny scissors you ordered? Shall we sell them, offset the cost of the experiments a bit?"

"Just leave 'em down there, fuck it."

[Mister Six]

It's weird. It's like he wanted to do some kind of magical realist fantasy thing - which would have worked fine; the tethered and that could have been (super)naturally occurring elements of the universe - but then he lost his nerve at the last second and bolted on some unconvincing bollocks about an impossible government experiment and hoped it would pass muster.

[Puce Moment]

In both of his films, I felt my overall enjoyment becoming undermined by his silly, big picture, conspiracies of rich people. I would be more than happy for most of that stuff to be left ambiguous and open to interpretation than having these horrid, clunky infodumps.

I think you're right about the magic realist angle - it is the only explanation for the Hall of Mirrors place still being in the same location, looking the same, with all the same stuff inside. A more magic realist/supernatural explanation for tethered doppelgangers might have worked well, but this was plops.

[Mister Six]

I think the exterior of the Hall of Mirrors gets a new coat of paint (from Camelot theme to Native American theme, or vice versa) but yeah, it doesn't make sense. Stupid decision.

[olliebean]

I think putting the place under a funfair with the entrance in a Hall of Mirrors gave it rather more of a Scooby Doo vibe than I assume he was going for.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I watched this tonight and quite enjoyed it. That said, I didn't know what the general storyline was but about twenty minutes in I found myself thinking "Is...Is that Tim Heidecker?", checked IMDB and had the film spoilt for me. Admittedly all my own fault, but if he'd worn a t-shirt saying "Yes, I am Tim Heidecker" it wouldn't have happened. Anyhow, yeah, it's ludicrous, and the thirty million pairs of scissors thing Mister Six mentioned above is especially ludicrous, but I still was amused by it, and any film which involves killing children gains a couple of points from me. 7.7/10 then.

[Bazooka]

Its awful in every regard, the score and editing for one are off the scales. It's neither funny, horrific or unique. It's simply a case of hey,we made some success let's recruit and pay the best LA crew we can, reference everything like Family Guy, but we got a  $1,000,000 so it looks nice.

It didn't know it's own beast.

Painting a piece of shit gold, still makes it a piece of shit.

[Bazooka]

I've slept on it, but nah it's painting by numbers.

[popcorn]

Isn't Lupita so fucking pretty though. I'm going out with her.

[Bronzy]

That said, I didn't know what the general storyline was but about twenty minutes in I found myself thinking "Is...Is that Tim Heidecker?", checked IMDB and had the film spoilt for me. Admittedly all my own fault, but if he'd worn a t-shirt saying "Yes, I am Tim Heidecker" it wouldn't have happened.

Me mo mo Tim Heidecker

[Icehaven]

The most unrealistic thing about a film in which an army of clones escape from their secret underground bunker and go on the rampage was that no one seemed to have a gun, so they didn't get their brains blown out by trigger happy citizens, the police or the military. In fact I don't think there was a single gun (other than a flare gun) in the whole thing, which in a fairly violent film set in modern America was obviously a conscious choice, was there much commentary on the gunlessness at the time?
(sorry to bump an old thread, I only finally watched it last night and had no idea it was 2 years old already!)

[Glebe]

Just watched this the other night (having also watched Get Out recently, which was very good)... mixed feelings about it, it's eerie and funny and stylish and it's a decent film, but it just lacked something.

[TrenterPercenter]

I watched this again the other night after watching it in the cinema before and it's grown on me. Lupita Nyong'o is just incredible in it and whilst it's not scary I think there is a really interesting commentary on the duality of life and of course the whole slavery/roots metaphor.

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Just been awarded an extra star for not having Noel Clarke in it.