4/5 ****
On Halloween, Lawrence University’s Black Student Union (BSU) hosted a movie night in the Quad where there was a showing of Jordan Peele’s 2019 film “Us.” As someone who loves Peele’s films, I think this is a great time to review it. The story follows Adelaide “Addy” Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) as she and her family try to survive a group of doppelgangers, known as the “Tethered,” who live in tunnels underground. This film is so interesting because it can be interpreted in many different ways. Personally, I see this as a film that criticizes American privilege, both through race and class.
Peele establishes early on that the Tethered represent the disadvantaged and those above-ground represent the privileged. The Wilson family and their friends, the Tyler family, spend the film at their vacation homes near Santa Cruz, Calif. Generally, those with vacation homes are in the upper class. The Tethered we see in the film invade the Wilson and Tyler families’ vacation homes, rather than their personal homes. Peele makes sure to include the complexity of class divide and how it relates with race. Despite the two families having vacation homes, the Tyler family, who are white, are seen having “nicer” stuff than the Wilson family. Addy’s husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), constantly compares what he has to what Josh Tyler (Tim Heidecker) has. Despite the fact that the two families are considered privileged, there is still a racial divide.
When we meet the Tethered, they are portrayed as the other side of the coin from their counterparts. They are to represent each character if they were the “have-nots,” those left behind while the rest of society flourished. For example, Gabe is a well-off guy who attended Howard University, a historically Black university with notable alumni like writer Toni Morrison and Kamala Harris. Abraham, his Tethered counterpart, acts animalistic and speaks in grunts. Unlike Gabe, Abraham is not intelligent and follows orders. Another notable example is Kitty Tyler’s double, Dahlia (Elisabeth Moss). Kitty is a talkative woman who cares about her appearance, admitting to getting a little plastic surgery. Dahlia, on the other hand, does not speak at all, but also cares about her appearance. To mirror the work that was done on Kitty, she attempts to perform plastic surgery on herself using the iconic gold scissors the Tethered carry. Each Tethered makes us consider the kind of person we would be if we did not have the opportunities we were given.
Now time for the twist, which is that Addy is actually a Tethered and she switched places with her aboveground counterpart when she was a child. Since then, the real Addy was forced to become Red and live as a Tethered while the doppelganger was able to enjoy life aboveground. This can be interpreted in a few different ways, one being nature vs. nurture. It is not that the Tethered are different creatures naturally incapable of living life as a human — they are just not given the opportunities to. When Addy left the tunnels, she was able to live successfully while Red grew to be more animalistic and nearly lost her ability to speak. The other interpretation, which could co-exist with the previous one, is to criticize those who climb the social ladder, only to not assist others in their climb. Addy knew what kind of fate she left Red to, literally climbing up just to abandon the others, not looking back.
This is just a brief and surface level analysis of “Us” to get you started on thinking about your own interpretations. This film has so many complexities and layers which cannot possibly be covered in a short review. The amount of symbolism and foreshadowing Peele stuffs into this film is incredible. I highly recommend watching it and trying to interpret it yourself. It is one of those films that is seen a little differently by everyone. Also, the soundtrack is AMAZING!