Following the runaway smash success of his directorial debut “Get Out,” awards season acclaim, Oscar nominations (including a Best Original Screenplay win), and the creation of the mooted “social horror” genre, filmmaker Jordan Peele returned at the just-wrapped SXSW Film Festival with his new film”Us.”
An ambitious follow-up horror, “Us” is not for the faint of heart. Employing the social horror design again, Peele pushes the envelope even further, mines some “Twilight Zone” terrain and explores uncharted territory, as he uses a divided America as the catalyst for a fight between the have and have nots, and what happens when the lines between the two begin to blur.
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Adelaide Wilson (Madison Curry) and her parents are walking through Santa Cruz boardwalk carnival at night. When she sees a unassuming place with a sign that reads “come find yourself.” Her father isn’t paying attention to her, so its a perfect opportunity to investigate what’s inside this mysterious building. She enters and finds its a house of mirrors with silly figures that pop out, looking to incite jump scares. When she notices something odd in the mirror, she notices a horrifying reflection that changes her life and future, forever.
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In modern day California, we see adult Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) and her family. Her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright), and son Jason (Evan Alex) are in route to their vacation home in Santa Cruz. Its easy to tell this trip is A source of discomfort for her due to the traumatic events that happened to her as a child, but, she surpresses her feelings to not cause tension. However, her stress level is heightened when they return to the same Santa Cruz broadwalk and the flashbacks and anxiety return all at once. Her gut tells her something dangerous is on the horizon, but when she tries to explain her feelings to Gabe, she is dismissed. Too bad her gut feelings are accurate. As a family of doppelgängers appear at their home, Adelaide decends into panick mode and all out war breaks loose between the twin families as they aim to eliminate one another. The situation goes from bad to worse as they find their current situation is a lot more widespread than they expect.
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What follows is something terrifyingly akin to Wes Craven slasher, Michael Haneke home invasion thriller, but all filtered through Peele’s distinct sensibilities and now-patented use of social politics to examine our greatest fears. Talking to Jordan Peele exposes the many themes the film tackles. Although the movie addresses Blackness, privilege, and revolution, not all of it was intentional, and there are some things he didn’t even notice until I brought it up. This made for an interesting, engaging, if sometimes a little ambiguous conversation between the two of us—Peele does not want to spoil “Us,” and even during the SXSW Q&A was coy about the meaning. He wants to have your own experience. He’s our talk.
You have a privileged Black family with a boat and a summer home, which isn’t something film audiences see often. Did you reflect on this topic while writing the story? What are your thoughts on privilege and privilege within the Black community?
That’s a fascinating question. Well, I think the question of privilege within the Black community is one I wasn’t going for with this film. The idea of opportunity in general, and the privilege of being a middle class, upper-middle-class American is a great deal of what I’m discussing but not on purpose. To me, the acceptance of privilege, often comes with a denial of the people who suffer so the privileged can have it, or we have these things that we take for granted. You can apply that to many different conversations. It shifts and changes no matter what faction you’re talking about.
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Leaving the theater, I overheard many people express shock that there was this Black family who had a summer home. And I was like, “Okay.” I was like, “The Black middle class exists, people have summer homes”—and that’s okay.
See, “Us” is a movie that is about duality and a connection — recognizing the relationship that we often suppress between those of us who are privileged and those of us who are part of the same system but don’t benefit as much as others.
Another idea that came up was Black women and revolution. Here’s this strong Black woman and she’s going to save the day and yes, Black women are at the forefront of many of our current movements. Was that intentional or did it manifest that way?
I’d say it manifested. I don’t think I led with that cultural observation, but so many things in this movie come up when you sort of access certain truths. I don’t want to give away much about where the movie goes, but I think more of the focus, for me, in how I was approaching a Black woman, in this film was to tap into the idea of the Black superwoman trope. There are several tropes or boxes that the media has put Black female characters in and one of them is the superwoman.
You do see that specific trope often in pop culture.
I thought to be able to explore both the “light side” and “dark side” of [Lupita’s characters] in this movie would be at the very least some fertile ground for some uncharted territory, which I say is my Modus Operandi. I sort of take that responsibility on to help us break out of our boxes as African Americans, and the boxes that we are put in by pop culture.
