Us

Jordan Peele proves he's no sophomore jinx with his latest film, Us, which is a very entertaining film. However, the first two acts of the film are great, the third act is a mess. In trying to explain the movie, Peele brings up more questions than answers, such as where does one get millions of red jumpsuits and pairs of scissors.

The first act features a pre-credit sequence in which a young girl wanders away from her parents at a boardwalk amusement park. She enters a hall of mirrors, where she encounters something that leaves her speechless for a while.

That girl grows up to be Lupita Nyong'o, who is married to Winston Duke with two children: Shahadi Wright Joseph (who is always on her phone) and Evan Alex, who has some focusing issues and likes to wear masks and dig holes. We see the family as they visit their summer house.

This act is a domestic comedy, as Duke is the classic befuddled dad (he's bought a boat but the motor keeps choking) who tries to keep up with their friends (Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss). They've got a house that has one of those things you talk to turn on the lights and plays music. There's a gruesome gag about it's inability to detect subtle sounds in words.

Duke insists the family goes to the park, though Nyong'o hasn't been back since that incident. She agrees, but stays far away from any attractions. She's alarmed when Alex wanders off, but all he sees is a vagrant, arms spread out, blood dripping from his fingers (is this the same vagrant that Nyong'O saw as a girl, holding up a cardboard reading "Jeremiah 11:11?")

That night Alex will tell everyone that there is a family standing outside their house. Indeed, four figures, an adult man and woman and two children, stand hand in hand in the driveway. They will invade the house, which forms the second act of the film, and it's first-class horror directing and editing, with a great score by Michael Abels that recalls the screeching strings of Bernard Hermann's Psycho score.

The family learns that these invaders look just like them, and want to stab them with scissors. They are wearing red jumpsuits, one driving glove, and sandals. The doppelganger of Alex also wears a mask, but for a very good reason.

I won't go any further and spoil anything, but suffice it to say that what this family is going through is not particular to them. Only one of the doppelgangers speak (N'Yongo) and her explanation of who they are and where they come from makes no sense. The very ending recalls the ending of The Birds, as nothing has been resolved. Hitchcock seemed to be saying that this bird problem is just one of those things, and perhaps Peele would have been better off playing that angle, instead of a reason that defies logic. I still don't get the rabbits.

I think Peele would say that logic is unimportant, and the film is metaphor about how people, especially Americans (Us, U.S., get it?) are destroying the world and thus themselves. It goes back to an old line from the comic strip Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Us is one of those films that creates endless debate, and you can find articles all over the Web sifting through clues. What is the significance of the number 11, other than the Bible verse (and that it is the name of a character on Stranger Things)? Apparently the rabbits thing is partly because Peele is afraid of them--maybe that stems from watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You could play a drinking game noticing references to other works: in addition to the ones I mentioned, Jaws, Funny Games, and a Twilight Zone episode called "Mirror Image," which Peele admits was the original inspiration.

Peele shows tremendous promise as a filmmaker. In some ways Us is a stronger film than Get Out, but Peele may have thrown too many ideas at the wall to see what sticks, and not all of it does.