US by jordan peele

ok I'll come back here on thursday night

Im not a horror fan but the premise of this one has me right intrigued.

It's not bad. Lupita Nyong'o becomes a star. The ending is illogical.

ooh illogical

(i'm seeing it thursday too)

Lupita Nyong'o becomes a star.

This is the first time she's commanded a movie. Without spoiling the last half hour, she becomes Sigourney Weaver in Aliens.

this movie will disappoint those who want A Message About Our Times from Peele, I should point out.

lupita in a power loader is an instant ticket sale for me xp

this movie will disappoint those who want A Message About Our Times from Peele, I should point out.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 20, 2019 7:10 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

excellent

the audience, however, loved it. Don't think they want A Message, which is a relief.

the letter ‘s’ is not capitalized in the titles of this film

Vanity Fair has a lukewarm take

this movie kicked ass

i saw the illogical ending coming but as farfetched endings in horror movies go: it also kicked ass

this was decent. there's a 90-minute cut in my head that absolutely ruled.

acting uniformly strong, Nyong'o great, obv. Heidecker/Moss a hilarious double act and they were in it just the right amount.

lastly, Miriam Bale is otm here

I saw Jordan Peele compared to Hitchcock but, after US, it's clear Larry Cohen (with a budget) is a better comparison.

— Miriam Bale (@mimbale) March 10, 2019

Coming to this with higher expectations than a genre film well-realized (mostly) will disappoint you.

"A genre film well-realized" is the highest expectation I can think of.

larry cohen! that's a deep cut!
used to sing "the stuff" jingle at school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dLtSNlzanU

The Larry Cohen that made Full Moon High? Because that is a fun little movie.

as per usual I concur w/ Adam Nayman

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/3/22/18277051/us-jordan-peele-review-get-out

who writes the headlines for the ringer, i ask bc they're very good at making me not want to read anything beyond them

Adam's completely incorrect opinion that an unhappy ending to Get Our would have been better (for, I dunno, George Romero's sake) makes me distrust him on this movie.

in general I prefer my horror movies (and satires) to have downer endings

also whether or not you agree w/ him, his argument is a little more than "for Romero's sake" there, c'mon

Interesting - I didn't really enjoy Get Out but the ending belatedly converted me. I thought "He's doing the Romero ending, that's nice but kinda boring" and was pleased it ended with a bit of kickass silliness instead.

can i start talking spoilers yet or would everyone rather i not

give it a week at least!

ok done

maybe i can vaguely allude to how enjoyable the musical cues are

#goodvibrations

Was going to say the same with the music cues. Really enjoyed this all around in a packed theater.

I should add that everyone I saw it with was head-over-heels for it.

yes my preview audience went wild over it, laughing and clapping

ooh illogical

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Wednesday, March 20, 2019 8:42 AM

the low standards of horror fans in a nutshell

thanks morbs

maybe i can vaguely allude to how enjoyable the musical cues are

I was going to see it any event, but nothing piques my interest more. (I've gotta find the right, off-peak time to see it; a big-deal horror film with a packed house is the last audience I want to be part of, even I understand the argument that that's the absolute best way to see such a film.)

It was the first time in a couple years I'd been in that situation, and I was out of practice.

I don't want to sound like a drudge--laughing and clapping (and screaming), great, I do enjoy that. Unfortunately, talking-talking-talking is usually part of the package.

Some stranger sat next to me and he was alternating between audibly whimpering and nervously looking at his phone. He even took a call at one point. (heard behind me: "Is this motherfucker on the phone?"; I so badly wanted to indicate that no, I didn't know this dude)

this movie was a hot mess, the basic premise was pretty interesting but it was over-explained to all hell, and worse, that explanation just didn't really make any sense. i would have liked it much more in a leaner and more ambiguous form. Also, I found the tone to be all over the place -- yeah, jokes can work in this type of film, but I found that they were placed poorly. They often undercut whatever suspense/horror was playing out. Still, there were a lot of good ideas and awesome sequences in the film - the opening funhouse scene was terrifying, and the good vibrations kill scene was pretty beautiful imo

The matinee crowd today was cool, mostly quiet (rapt?) except for a well-timed "that's right!" after Adelaide's "I'll be the one making the decisions from now on."

I really liked everything about this, not sure I see how any part of it was illogical. Most people won't go up the down escalator, right?

This is the first time she's commanded a movie.

That she did.

Skillfully done rather than a rewrite-the-rules effort but I think most of us who have seen it and like it agree there. The implications of the ending (well, last fifteen minutes) are sometimes lost in the crush to get things done, but as I walked home I thought more about Nyong'o's acting choices as well as the initially-hidden beats of the script a bit more and I think it's really striking. It's not a Message On Our Times specifically, no, but it's got more to say about trauma as well as who gets lucky and who doesn't than I thought.

And it may not have been a downer ending on the small scale but the large scale suggests otherwise! Hell of a repurposing of that particular 1986 tidbit.

Oh yeah and interesting to see with a packed-out and fairly vocal crowd that I realized was probably generally at least twenty years younger than me. I kept wondering why people were more audibly spooked than I was but then it made obvious sense later.

Oh and: remembering how Peele rates Branagh's Dead Again means all the scissors stuff makes for an intriguing callback.

I don’t know... certainly was gripping, solid performances, one very impressive shot (toward the end - red Adelaide ECU frame right, Adelaide in BG), paced well, but the “message” here - there is one, it’s spelled out early on (“who are you?” “we’re Americans” - give me a break) - is too obtuse or simply not fleshed out enough to work. “US” double entendre, the MAGA red jumpsuits, people “rising up.” It’s reasonable to be disappointed by a movie that clearly sets out to say something and fails. No one but horror fans would care about this movie if it wasn’t made by the guy that did Get Out.

I suspect the millions who made Get Out a smash thought it a reasonably well done horror film. They do well in the box office, you know! People don't think about messages. The far worse A Quiet Place was a massive hit last year, remember?

as he said, the fear of american society

and Lupita Nyong'o was amazing I thought

This really seemed like a script that had been gathering dust until Peele had the breakthrough hit, and then it got made without anyone giving it a good old once-over like it needed. Still looking forward to his next move though.

― Sent me the wrong t-shirt it says let’s summon demons (Matt #2), Monday, December 9, 2019 8:10 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm, although apparently he only started writing it after Get Out was a hit. It shows - huge expository dump at the end just sinks the whole thing.

It's no more egregious in length or scope than any other horror denouement.

i also thought this was kinda bad. although i didn't really love get out either tbh. *runs away and hides*

still love this movie, its looseness is what makes it great imo

yeah I was hesitant the first time, but loved it the second.

they had an Us haunted house at Halloween Horror nights and it ended with the "hands across America" thing, it was really dope.

don't think it would make much sense as a house to anybody who didn't see the movie though

the expository dump at the end is especially weird because it's between two characters who both already know that shit

they both know they switched places that night. The tether who escaped sure as hell didn't know anything beyond that, she never visited the person she swapped with.

The tether has no idea what the real Nyong'o was doing below the surface all of those years, or how she organized the tethers to kill their surface overlords.

here is the entirety or Red's speech. It's safe to say the Adelaide knows all the bolded stuff. This is bad writing.

How it must have been to grow up with the sky. To feel the sun, the wind, the trees. But your people took it for granted. We’re human too, you know. Eyes. Teeth. Hands. Blood. Exactly like you.

And yet, it was humans that built this place. I believe they figured out how to make a copy of the body, but not the soul. The soul remains one, shared by two. They created the Tethered so they could use them to control the ones above. Like puppets.

But they failed, and they abandoned the Tethered. For generations the Tethered continued without direction. They all went mad down here. And then... there was us.

You remember? We were born special. God brought us together that night.

Years after we met, the miracle happened. That’s when I saw God, and he showed me my path. You felt it too. The end of our dance the Tethered saw that I was different, that I would deliver them from this misery. I found my faith and I began to prepare. It took years to plan. Everything had to be perfect. I didn’t just need to kill you. I needed to make a statement that the whole world would see. It’s our time now. Our time up there. And to think, if it weren’t for you, I never would’ve danced at all.

it was humans that built this place. I believe they figured out how to make a copy of the body, but not the soul. The soul remains one, shared by two. They created the Tethered so they could use them to control the ones above. Like puppets.

But they failed, and they abandoned the Tethered.

this chunk especially - never alluded to in the film before, but basically explains the entire setup in one fell swoop while just raising more (mostly stupid) questions. (Humans? Which humans? Why? How did it work? What was the goal? Why would they leave people alive down there if it was a failed experiment? How did they stay alive? etc etc)

if your explanation doesn't actually explain anything, better to just leave it totally ambiguous and leave the audience wondering imo

does red know that adelaide knows it

my read has always been that they were young when it happened and their environments changed so drastically and permanently that they legit forgot the switch happened, idk

they stayed alive by eating the rabbits obviously but i don't particularly care that the exposition is stupid

also adelaide was a kid when she transitioned into the outer world, she wouldn't necessarily know anything about the whole project

they both know they switched places that night. The tether who escaped sure as hell didn't know anything beyond that, she never visited the person she swapped with.

The tether has no idea what the real Nyong'o was doing below the surface all of those years, or how she organized the tethers to kill their surface overlords.

― master of nuggets (Neanderthal), Thursday, December 12, 2019 2:36 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

or, you know, this post, which nothing you've said contradicts shakey

yeah, it very much read like the tether had remembered events to where she was the victim. after killing the people in the friends house, she starts making primitive, animalistic noises after the act was done, same when she fights Red at the end. her son hears some of it and is actually scared of her in the van, it appears. sounds like she regressed enough that she remembered at the end of the movie that she was the one who swapped places.

and obv I know Hollywood always treats repressed memories in a very unrealistic way but who cares.

"why would the devil spin the little girl's head in The Exorcist, surely the girl would be dead as soon as the devil left her body, the same laws of biology apply!"

they legit forgot the switch happened

they both felt some kind of mystical connection during the dance, which is explicitly stated and is decades earlier than the main events in the film

one more time

Years after we met, the miracle happened. That’s when I saw God, and he showed me my path. You felt it too.

I mean *they share a fucking soul* how much more connected could they be

yes they felt some kind of mystical connection during the dance but does that mean they automatically know the entire context of the government project

or at least, that doesn't mean that adelaide does!

so yeah i'm finding more reasons for the exposition dump to exist

the entire context of the government project

government is not referenced

idk why I'm bothering tbh

i don't know why you're bothering either

or why it matters that the government isn't referenced

as a specific point it doesn't matter, but I'm suspicious of any reading that isn't firmly rooted in actual details of what's on-screen.

they stayed alive by eating the rabbits obviously but i don't particularly care that the exposition is stupid

The fun thing about this detail is that if you eat a diet solely composed of rabbit you will starve to death

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

so they couldn't have picked a worse food source for their nonsensical plan!

thanks for that one cinema sins

and a merry christmas to you too

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/ef6b539e-4be2-4388-8d00-05251d9aee20

I loved the first 45 mins, and then spent the rest of the time alternately amused and exasperated. The middle part is definitely the weakest, as it basically becomes a home invasion thriller with this one kooky hook. The final reveal worked ok for me even if it doesn't entirely play fair with the lead character's childhood trauma.

it's a good home invasion thriller! also iirc the part where Peele gets to work more humour than elsewhere into the movie?

I loved this movie a lot and my takeaway from this thread is that I would thoroughly hate watching a movie with most of you

I also have some incredibly unkind thoughts on subconscious bias as expressed in some of the complaints about this movie but they are possibly more about my interpretation of the complaints than the actual complaints themselves.

(Primary being "the dialog was stilted" = "black people don't talk like that")

(I guess I do feel like going there)

thread revive got me all mixed up in light of other recent events. Jordan Peele threatening pre-emptive Iran strike, do I have that right?

say what now?

this is the us politics thread not the us politics thread

there's a broader melange of on-the-nose allusions: people wearing prison-style jumpsuits, chained and tethered and joined to each other, an underclass marked by this clothing and colour rising up

Probably should start a new thread but

☁️ pic.twitter.com/iiDRwVLmbr

— Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) July 22, 2021

And I just posted this in the "No" thread.

Hoping for a "Oh Hell No" director's cut.

NOPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgmq_8PlRY

Separate thread, my friend

Nope (dir. Jordan Peele)