Us

Jordan Peele has an eye for iconic imagery. In “Us”, only his second movie after 2017’s “Get Out”, he ups the ante on the visuals. In his first feature, there was the teacup and The Sunken Place. Now, we have doppelgängers in red jumpsuits with scissors, lots of people holding hands, and a very terrified young girl.

That little girl is Adelaide, played in adult form by the excellent Lupita Nyong’o. In the film’s prologue, she encounters something very scary, and many years later she still has a form of PTSD. She goes to her childhood beach house with her husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), and her two children, Zora and Jason, played respectfully by Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex. They run into doppelgängers of themselves who are out for blood.

There are two levels to “Us”, and that is the surface-level plot: a conventional, albeit extremely well-made horror flick with a terrifying premise. On that level, the film is executed with finesse: many great scenes with great visuals, a passable script with deft comedy to break the tension, an amazing soundtrack of popular tunes, and an eerie (and electrifying) score.

You can ignore all of the deeper themes, metaphors, and allusions and have a perfectly good time at the movies.

But that’s boring. The second level is the part of the movie that will either confuse or excite you. For me, it was the latter. There are a lot of ideas thrown around about all sorts of societal issues that I honestly did not entirely understand. What it all means, though, is something I’ll be able to ponder on my second or third viewing, because “Us” is layered. Some concepts are buried deep and others on the tip of my tongue. The important thing is that there are ideas, and Peele had something in mind. It’s not made explicit to the audience, but it is rather up for interpretation, which will lead to thought-provoking conversations, ridiculous fan theories, and much befuzzlement. To me, that’s all cinema can hope to do: make you think.

Yes, there is one plot point, about the origin of the doppelgängers, that is definitely over-explained in a lazy exposition dump. Yes, the twist is predictable and quite obvious. And yes, the middle of the movie is a straight-up survival-horror film that contains a number of genre cliches.

However, Peele ultimately leaves just enough unexplained to leave you with burning questions. Let’s face it, people would have been mad if the over-explained bits had been under-explained. It probably would have been a better movie if he left a bit more to the imagination, though, and if the ending was a bit more of a shocker. But the great thing about “Us” is that there are so many other themes and explorations that are left ambiguous. People will be talking about this movie for a long time.

In a way, “Us” is almost the opposite of “Get Out”. The prior film can be entirely understood on the first viewing (the themes take a little more digging, but an attentive viewer can mostly grasp them). Almost none of “Us” will be understood on the first viewing. Peele’s latest is a more ambitious film than his first, and while “Get Out” feels almost too perfect, “Us” is scrappier and not as fully fleshed out.

That incompleteness makes it all the more intriguing.

Horror movies are perhaps best known for their iconography. Just think of any popular horror franchise, and an image comes to mind. The William Shatner mask in “Halloween”, the hockey mask in “Friday the 13th”, Jack and his ax or the twins in “The Shining”, the poster for “Jaws”, or the balloon in “It”. Those movies are idolized, parodied, and reproduced in equal measure. Remember all of those clown sightings a few years ago?

I think “Us” will ingrain itself in the popular consciousness in a similar way. I’m no social scientist, but I’d be willing to bet that before too long, there will be a few sightings of red-clothed, scissor-wielding, sandal-bearing doppelgängers.