'Us': Maybe Not Knowing is the Point
I seem to remember a scene in the documentary Dangerous Days where editor Terry Rawlings describes his first reaction to seeing a completed cut of Blade Runner. "I think it's beautiful," he said. "But what does it all mean?"
I had a similar reaction to Jordan Peele's latest film, Us. It was a suspenseful, fascinating, borderline ingenious film. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would watch it again in an instant with no hesitation. But I'll be damned if I know what it means.
I mean I have some guesses. Peele himself has offered his two cents, and if anyone would know what the meaning of his film is, it would be him. So I have that to work with. But all the interpretive muscles I developed watching art cinema every day in film school have atrophied and while I caught something here and there, I have to admit that I don't know how accurate my interpretation of the film's meaning is.
It may be dicey to talk about this movie without spoiling it, but let's give it a go. Us spins a yarn about the Wilson family as they vacation at the family lake house. They soon find their vacation disrupted and their vacation home invaded by a family of doppelgangers.
The doppelgangers coerce and torture the Wilsons and it soon becomes clear that similar scenarios are playing out all over the land. The mystery of where the doppelgangers came from unfolds, as does their plan. I can't say too much more without spoiling the movie.
What I can say is that, for me, the most fascinating part of this film has been trying to come up with some kind of meaning for the film. What was Peele trying to say?
I came up with a few themes I thought might apply. The dangers of unchecked scientific ambition. How poorly we treat those we perceive to be beneath us. Peele himself has said that the meaning of the film is that sometimes the monster is us. And you can pick enough out of the film to support any one of those assertions.
But there's a more interesting idea: that maybe the film doesn't have a concrete meaning and that's it's a bit ambiguous to force the viewer to come up with a meaning themselves. Art is usually at its best when it's open-ended to allow those who experience it to come up with their own interpretations. It's that way it is in painting, sculpture, drama, and cinema.
That's the reason why Blade Runner and Brazil are still oft-discussed classics. They offer clues and present a cohesive vision, but they allow the viewer to interpret what they mean. That's also the opposite of what a self-important, pretentious mess like Batman v Superman does. BvS has interesting ideas, but instead of letting the viewer drew his or her own conclusion, it batters them over the head with what the director wants you to think about it. That's not good filmmaking. I'm not honestly sure what that is.
But, you don't need to suss out the meaning to have a good time with Us. It's a tense, twisted ball of brilliance that won't be leaving my mind anytime soon.
I had a similar reaction to Jordan Peele's latest film, Us. It was a suspenseful, fascinating, borderline ingenious film. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would watch it again in an instant with no hesitation. But I'll be damned if I know what it means.
I mean I have some guesses. Peele himself has offered his two cents, and if anyone would know what the meaning of his film is, it would be him. So I have that to work with. But all the interpretive muscles I developed watching art cinema every day in film school have atrophied and while I caught something here and there, I have to admit that I don't know how accurate my interpretation of the film's meaning is.
It may be dicey to talk about this movie without spoiling it, but let's give it a go. Us spins a yarn about the Wilson family as they vacation at the family lake house. They soon find their vacation disrupted and their vacation home invaded by a family of doppelgangers.
The doppelgangers coerce and torture the Wilsons and it soon becomes clear that similar scenarios are playing out all over the land. The mystery of where the doppelgangers came from unfolds, as does their plan. I can't say too much more without spoiling the movie.
What I can say is that, for me, the most fascinating part of this film has been trying to come up with some kind of meaning for the film. What was Peele trying to say?
I came up with a few themes I thought might apply. The dangers of unchecked scientific ambition. How poorly we treat those we perceive to be beneath us. Peele himself has said that the meaning of the film is that sometimes the monster is us. And you can pick enough out of the film to support any one of those assertions.
But there's a more interesting idea: that maybe the film doesn't have a concrete meaning and that's it's a bit ambiguous to force the viewer to come up with a meaning themselves. Art is usually at its best when it's open-ended to allow those who experience it to come up with their own interpretations. It's that way it is in painting, sculpture, drama, and cinema.
That's the reason why Blade Runner and Brazil are still oft-discussed classics. They offer clues and present a cohesive vision, but they allow the viewer to interpret what they mean. That's also the opposite of what a self-important, pretentious mess like Batman v Superman does. BvS has interesting ideas, but instead of letting the viewer drew his or her own conclusion, it batters them over the head with what the director wants you to think about it. That's not good filmmaking. I'm not honestly sure what that is.
But, you don't need to suss out the meaning to have a good time with Us. It's a tense, twisted ball of brilliance that won't be leaving my mind anytime soon.
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