Sitting In The Aisle: Us

Us 9/10

This will be full of spoilers! Stop reading movies reviews if you are worried about them in the first place. If you are seeing this movie expecting another Get Out then you should either see something else or realize that people can make more than one type of movie. I am still letting this movie sink in because there was a lot to take in. I am gonna have to see this one more time just as I did with Get Out because Jordan Peele layered the fuck out of this. Even as I am reading about things I missed I am glad that I picked up on as much as I did. This starts off in 1986 with a young girl Adelaide is with her parents in Santa Cruz on the boardwalk. Her father is drinking and wandering around not paying attention to her and her mom continues to tell him to get his shit together. Adelaide ends up wandering away and ends up in this house of mirrors where she finds another version of herself.

Fast forward Adelaide and her family are heading to Santa Cruz. Her husband Gabe, daughter Zora who has her face buried in her phone, and her strange son Jason are along as well. Adelaide is not that excited and keeps having little flashbacks of her childhood and getting lost at the beach. They show some scenes of her parents taking her to therapy and how she no longer speaks. Gabe ends up buying a small boat and guilting Adelaide into heading to the beach. They meet up with some of Gabe's friends, this couple named Josh, Kitty, and their twin daughters. Jason ends up wandering off and seeing this guy that was on a stretcher with his arms spread wide. Adelaide flips the fuck out searching for him and tells him not to pull that shit.

Later that night Adelaide tries explaining to Gabe what happened when she was younger and how she feels there is someone out looking for her still after seeing herself and being attacked when she was a kid. Gabe is very skeptical about all this shit which is understandable. He just wants to have a fun vacation with his family, bone down with his fine ass wife, and do things that I would describe as “White people shit.” Vacation? The beach? A boat?! Anyhoot, Jason ends up spotting some people in the driveway just standing there looking eleven kinds of creepy. Gabe tries to talk to them. Don't work. He tries to scare them. Don't work. Adelaide is like “Grab your shoes!” and these four red clad nuts starts pounding on the doors, breaking windows, and straight up kick Gabe's ass! The family looks across at these people and they look exactly like them. Oh, and they got inside using a key that was hidden under a rock which Gabe asked “What kinda White people shit is that?”

My body was not ready for this. From the trailers I did not try to figure out what this could all mean. I could get an explanation that I did not like and be bummed or I could get one that was so fucking nuts that I could roll with it. I rolled with this one. The only one that speaks is the Adelaide clone. The clone, Red, explains how when Adelaide had her life going great that she was underground eating rabbits and pretty much living the shitty life. She has Adelaide handcuff herself. Has her clone daughter chase after Zora. Gabe is getting beaten with a bat and dragged onto a boat with his clone. Jason and his clone got to “play.”

I am gonna stop right here describing what happens because the shit gets even more insane. I went to an early afternoon showing and there were a lot of people in the theater and all of us were covering our faces, shaking our heads, laughing, and cheering. It was fun. There are a shit ton of clues that give away the ending that I did not notice in the background. When I left the theater I had a list of things I needed to know. Why did Red sound the way she did? What was with the bible quote? What's with all the rabbits? Why do the clones act so crazy? There are answers to all these questions but you will get them by either talking about the movie with other people, reading some articles, watching some videos, or you figured the shit out on your own. This was a really fun movie but there was a point towards the end where it felt like it was dragging out.

The acting was good. There are some uncomfortably long death scenes with gurgling. I loved that the kids did not annoy the hell out of me. The kids were just kids and actually came across like a brother and sister. The father was not as badass as I thought he would be being such a big dude. That cut of him in the trailer is not in the movie and does not come across as tough. This hit me in ways that felt very particular. The mother was fucking intense. I really did not think that she had the ability to be as terrifying as she was. I would never have pictured her in something like this. When she is just staring at her double and not blinking it felt very intense. Her double, meaning her playing her double, scared the shit out of me. Calm and crazy is super effective. See this movie not wondering what the plot is based off the trailer. Don't search for some huge, hidden social message. It is just a good creepy ass film.

Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide Wilson

Winston Duke as Gabriel “Gabe” Wilson

Shahidi Wright Joseph as Zora Wilson

Evan Alex as Jason Wilson

Click here for previous Sitting In The Aisle.