Dec 1

Dec 1 Us (2019)

In 2017, Jordan Peele impressed critics and audiences alike with his directorial debut, Get Out, for which he netted the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It remains to be seen whether his follow-up, Us, will claim any Oscar gold, but like its predecessor, it nestles firmly within the horror milieu while aspiring to deeper themes. Audiences could not mistake Get Out’s unambiguous commentary on racism, but Us masks its motifs a little more, hiding its meditations on class inside a group of doppelgängers who descend upon the Wilson clan during a family vacation to Santa Cruz, California.

Us works well as a horror movie more successfully than most. Numerous scenes evoke a claustrophobic tension, much of it bathed in an existential eeriness. When it employs familiar tropes of the genre, it does so effectively, in ways that feel smarter and fresher. A bit of heavy-handedness creeps in when explanations for what transpires are laid out for the characters and the audience, but those exegeses lead to other fascinating questions, all in the service of metaphorically illuminating the growing divide in America between the haves and the have-nots.

Mr. Peele writes and directs with confidence. His main cast fully supports him, most notably Lupita Nyong’o, who skillfully differentiates the two characters she plays, imbuing them both with distinct personalities and mannerisms. Shahadi Wright Joseph also turns in noteworthy performances as the put-upon teenage daughter and her uncannily smiling counterpart. If you prefer your horror movies with a bit of meat on them, with ideas as liberally splattered throughout as blood, give Us a look.