Universal Pictures Film Review - US

The year is 1986 and Hands Across America is the big social cause. Young Adelaide (Madison Curry) is staring into a T.V. screen as the film opens then heads out with her Mom and Dad to an Amusement park on the beach in Santa Cruz. There she suffers a traumatic event in a funhouse of which the details are unclear. Jump to the Present and Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) is the mother of two, son Jason (Evan Alex) and his older sister Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) who along with their dad Gabe (Winston Duke) are headed to her hometown cottage near the beach for a vacation. As they get closer, the trauma from Adelaide's youth begins to rise, hitting dread when Gabe recommends that they go to the beach to meet up with slightly better off family friends' the Tyler's (Tim Heidecker & Elizabeth Moss).

Writer, Director Producer Jordan Peele follows up his 2017 widely revered Get Out with a feature where the acts of horror are more direct but the message hidden in complex layers. The low hanging theory would revolve around ourselves being our own worst enemy as a doppelganger underdeveloped version of the Wilsons' appear at the end of the driveway. However a deeper dive would find a commentary on society as a whole. How it treats the marginalized and others that they quickly brush by on the street or bark at while they perform menial tasks subsiding on the scraps that the affluent toss away.

Lupita Nyong'o leads the cast as Adelaide. She's the connection to these sub dwellers that are coming to the surface to violently rebel. No longer satisfied with being tethered to those up above that see the sunlight. They are ready to announce their presence by any means necessary. Her breakout co-star from Black Panther Winston Duke steals scenes with his comedic timing as Dad Gabe. Shanhadi Wright Joseph is so expressive as Zora she can display annoyance, fear, satisfaction, and defiance with the simplest twitch of the body or facial gesture.

Us falls more traditionally into the horror genre than Get Out. There is violence, golf clubs, bats, fireplace pokers and the red overalls-clad sub dwellers weapon of choice scissors are wielded, swung, shoved and rammed into flesh. The prelude gives us visuals of Eighties tech followed by a shift to  the present with teens handcuffed to their cell phones while their parents play with smart home controllers. It's an ambitious follow up to a hugely successful project that may be a bit harder to grasp at first but will bury deep into your psyche as you find yourself humming Michael Ables' tethered mix of  I Got 5 on it by LUNIZ. Long after you mistakenly believe that your focus on the film has been put aside to move on to other things.

***1/2  Out of 4.

US | Jordan Peele | U.S.A. | 2019 | 116 Minutes.

Tags: Vacation, Beach, Amusement Park, Funhouse, Boat, Home Invasion, Doppelganger, Coveralls, Red, Bat, Handcuffs, Mask, Scissors, Tunnels, Rabbits, Firestarter, Hands Across America.