Saturday 25 January 2020

Us (Jordan Peele, 2019)

Peele follows up his acclaimed horror Get Out with another set of black protagonists in peril from the supernatural, with a family under attack from theri own doppelgangers. However, this time the characters only happen to be black and there is no overt racial element, although undertones of division and privilege are still present. This is a small pity, as the result is a film that, while being an unconventional and effective addition to the nuclear family-under-siege and bodysnatcher genres, has no more layers to the onion than that. Perhaps it's unfair to expect Peele to dish out more social allegory or satire, and see the film as it is, which is as disturbing and stylistically singular work as you can get, all the way from the dissonant Goblins-like soundtrack, albeit one that does lose its sense of focus towards the end under the sheer pressure of having to provide a bigger scheme to tie all its ideas together.

6/10

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