Us finds horror in implications and atmosphere

Lupita Nyong'o in Us. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

There is something bothersome about Us, a slow dawning sense of terror that just lingers for a spell once the curtain closes and the lights go up. The film otherwise lacks a true moment of shock or terror – the jump scares are minimal, and the humor is ample enough to mitigate some of the traditionally scary moments – but goodness are the implications of Jordan Peele's film absolutely awful to dream about. Even as Us is hampered by ambitions it can't quite reach, it excels brilliantly at planting some dreadful thoughts and allowing them to grow.

 

Us stars, and is often carried by, the enigmatic Lupita Nyong'o. She plays Adelaide Wilson, a normal mom on vacation in Santa Cruz with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph), and son Jason (Evan Alex). It's a typical beach vacation – sun, sand, copious amounts of booze with friends Kitty (a great Elisabeth Moss) and Josh (Tim Heidecker) – except for a dark cloud that hangs over Adelaide. She has a bad childhood memory of running into another version of herself, and she can't escape the feeling she hasn't escaped her other self. Her fears come to fruition when their home is invaded by the Wilson's doppelgangers, who have murderous intentions for Adelaide and her family.

As shown in Us and Get Out, Peele has an excellent grasp of the fundamentals of horror. He's an expert at evoking discomfort even amid what are otherwise friendly and bright locations – a busy boardwalk filled with games and rides is just as terrifying as the spookiest of houses in Peele's hands. Something sinister lurks behind every corner, which works conceptually with Us, a movie whose universe contains a shallow mirror just below a vibrant surface. The Wilson family can't trust the upper-middle class shell they've created for themselves because right below the surface are the forgotten wishing for a taste of what they have.

And, well, there's a lot that can be read into that idea. Us could very well serve as a political statement, centering on the subjugation of a class of people who aren't even worth considering. The film could be a comment about the illusions of wealth, or about the strength of family. It can be about the emptiness of life in a technological age, about the ferociousness of motherhood, about fatalism, about the complexities of the soul. Peele's films are read as much as they are watched – he's just as skilled at planting clues as he is setting atmosphere – yet the message for Us is a little muddled. Peele has a lot to say about a lot of subjects with Us, and he can't deliver on everything he wants to say. The enormous ambition he has with this film is admirable and worth an attempt to emulate, but his drive toward divine profundity comes at the expense of a thematic direction and a modicum of sanity.

Us suffers a little from a tonal funk. The film relies a lot on its sense of humor – it's often as funny as it is scary – but the jokes undercut some of the vital gravitas of the horror. Moments designed for silent awe are infiltrated with uproarious laughter from the audience because they aren't quite sure which direction the film is leading them toward. The divide between humor and fear is often quite thin – a point Peele is very well aware of – but the film can't shed its jokiness enough for some of the horror to truly hit.

Well, at least in the moment. The brilliance of Us lies in the after scare, the residual fear that boomerangs back with more force than it was thrown. The final twist creates a rabbit hole of horrible thoughts and possibilities about the very nature of humanity and the lack of clarity between good and evil. It's a disturbing note to end a film on, the kind that results in a few chills and a restless night miles away from the theater. The point of Us is to leave its audience perturbed by these ideas. It wants to exploit the dark thoughts that reside in the depths of the mind and bring them to the surface, haunting the viewer like the best horror films should.

Review: Four and a half of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 116 minutes

Genre: Horror

tl;dr

What Worked: Lupita Nyong'o, Elisabeth Moss, Atmosphere, Implications

What Fell Short: Imbalanced tone, uncontrolled ambition

What To Watch As Well: Get Out, C.H.U.D.

The truth will set you free... or not

Cate Blanchett stars in "Truth." Image courtesy Sony Pictures Classic

What I hate most about journalism as an industry is how self important it can be. Most reporters are doing their jobs for what are ostensibly the correct reasons (providing information to the public, keeping an eye on the government's actions, etc.), but there is a huge amount of ego involved that's carried by the fact news people have a legitimate effect on culture based on what they decide to cover. Good journalists know when to step aside and let the story be the story; bad journalists are lazy and allow themselves to become the story to make them feel just a tiny bit better about their station in life. The film “Truth,” then, is the product of people who would be bad journalists if they practiced in that field. It’s a movie that pretends to be about discovering what its title is and investigating an issue of grand importance to outrage the audience. In reality, it’s ersatz reporting to justify a pity party for poor Mary Mapes.

Who is Mary Mapes? She's a former television news producer canned by CBS about 10 years ago for a report about former President George W. Bush's seemingly spotty record in the Texas Army National Guard. Mapes, as played by Cate Blanchett, is a gravedigger, a woman who lives to sift through information in order to discover the titular truth inside of it. The film essentially starts off by acknowledging her bona fides via a report on “60 Minutes” in 2004 about the torture at Abu Ghraib, which would later win a Peabody Award (a fact the film points out in its postscript).

Blanchett follows that up with a story that could have a heavy influence on that year's presidential election; allegations that then-President Bush was granted special treatment to join the Texas Army National Guard in 1968 so he wouldn't have to fight in Vietnam. She assembles a small, crack team of reporters (Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, and a barely used Elisabeth Moss) to investigate, which results in confirmation from former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes (Philip Quast) that strings were pulled for Bush and other Texas elites. Most notably, the reporting leads to a collection of papers (later called the Killian Documents after supposed writer Lt. Col. Jerry Killian) offered by mysterious retired Lt. Col. Bill Burkett (Stacy Keach) indicating the future governor of Texas went AWOL during his time with the guard.

The team puts a piece together outlining the allegations, and the report is aired on an episode of“60 Minutes” hosted by venerable anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford) approximately two months before the election. Backlash against the story begins shortly following the airing, with websites and other media sources alleging the documents CBS used were forgeries generated using Microsoft Word. With their backs now against the wall – and media members with conservative and liberal leanings after them – Blanchett and her crew must defend their reporting and the heart of the story against ruthless jackals and jackanapes.

At least, that's how “Truth” presents the story, probably because the film is based on a book written by Mapes. Writer/director James Vanderbilt appears to take her word as gospel, waving off almost every criticism of the report as attacks by people motivated by politics and sexism. Blanchett's Mapes is let off the hook repeatedly, with the film emphasizing again and again that she did her darndest to report the truth for the betterment of the American people. She's the hero of the story, painted as a woman who fights the good fight against big people (“I don't like bullies,” she says). Redford's Rather, too, comes off as a golden god, a man who is larger than life both on and off screen, and is even given a final moment of great importance followed by a bit of information that straight-up decimates the grand goodbye.

“Truth” would merely by annoying had it focused solely on the purportedly tragic fall of what the film considers a good journalist, but its overwhelming sense of self-righteousness makes it flipping unbearable. The film shows Blanchett and her team – Grace's character in particular – as fighters raging against the political machine on behalf of the American people, part of a dying breed of journalists doing so. (Another quote from Blanchett: “There aren't a lot of people who do what we do anymore.”) The sheer audacity and solipsism in that concept is staggering, and the fact the film never analyzes or even calls out the CBS reporters for that is amazingly cowardly. For a film that purports to support great journalism, it falls at capturing even the most basic tenets of the practice.

Review: One and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 121 minutes

Genre: Biographical

Ask Away

Target audience: The friends and family of Mary Mapes.

Take the whole family?: There is a bit of mild cursing, but nothing to really justify a proper “R” rating. Still, it will get quiet tedious for kids and for many adults.

Theater or Netflix?: Might as well stay home if you want to watch it.

What is the truth about the Killian Documents?: They’re more than likely faked, although the film never embraces the idea that there is some ambiguity to the legitimacy of the letters by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. “Truth” defends the legitimacy of the documents in full force  but the fact those documents are copies and the originals cannot be produced makes them squiffy at best. At worst, the CBS reporters got duped very, very easily.

Watch this instead?: “Shattered Glass” is a much, much more interesting film about a journalist's fall from grace. Unlike “Truth,” the film is a bit more even handed and explores the grander consequences for the falsehoods spread by its central figure, Stephen Glass. Also check out “Good Night, and Good Luck,” an excellent retelling of Edward R. Murrow's investigation of infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy.