All Of - Us
What Jordan Peele is trying to do is exceedingly difficult. If his only task was to followup a global phenomenon, that would be hard enough. But this sophomore effort also seeks to build on his unique brand of horror and function as a broadly appealing mass media product. At this point, Peele is establishing his own horror lexicon—with big metaphorical ideas and a growing library of classic horror references. But it is his ability to do all of this in packages that appeal to every audience sector that is most impressive.
Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures
See the movie before reading much about it. This review will be a strong endorsement, but I would stop here if you haven’t seen it. There’s your warning.
The film opens on a young Adelaide Wilson, who is attending a carnival with her parents. Eventually, she wanders off and finds herself trapped in a house of mirrors. While there, she encounters a girl who looks exactly like her in an experience that traumatizes her and impacts the rest of her life.
Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Fast-forward to the present day and Adelaide and her family are headed on vacation. When her husband suggests going to the same beach where she was traumatized as a child, Adelaide starts to fear the return of the girl who looked like her.
Adelaide’s fears become reality when copies (or “shadows”) of her and all of her family members show up and terrorize them. The family must band together and kill their shadows before their shadows kill them.
Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures
There are additional twists and turns throughout, but the general thrust of the movie is that these shadows represent the people our capitalistic and consumerist society often forget. There is an alternative version of your life that is not so rosy and Adelaide and her family are forced to confront that reality. Peele manages to say something big while crafting a superficially compelling horror narrative. Unlike other allegorical tales like “Mother,” “Us” never forgets that it is a movie. That it is taking a shot at capturing the concept and conceit of the American Dream is just icing on the cake.
So much about the movie works, but it is Lupita Nyong'o’s performance that takes the movie from great to special. Each of her two performances grounds the movie and crystallizes its overarching point. She embodies everything the movie is trying to say, which is so broad that the challenge is immense, but she rises to it. For my money, there is little else you can ask for from a movie than to take big swings and make contact over and over.
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