13. Film Review and Discussion of Us (Dir. Jordan Peele, 2019) [SPOILERS]

 I feel as though I haven't heard people speaking about Jordan Peele's multi-award winning film Us in a long time, so I decided that it was my job to do so.

Starring Lupita Nyongo and Winston Duke, (both incredible actors), the film takes a psychological approach to the horror genre. The story follows a family of four on holiday as they return to the location in which the mother, played by Nyongo, endured a traumatic experience as a child. The secrets of her trauma and the events of the past begin to unravel and reveal as the family are tormented by homicidal versions of themselves (the title of the film is quite literal).

The film is visually stunning the whole way through, shot with a vibrant and vintage feel which ties in well with the theme of personal reflection and reminiscence throughout.

There are many clever parallels within the movie, one which I really liked being the ballet comparisons between the tethered and their surface selves as they went about their identical lives in different circumstances.

I also really liked the juxtaposition between the recently killed cloned family of white people to the main family characters sitting around the dining table; it added a very Peele-esque sense of comedy relief in a generally tense feature.

One thing that really surprised me with this film was, aside from the twist at the end, how talented the child actors were. I usually find that children who act in horror films are either just not too great at acting, or over do it. With Us, however, the child actors were brilliant, and I felt they performed great alongside Nyongo and Duke.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good, thought provoking, and slightly spooky film.

~Paige Nicole