Movie Musing: "Us" (2019)

(Spoilers here.)

This one felt a little different than Get Out, in that the story is not so much of a mystery that takes time to unfold, and I guess if you're trying to be versatile and stretch a bit, then that's a good thing for stories to have different arcs. Here, though, you pretty much get the picture early on as to what the essence of the story is, and the back half is pretty much devoted to dispatching the others. He gives it some filigree, and there's an epilogue of sorts with the final twist, but this film feels more actiony and less satisfying.

I think I went into this thinking that the situation/message of the film would be pretty allegorical, that the reason for the others' appearance would be more open to interpretation. Like, I was thinking, this family survives better than the others because their bond is truer, stronger. But the movie takes the time to explicate an actual reason as to how the others got there, and it's this vague sort of sci fi premise that some vaguely-referred-to people wanted to promote a sub-race of clones who would eventually take over the earth (why, exactly? There isn't enough time for Peele to go into it, and it probably wouldn't be that convincing anyway). But the "human" experiment goes wrong, and the underground is still teeming with these experiments in progress, and obviously not happy with their lot in life. What we find out at the end is that Adelaide was snatched at the beginning, and switched so that her doppelganger grows up with the family and acts as a sort of scout for the rest of them to plan for the eventual "Hands Across America" metaphor of the takeover.

This is a little weak to me, this premise. You have to take it for granted that, even with the concerns that her parents had, that this young girl was able to fit in well enough to fool everyone, and that Adelaide ("Red") seems to have forgotten herself that she was once one of the people who lived underground. She has to be as credible and real as possible for the movie audience to be taken in, because if there's no mystery to it, then it wrecks the main thrust of the film, i.e., ostensibly happy matriarch of the family is reluctant to return to the scene of her twin abduction. But if her main goal (revealed through the twist) is to be a part of the takeover, her behavior with her family is awfully suspect. It's like she doesn't know, like we in the audience don't know, and when you reflect back on the movie, you feel like the filmmakers have not been playing fair. I understand the idea of the family members mimicking when they're above ground, and the training they undergo to come off as real, should the time come, and they take time to convince us that these scraps of "evidence" will be enough for us to swallow the whole concept of being unaware of your own self until the plot requires the reveal, but it doesn't entirely work for me.

Looks like a lot of people (on the internet) couldn't tolerate the plot holes. Lots of Reddit-type message boards pontificating. This is a film where unfortunately, you can't think too deeply about it if you want to "enjoy" it. Taking a half star off, now that I think about it. Lupita is terrific, everyone else is fine, too. (I like seeing actors I don't know. Makes things feel more realistic). But the half-baked screenplay lets them down. And to sustain this jerry-rigged material where things have to happen point to point at the correct moments in order for the plot to work, it has to be presented in a sort of mostly-filler way with chases, fights, murders, to serve as distractions, and that makes it somewhat turgid.

"Les Fleurs" is perfect for the end as ironic commentary (and it's a beautiful song -- was so glad to hear it here), "Good Vibrations" as a stereotypical white man choice is a lazy, dumb joke. The assistant not recognizing "call the police" is mildly more clever. (***)