Jordan Peele to Daniel Kaluuya: “You’re my De Niro”
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Credit: Far Out/Universal
Movie of the Week: ‘Us’ Jordan Peele’s American nightmare
In 2017, the comedian-turned-filmmaker, Jordan Peele, transformed the appeal of the horror genre, breaking the barrier between mainstream and independent cinema with the release of his Oscar-winner, Get Out. Striking a chord with audiences immediately upon its release, Peele instantly became considered as an innovative, modern filmmaker capable of subverting expectations and providing a strong dose of social commentary.
Capable of selling tickets for his films with the mere utterance of his own name, Peele has carved out quite the niche, with his name being attributed to original modern thrillers that challenge both conventional filmmaking as well as the most pertinent social debates. Whilst Get Out was widely celebrated for these exact reasons, Peele’s second feature film, Us, didn’t receive the attention it deserved, despite it being crammed with a bounty of filmmaking elegance.
Where his first feature film had discussed the fragility of race relations in the USA, Us, itself an abbreviation of the country, delved into the complacency of privilege when it comes to social class. Peele performed this complicated horror metaphor through an intricate tale that follows a family who are attacked by a group of menacing doppelgängers with questionable intentions and a tendency for violence.
Dealing with the duality of correspondence between social classes, Peele’s film looks into how privilege divides and forces a wedge between communities, representing this separation by having a society of doppelgängers living in the mile-long tunnels that stretch across America underground. With several references to Jeremiah 11:11 dotted throughout the film, a bible verse that reads, “Therefore thus saith the Lord: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them,'” with Peele using the paragraph to reflect the apathy of struggle between one class and another.
The same duality is called into question with the ‘Hands Across America’ plot-line, taken from the real-life public fundraising event which took place under President Reagan’s administration. Full of saccharine patriotic optimism, the timing of the event fell during the country’s tense cold war with the USSR, with the peculiar PR campaign being used throughout Peele’s movie to represent the flagrant ignorance of the public towards real-world problems. Refusing, for example, to see the struggles of other social classes.
Speaking about the theme of American privilege throughout the movie, Peele comments, “One of the central themes in Us is that we can do a good job collectively of ignoring the ramifications of privilege,” before explaining, “I think it’s the idea that what we feel like we deserve comes, you know, at the expense of someone else’s freedom or joy…those who suffer and those who prosper are two sides of the same coin. You can never forget that. We need to fight for the less fortunate”.
Where Get Out has rightfully gained the respect that it deserves over the years, Us has failed to receive its due praise, presumably as it doesn’t quite reach the grand heights of Peele’s first film. Still, one can’t forget the influence of Jordan Peele in the evermore-commercialised movie industry, with the incessant creative devising of ingenious concepts that make us dig deep and question the fabric of our own reality.
Fighting in the same social battle as Get Out, Us should be recognised as a spiritual successor, with Nope undoubtedly ready to add more grace and gravity to Peele’s filmography in the near future.
