Movie Review: Us
SPOILER ALERT - Look, if you haven't seen it, you fucking better. And, I suggest seeing it before reading my review.
Ok now, where to begin? So many layers. Let me first say that I don't pretend to fully "get" the movie, and certainly don't pretend i'll even touch the surface of what this movie meant or the expanse of themes incorporated, but here are my observations as concise as possible.
Obviously the cinematography was superb and calculating. From the offset, the development of the characters had to have hooked most of the audience as it did me. A naive little girl with an alcoholic father who ignores her, and a permissive mother who allows them to be ignored set the scene for the child's innocence lost; cut to candy apple falling to the ground as she walks towards the Carnival forest to be lost in a hall of mirrors where she goes to find herself, and ... she does. From ominous storm clouds and lightning bolts rolling in as she gets ever closer to facing her evil opposite, to rain pouring down the moment she steps inside. Analogous to Eve biting the apple from the tree of knowledge and then going from paradise to pain.
The use of Michael Jackson shirt 'Thriller':
1. Michael always used dance as a metaphor for something else ( a lot of times fighting) in his videos.
2. Thriller the music video is about a girl being scared by zombies which is symbolic of the vices/ evil in others. Michael is trying to "thrill her more than any ghost would ever dare try" cut to groovy music with an awesome bass line where he proceeds to take her back to his house, as she imagines being trapped in his room only for him to jolt her to reality with his offer to take her "all the way home". We sigh with relief, he isn't a zombie! All is ok for the young lady's virtue, but as we sink into our complacency Michael turns back to the camera one last time with a hunger in his wolf eyes. Ow oooo, if you know what i'm sayin'.
3. In the case of the two opposite twins in the movie Us, who is the wolf? Which mother? Is this song about date rape? Is the little girl given the shirt as a foreshadowing of her impending date with her own wolf? Could the red jumpsuits mean little red riding hood is coming to kill the big bad wolf? Or is it a shout out to co-star's 'The hand maiden's tale'? (Also, a show/novel about the struggle between servitude, complacency, and pride.)
4. In ethnic cultures, through the trials and triumphs of time, dance has been a form of escapism, non verbal expression, a subversive act that can bring joy even in the darkest of times.
Then there were rabbits and scissors:
1. The scissors for the untethering from servitude. She cuts the head off of the rabbit stuffed animal symbolize the untethering of herself as the evil twin's plaything.
2. As the 'Prevailer' decends down the stairs to the lab, a rabbit is seen escaping, as if saying that she was Alice falling back down to Wonderland where the Red Queen was waiting to chop off her head.
3. However, the "Unionizer" was herself like the rabbits, being tested on and kept locked up. This I feel was very analogous to how our society deems it acceptable to lock up animals to conduct research, and people to put them in jails.
4. There jumpsuits help us to see that they were the prisoners all across the country; living in smaller confined versions of the real world. People society has locked up and forgotten about, instead of placed in restorative justice centers to rehabilitate and integrate back into society.
5. The theme of Upper/Middle Class vs . Working Poor/Imprisoned/Homeless
News reel "They came from the sewers."
"And I kept thinking, you could have taken me with you."
"... This is our summer home!" Hilarious line to splash in some comedic relief.
Which brings me to the use of comedy ... Tears rolling "nobody wants the boat dad" however, in the end the boat saved them time and again. "Thanks dad for buying the boat!" is something left unsaid but fully understood by the time the credits rolled. In the end having a family that could think for themselves, and make their own decisions helped the 'evil twin' to prevail. Though, I can honestly say that I didn't sleep that night, that movie had me laughing so many times. Luckily, I saw it late at night with a lot of people that were, like me, talking shit out loud to all the characters, and mooning over/chuckling at Winston Duke's spread eagle poses. This movie had the best of both worlds; thrills and chills.
The use of the song "I got $5 on it":
1. Yes, the song is funny, well known, and well liked, but is there more here?
2. "The Prevailer" in the begining of the movie is in the car singing along with the entire family "I got five on it." Openly lying to her kids about the meaning of the song it is understood but accepted as joke; as if she was only saying that because that is what a good mom should say while she is really laughing at her children misbehaving."Mom I can see you laughing in the mirror." A precedent of two faced nature is set as the family drives along to their second home.
3. Let's go half on a sack lyrics could be a metaphor for the two clones going half on one body/soul. It could refer to the struggle of those going through addiction and having two sides of themselves trying to dominate the other as someone tries to get clean but relapses again.
In the end, after really reflecting on the movie, it makes me sad that our main character protagonist - antagonist or however you look at it - dies in the end. She is kidnapped and turned slave, only to rise up unionizing thousands of clones / guinea pigs, homeless, lab rats controlled by the government. These clone slaves had no rights all around America, and she with really only The Goonies, and - i'm inferring here - an approximately 3rd grade education brings them all together to seek freedom. The most beautiful revenge story, a little girl taken for granted by her biological family is abducted and forced to live imprisoned for 20+ years; yet though she probably had her wind pipe crushed by the evil twin, "the Prevailer", it acts as a catalyst for her to find her voice in a different way. Even more of a blow, a bitter irony is the original surface twin "the Unionizer" who is now imprisoned never gets the love that her family started pouring out from their guilt. After the abduction, she never gets to experience how her family started to invest in their daughter - except through dance. Dance to me is a ubiquitous expression of subversiveness, rebellion, revenge and passion; it is a tool of communication that evokes a plethora of emotions and intentions. It was used beautifully in this case.
But alas, revenge has its price and the price is the soul as seen in 'I Saw the Devil', "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance", "Oldboy" and all your other favorite revenge films. I'd like to compare "the Unionizer" to a similar hero in another favorite revenge film of mine, Oldboy. Oh Dae-Su is a drunk, asshole shitty father and cheating husband who gets kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years. During this time, confined to a single room by unknown captures, he teaches himself how to kick ass and prepare for the moment he can seek his form of justice. After being released randomly with no prior notice, he is hooked and entangled in figuring out who his capture is, and where he can find him. There were several points in time where he could have walked away, but his pride hammer on his intentions and resolve for revenge. And just like the "Unionizer" in the movie 'Us', Oh Dae-Su does end up getting his revenge in the end, but at a price. Spoiler alert: He literally cutting his pride/ his loose tongue that never stopped talking shit even after he was released (if you think about it) at the end to gain peace, "Unionizer" gaining her voice, losing her life, but succeeding arranging the greatest civil uprising at the cost of her own life finally had peace.
With a twist of fate, Alice goes to meet the Red Queen and the rest of the story is revealed. And just as in any great Michael Jackson music video, a war wages through the waltz that the evil opposites begin as a means to an end. However, not only does the battle resume with the characters on the screen, but also within our audience. Who should we really be rooting for? Should justice be served and what is the truth behind that justice; millions of peoples blood spilt, both guilty and innocent alike. For even when you don't commit the act of genocide, when you don't speak up and stop it, the blood is still on your hands. This movie really points out that we as people do not realize the hypocrisy within ourselves when turning a blind eye. We are all tethered together by the bonds of our humanity, and we cannot continue to ignore the white lies we tell ourselves about the inequalities in our society.
