“Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.” Jeremiah 11:11
This verse echos in the latest Jordan Peele film, Us, though the words are not read out loud, there are numerous references where the characters see the verse just before something bad is about to happen. It’s by far a clever way of foreshadowing an foreseen apocalypse and those who are curious of the verse might in fact find themselves reaching for a Bible to figure out just what the director is trying to depict, but one thing can be sure, Lupita N’yongo has definitely met her match in the suspense thriller that has audiences realizing their biggest threat is themselves.
The Universal film, US follows one family who decide to go away to a former childhood home of the mother, Adelaide Wilson (played by Nyong’o) though she is disturbed to go back due to a traumatic experience that happened to her as a child. All is going fine until her youngest child, Jason wanders off and discovers a mysterious man with a message.
That evening, a family show up in the form of themselves that has them fleeing for their lives, but now the only challenge is to kill them before their doubles destroy them, but the real secret lies into what happened to Adelaide when she was only a child at Santa Cruz State Beach.
The film also reunites former Black Panther stars, Nyong’o and Winston Duke as the lead couple and both do an exceptional job with having to portray that of a normal family to that of a slightly more demented one. Though, as the plot thickens one might wonder, who exactly is the evil one. All in all, without giving any spoilers, one can say you might not really know what truly happened until the bloody end.
The other actress who is worth mentioning is Madison Curry who is gifted enough to play the younger version of N’yongo, both the normal one and the evil one. Seeing as this is Curry’s debut acting role, one must give due credit to the young actress. She had a way of captivating the audience from the first moment where one could tell she was already thinking of her every move before she did it. Her facial expressions of a scared little girl to that of one who had a far more advanced mind for unforeseen things, makes us invested in her as a character. Ultimately it’ll be interesting to see what else this young lady will be doing in the future.
Overall, the film contains the same element of suspense from director Jordan Peele as he used in his debut directorial film, Get Out, which of course won him an academy award for Best Original Screenplay. One might also wonder if the two are connected on a larger spectrum as the latest, US, shows that there are doubles for nearly everyone in the United States.
The title, US also holds great significance in the fact that early on the doubles respond to the family with one common statement as to who they are. That is “They are Americans”. A political message could also be detected with this and the fact of the “Hands Across America” campaign magnifies to the end as the family is coming on to the beach for one of the last times before confronting their doubles.
The film also leaves with an open ended question so that one could assume another film is already in the making, but only time will tell.
For now, Us came out in theaters March 22, 2019 and is currently playing in a theater near you. Its a film that you definitely don’t want to miss. It’ll have you on the edge of your seat as you question just what is going on in the tunnels underground.