Us

Jordan Peele’s follow-up to 2017’s Get Out, Us follows a family of four (Lupita Nyong’o’s Adelaide, Winston Duke’s Gabe, Shahadi Wright Joseph’s Zora, and Evan Alex’s Jason) as they’re terrorized by a gang of sinister doppelgängers while on vacation. There’s little doubt that Us benefits substantially from Peele’s stylish, attention-grabbing approach to his own screenplay, as the picture kicks off with a fairly hypnotic sequence that paves the way for a compelling narrative rife with engrossing interludes – with, especially, the aforementioned doppelgängers’ initial appearance certainly as suspenseful and tense as one might’ve hoped. It’s equally clear, however, that Us‘ overall effectiveness is hampered by a pace that’s occasionally just a little too deliberate and, in a far more problematic development, Nyong’o’s decision to deliver most of her doppelgänger dialogue in a predominantly unintelligible manner (which, given that this character is responsible for the lion’s share of exposition, is somewhat disastrous in the final analysis). Such missteps are rather easy to overlook, ultimately, given the degree to which the movie generally manages to enthrall, with the third act’s almost apocalyptic bent ensuring that Us concludes on a decidedly spellbinding note – which certainly does, in the end, cement Peele’s place as a seriously exciting up-and-coming filmmaker.

*** out of ****