Us

[jenkins]

March 15

[Drenk]

It looks like a fun TV movie.

[jenkins]

Twin Peaks production designer

[WorldForgot]

Oh, hell yeah . Love that they stuck that comedic beat with Winston Duke in the trailer, that fkn-tiny bat he probably got for his kid. This looks like it has the same tonal nuance as Get Out -- with an expanded scope. Can't wait to chew into these themez.

[polkablues]

This appeals to each and every one of my sensibilities.

[WorldForgot]

Latest issue of Fangoria - - PTA Interviews Jordan Peele
(well they interview each other sort of)

[wilberfan]

(I'll be over here if you get your scanner working.)

[WorldForgot]

Daniel Lupi as UPM!!

Monkeypaw Productions indeed... In this movie everything comes with a catch.
Peele is swerving the tone around psychological bends that could crash on any beat, and instead it spirals into itself, replicating. It's so funny, but you dread to laugh.

jenkins mentioned above, twin peaks prod design, and that's also Ruth De Jong, a PA on CWBB and Inherent Vice's art director. You'll spot her style throughout all the fake brands. IV'z Burgle-can whimsy now a cheering Port-a-Shell.

This is gonna be a fun one to talk about.

[Drenk]

SPOILERS!!!!!

BEWARE!!!!!!

That Good Vibrations sequence is so, so, good. It would be interesting to talk about savagery in Get Out and Us: there are a lot of disturbing moments. How "easy" and pleasurable extreme violence can be. But Peele is never making it innocent and fun (the way Tarantino did in IG and Django).
I also ultimately appreciate that it doesn't really care about its plot holes: it's a joyful kind of mess. It's so obvious. The last twist is kind of bad, though. It alleviates all it seemed to show about trauma.

Also: it doesn't look like the TV movie I feared.

[polkablues]

My initial impression is that I liked the film very much, and there are individual scenes that are near-perfect, but I find that I don't have much to say about it, and it probably won't leave a lasting impression on me. Also, this

The last twist is kind of bad, though. It alleviates all it seemed to show about trauma.

is spot on. It has the cadence of a twist, but if anything only serves to make the story less impactful.

I do respect that the film is much more opaque that Get Out was, that it doesn't serve up its intentions on a platter, but I suspect that's at least partly a byproduct of it simply having less to say.

[WorldForgot]

Also, this

The last twist is kind of bad, though. It alleviates all it seemed to show about trauma.

is spot on. It has the cadence of a twist, but if anything only serves to make the story less impactful.

Isn't this the only the case if

Spoiler: ShowHide

the "tethered" and "untethered" have no communion? Throughout acts 2 & 3 I thought there were hints that there had always been synergy of lived-in experiences between those who are tethered. In this sense, Adelaide experienced the trauma of Red (and vice versa!).

I'm not sure how I read the film yet, having only seen it once.

[Alethia]

I loved a lot of this, but good lord what a poster child for third act problems. It builds so beautifully then overcomplicates and strangles itself.

Spoiler: ShowHide

 The late twists are so unnecessary and silly. And the last shot reminds of the end of Karyn Kusama's The Invitation, but not nearly as effective

[Jeremy Blackman]

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT


I'm a sucker for:

- Social/political allegory
- Visual metaphor delivered with a sledgehammer
- Fairy tale storytelling
- Overwrought existential dilemmas involving doppelgangers
- Twisted musical cues
- A third act that goes off the rails

So yeah. I really loved this movie.

For interpretation, I would recommend this article and/or this podcast episode. They're so comprehensive that I don't really have much to add right now.

Also, this

The last twist is kind of bad, though. It alleviates all it seemed to show about trauma.

is spot on. It has the cadence of a twist, but if anything only serves to make the story less impactful.

This is extremely presumptuous of me to say, but I actually think you might be convinced on rewatch. I think it's a solid twist that's been thought through and will hold up. Remember the reaction Adelaide had when she found out they were going to the beach? It didn't fit the scene quite right. It wasn't really trauma/PTSD, it was more of a panic and a fear of being found out. Less "oh god it haunts my dreams," more "nope, not there, not going back there, no thanks, can we do something else?"

But even more importantly, recall the scene where Red first confronts the family, specifically Adelaide, and talks about what she's been deprived of in life, because of the selfish act of the person she's confronting in that scene. There is a fierce jealousy and resentment. She used to have a real life, but it was taken from her. The pain is profound, and she relishes all of the revenge more passionately and deeply than her less-sentient comrades.

(I'm not sure how much she intellectually remembers her life before, though. She seems quite assimilated. Her desire for revolution is primal.)

On that same note, I love how Adelaide slowly gets more feral through the back half of the film, revealing bits of her true nature. But even that becomes complicated when she begins to have compassion for the tethered, her own kind... specifically her very own children in their death scenes.

When Adelaide returns to the "sewers," she knows exactly where to go, because that's where she's from. And going down the escalator, that's such a magical scene. She's not confused or shocked, she's overwhelmed. The memories are flooding back.

[Alethia]

Having just listened to the Filmspotting review and subsequent spoiler-laden discussion, their analytical deep dive has got me reconsidering my reaction to Act 3. The *twists* feel a bit more satisfying and considered the more I sit with it.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I think largely it was all of the movie-villian explaining Red is made to do, particularly at the end, that left a bad taste in my mouth and kept me at a distance.

Can we all agree that Elisabeth Moss is the greatest? THAT whole sequence is a fucking masterpiece.

[WorldForgot]

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

On that same note,

Spoiler: ShowHide

I love how Adelaide slowly gets more feral through the back half of the film, revealing bits of her true nature. But even that becomes complicated when she begins to have compassion for the tethered, her own kind... specifically her very own children in their death scenes.

Throughout the day, I'm just adoring the performances in the film, and this bit in particular. It unspools in a great rhythm.