There are some films or pieces of television you just have to dive right into in terms of discussion after viewing. Us (2019) is one of those films, and this is exactly what director/writer/producer Jordan Peele intended when making this movie. He wanted people to leave the theater and talk about it, not only what they thought, but what they felt. So much of Us is left to the left brain to analyze and the right brain to absorb. It is a film that defies logic and yet makes perfect sense beneath the surface. It is not meant to be as clean-cut as Get Out (2017), and this will undoubtedly frustrate fans and critics alike. Peele likes this anger I believe, because he believes something useful can come from it and so do I. One of the things that the film does share in common with Peele's first directorial debut is that nothing on the screen is incidental. From the wardrobe the characters wear, to the food they eat, even the television they watch, everything has a double meaning as it should in a film so enamored by the idea of duplicity. The film is very little about race in some ways and yet contains undeniable racial undertones. What is the story of the Tethered if not a reimagining of the system of slavery the United States was built upon? Peele's agenda is never a simple one however, and as many other reviewers have pointed out his messages get a bit garbled in Us compared to his first effort, but these faults are forgiven by the sheer pulchritude of his thematic ambitions.
Peele isn't trying to shame anybody in this film, the same way he wasn't attempting to shame white liberals in Get Out. Shame doesn't get you very far, enlightening does. Peele wants to have a discussion, and he starts it by taking a mirror, holding it up to our faces and asking what do we see? This is essentially his goal with Us, that audience members of all races and social classes reflect on themselves, their privileges, their talents even their looks. Who has paid the price for your successes, who are pained by your pleasures and who's beauty is diluted by your micro-vanities? Us is about the act of claiming responsibility for one's actions and the dangerous degrees to which we go to cover our indiscretions and forgo accountability. It's about the decisions of the few impacting the humanity of the masses. It's a horror film that frightens you for all the right reasons when you look at it from certain angles and unsettles you regardless of whatever the hell angle you're watching it from. These are the things and people we turn our heads from. Us shows that at some point, you have to turn your head back, either by will or by force.
Much like the many contradictions within the film's narrative, while I urge people to talk to one another and even themselves immediately after seeing Us, I also advise them to let the film sit with them for a while. Us is a film best left to germinate inside the mind. So while those initial conversations are important, have follow-ups because what the film was on the first impression may not be what it is to you sometime later, especially if you begin to research into other reviews and analyses as I did. That is why I'm not giving my more traditional review to Us, because much of what I feel about it since seeing it this past Saturday has been said or is now influenced by others. Instead, see this as more as an act of advocating rather than a film review. I advocate not only for this film and the compelling intellectual dialogue that it offers to its viewing audiences but also for cinema, in general, that is capable of stirring such emotions, discomforting and unapologetic as this film manages. We need more movies that make us second guess, make us question, make us want to be part of the solution and not just the problem. I wondered if Jason had any of these thoughts as he looked at his mother in a crucial shot at the end. Did he wonder what he himself would become someday? Did he see himself in his mother's choices, or did he see something else?
When my mother and I left the theater, discussing the merits of the film as we walked across the parking lot to our car, we were confronted by an elderly woman of color panhandling. Much like those around us, we shook our heads curtly and continued on our way. I can't deny that as I took a seat in the car, still warm from our drive there, a thought occurred to me:
Much like the Tethered, are we doomed to the repetition of our actions, or are we able to break free? We hold the gold scissors too right, and perhaps we just choose not to use them? We choose not to use them because we have the luxury of choice, of autonomy. Peele's film, to me was an examination and a critique on how we utilize these societal gifts, regardless of their effects on others.
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