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Us (2019)
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Today on These Guys Got Juice, the guys are bringing you a classic commentary on Jordan Peele's Us!
It's Nick's birthday month, so the guys will be doing a few commentaries on some of his favorite movies, including Talk To Me, King Kong, and No Country For Old Men. Stay tuned for those releases!
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Transcript
Halloween vs Christmas: Duration and Commercialization Debate
00:00:18
Speaker
We're recording? We're rolling. Nice. Welcome back to the commentaries, guys. Happy post-Halloween. Yeah. Merry Christmas. No, fuck that. Spooky season. Happy Hanukkah. Here, I'm going to get political at the top. Halloween lasts through people like October 31st. It's the end of Halloween. No spooky season last up until Thanksgiving. If we had my way, I would keep that shit going into December. I'd be like, because what about the Christmas horror movies and shit? That's probably the most political thing said on a podcast all day. No one has even going going there like everyone's too afraid to say like extreme shit like i just said just there because everyone's everyone's afraid of big christmas you know i'm i'm i'm i'm yeah doug has these extreme political views i'm at the forefront of uh the war on christmas i'm like the Osama bin Laden of I'm going to fly a plane into Christmas. And I love Christmas. On Halloween day, I went to the movie theater to see here and it was all Christmas out already on Halloween day. And I was like, ah, I love it. So we were a fair and balanced political podcast over here. The two political parties, Halloween and Christmas. You guys vote who wins. I mean, it really says something about America, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. I feel like people vote Halloween this year. I don't know. Yeah, I think people are pretty fed up with Christmas. Yeah. Christmas and Santa for too long has been profiting from the fat cats and big corporate toy media. I don't know where I'm going with this. I was trying to make some kind of like Bernie Sanders as take down of, even if like you took the backing from Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, I don't think it would be enough to beat what Halloween's got, you know? Uh, I mean, yeah, I, I don't know. At least the people I hang out with, they're into spooky shit, and I think they politically believe in Halloween. Yeah, that's what I'm all about. So anyway, don't forget to rate us five stars. That was just, you know. The most political we'll get on the whole podcast. Yeah, we just want to have like. Sorry if that was too divisive for anybody. I think we lost a lot of viewers over that, but we're not afraid to say it. I'm not afraid to be canceled over my extreme rhetoric. I'm saying it, okay? I'll go there. He's saying it. Happy Halloween, guys. Merry Christmas. No, fuck Christmas. I don't even know where I'm going. Yeah.
Introduction to Jordan Peele's 'Us' and Horror Preferences
00:03:37
Speaker
Well, guys, we're going to be doing a commentary on the Jordan Peele movie, Us. Did we say, I I guess in the previous episode we said about some of the movies we're going to be covering this month. I don't know if we mentioned the movies. I can't remember. No, but I just meant the reason for why we're watching. Why we're watching this piece of shit I wouldn't normally... Yeah, Jordan Peele's bad movie. Boo! Boo! So, yeah, it's weird normally i'm like one of those people where i'm like i hate seeing people be like it's my birthday month or my birthday week but so for mine and doug's birthdays we're gonna be doing like for the month of our birthdays we're gonna be doing commentaries reviews on uh a couple movies that we love or maybe even movies that we hate, you know? You guys don't know. Maybe I hate this movie. Maybe that's why I picked Jordan Peele's Us. We're just going to fucking trash it for two hours. Yeah, we get to pick some movies, whatever we want to do during our birthday months, and all crime is legal for whoever it is. It's like The Purge. Yeah. This 61% from the audience on Rotten Tomatoes is such bullshit. But I love this movie. That's disturbing. It is. I saw this movie four times in theaters. I think I saw it three in theaters. It's so good. It's one of those, it was so crazy because at first, the first time I saw it, my glasses had broken a day or two before. There's like 11-11 shit in this movie. I just couldn't see and I was like, oh, I know there's something on screen but I can't get it. But I still walked away like, you know, half blind. This is like a five star movie. I like could not stop thinking about it the whole next day. And I went back. Yeah. The very next I saw it on a Thursday, saw it again that Friday. And then it's one of the few movies where like horror movies where I'm like, Mom, I think you can handle this. This movie is really special. I'd like you to come see it with me in a theater.
Analysis of 'Us': Impact and Storytelling
00:05:50
Speaker
I think it would be a really good experience. My mom saw it, and she really enjoyed it too. Then afterwards, I took my buddy DeMarco to see it because he was like, I heard it sucked. I was like, you have no idea what you're talking about and when we walked out he thought it sucked ah damn i do know some people who have bounced off i similarly tried to get uh as many people as i could to see it thankfully no one i went with came out saying it's like or they just kept it to themselves because they knew i would like push them in the traffic or something um but uh i love this movie this is i mean no kind of a filmmaker who i for so far is three for three and i'm you know there's a handful of i mean i'm excited i i just like getting excited for film and stuff but like yeah there's a handful of filmmakers where I'm like, whatever new thing it is, I'm just amped to hear they're making a new movie. I don't even think he said what his fourth thing will be, but just Peel announcing he has something coming, I'm like, oh, that's fucking going to be so good. I'll be there. But like I said, I on board for for jordan peele but us was really what like put him into a next tier for me like i i really really like it out i think it's like a pretty brilliant script and it's really well done but and maybe this was like just it had so much hype before i like i didn't even see it in the initial theatrical run like just i i just didn't get to it in in time and saw it later so there was like so much hype before i saw it and i was like this is really good but like some people were coming out of it like it was the best movie ever i was like okay let's yeah i feel like some people was like their first horror movie so they were just like whoa I got my top 10 of that year didn't have get out in it I had it in my honorable mentions and someone told me your list is invalid because get out it's not it I mean that was 2017 that was a good year that was a really good year it's like holy shit I don't know so my bad i still liked it yeah like i said i'm i'm not shitting on get out as a movie but it it didn't it made me it definitely made me want to see more for him because like i was i'm just intrigued when someone like takes some kind of career zig and goes in a direction that i i don't think anyone was watching key andle thinking this guy was going to be like one of our top horror filmmakers or just like one of our most exciting filmmakers currently period I would say but like yeah so I think that was like a lot of the like surprise and like response to Get Out but then Us for me is just so much more on like a whole nother level and we can start this soon so we can like actually comment on the specific scenes but like i think i i again i like i really like and love all of peel's films but for me this is working on such a more visceral level like i'd say say this is his scariest movie. Not that like how scary something is is like the only metric I judge like horror by, but this really unnerves and gets to me in a way that the others don't, even though there is some really disturbing stuff in his other movies, especially Nope. Yeah, Nope. I have not been able to bring myself to rewatch that because that movie really, really upset me. With the monkey? Yeah, that monkey stuff was too much. And like the alien when it first, spoilers for Nope, but when it like first sucks people up. Oh, and you follow them up. That and the monkey stuff bothered me so much. It bothered me like more than any recent horror movie I can think of that comes to mind. So it's like the nope is the one that like I don't know if I love yet because I haven't been able to bring myself to rewatch it. But that was like I would say feels like scariest for me. OK, this is like a five out of five, 10 out of 10. Like a perfect movie wouldn't change a thing for me and i know so many people disagree with that but finish what you were saying so i interrupted no you didn't interrupt you're you're just going off of what i say i mean yeah this is ten out of ten for me there's not really there's maybe one thing towards this the end that almost feels like a studio i don't even know if it is a studio note because to my knowledge he just gets to do whatever he especially after his excessive get out i don't i don't think people are like getting in his way or saying you have to do this but but there's there's just one part that feels like almost like focus group or test audience of like did they just put this in here because some people were like confused or something uh uh but it's not it's not like a thing that takes away from the movie it just feels out of place almost of like oh i i was i didn't even need that you know like it's not even like a negative reaction it's more like oh you're explaining a thing that i didn't
Themes and Symbolism in 'Us'
00:11:00
Speaker
even need an explanation for like it's the monologue thing like in the classroom at the very end i i know what you mean and when i first saw it too i was like this is going to rub people the wrong way um it took me a couple watches but it's something where i'm like i i don't know why i just maybe it's one of those if you love a movie enough you forgive it for its flaws but it's like I just like see it and I'm like this is just what the movie's doing and I'm here for it it's like it's so weird it's one of those things where I'm like I've grown to like something that made that was off-putting to me at first I mean like I said it doesn't even detract from because like I'm pretty much there with like I love everything else the movie is doing. So it's not like I'm going to turn on it for for this. And I like like the idea of what what they're saying about about this government experience. Spoilers for us, I guess. But like it is this government experience or experiment to like control people with with like their their doppelgangers underground and stuff it's just for me i really like the i because this movie has and nope delves into this a little bit but like i feel like this does a good job of like so much of this movie feels like a waking nightmare of like how fucking weird and terrifying would it be if just people like you who look just like you your mirror image showed up and started hunting you and were like trying to kill you and like and so many there's just so many other weird things in this movie that feel off and like out of reality that that i'm like yeah like almost like i i don't want i that that i don't want to even try to rationalize how this could happen for real because it's like i almost enjoyed the dream logic of like it just being this inexplicable thing because like even when she goes underground it's like behind this fun house on santa monica beach there's an underground passage that leads to this this government abandoned government experience of a experiment of all these clones but there's just like a an escalator that you can ride down to it like it doesn't make sense but i like that because it's like makes it like this weird nightmare thing of like you like you're descending like when she's going down in the end to face uh you know the other her it's like almost looks like she's descending into hell and i'm like yeah like it just works on just like a a visual metaphorical level for me then i was like yeah i didn't even need logic applied to it yeah i agree fucking let's just i'm excited to rewatch this i was just thinking about that escalator shot and i'm like i don't give a shit if it doesn't make sense to people i fucking it's so cool like i all those those things i listed like makes me like it because people have that reaction of like well what about this what about that and i'm like a lot of those things sometimes people like like for how people had those critiques of long legs i'm like you could those explanations are in the movie you just watch the movie and it tells you but then also the things that don't make sense or aren't explained i'm like i don't give a shit man so you want to do the countdown for jordan peele's us yeah let let's do it. Let's go. I was saying that for the listener. Sorry. I know you know. So three, two, one, go. I'm trying to remember the last time I watched this in full because it like on what I mean, my parents have most of the premium premium channels so like one of them replays this from maybe it's hbo um and i'll just like if i see it playing i'm just gonna pop into it would be nbc right because it's universal yeah i think they just play this during their prime time after i don't even know nbc shows now to cite i could can only only cite NBC stuff from like 10 years ago or more when Community was on. I watched this last year was when I did my re-watch. What a good logo. Yeah, did we just say the same thing? Yeah. About Monkeypaw productions? Yeah. We've said different things, but we both ended on logo. Make our sentences met at the end together. There are thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the continental United States, abandoned subway systems, unused service routes, and deserted mineshafts. Does this have to do with fucking doppelgangers? Yeah, then I'm like, wait, is this a movie about the Chuds? I've never even seen Chuds. I really just know it from Simpsons references. I forgot when Homer talks about he encounters the Chuds. I know there's some kind of underground monster people or something. The night stuff. Nightmare on Elm Street. I've never really focused on the VHS tapes. I have a Hands Across America. Chud, it's right there on the left. Oh, I thought that's why you were saying it. No, I forgot that it's one of the VHSs. I just brought it up. That's what made me look at the VHSs because you said Chud. So then my eyes immediately went to the word Chud and I was like, oh, I guess I should look at those. That's weird. We're very in sync, but slightly off from each other at the same time. Almost like we're tethered. Almost like we finish each other's sandwiches. Ooh. This is a really good opening setup flashback, but even because we just are just getting to this introduction now uh in 86 uh santa cruz but uh the whole hands across america thing it doesn't really come back in full to the end but i like that you it's seeded so early uh and it's also i think if you didn't grow up with it in the eighties, I may mainly only know about it from other things set in the eighties that have brought it up or referenced it. Like I love the eighties. Yeah. I mean, don't we, we all love, I love the eighties, but she's wearing a thriller shirt. That candy apple looks so good. It's so red. I know. I've never seen one that looks like that. I don't like candied apples either, really. It's too much on my teeth. I love that when we finally see... I feel like it's just in the, it's like a flashback at the end where we see her doppelganger's perspective of this night. And you see all these behaviors being mimicked, like, but underground and out of, without this, the context of them being at a fair. And it's like really unnerving and weird to see that like all the doppelganger stuff in this is so effective like everyone's great giving like 10 out of 10 performances uh i mean lupita is out of this world we'll get we'll get to her but everyone else in like even for small bit roles are great i love this guy who's her dad, Yaya. I think the guy back there, I could be wrong. He looks kind of like the guy who plays John Belushi in Saturday Night Live. The guy at the game? Yeah, in the black flag shirt. Oh, okay. I don't know if that's right, though. I still haven't seen Saturday Night, and I think when I looked up the cast, I did not recognize the guy who played Belushi. I want to see what movies he was in. You could be... That should tell me. You could be right. See this, I couldn't see what the fuck that was without my glasses, but I'm like, I know it's something. Jordan Peele's got something. Whatever, just a blank cardboard. I mean, could you tell it was at least a Bible thing being cited? Like it was a Bible book and some letter. You couldn't even read that. So without my glasses, I was able to piece together everything except for the 1111 stuff. So by like the third time I saw it in theaters, was like a whole new experience I was like oh my god I can like see stuff now you know well actually I did hear people talk about it on podcast though before I saw it so I was like okay but still it's like I didn't need that to like find this movie great right um and then I guess we'll talk about more cause the imagery keeps showing up, but like I'm pretty, peel has talked about it, but I've probably read it and then forgot. So, so this will be a lot of speculation, but what, what is with the 1111 stuff do you think? Cause that, that shows up a lot. um Um, yeah yeah. what What do you think that means the um god I have heard all of this explained so long ago I don't remember though I like when this movie came out um a lot of podcasts I listened to fucking loved this movie and like slash film daily had three days in a row where they kept coming back to keep talking about this movie so they did explain the Bible verse and what it all meant but I can't I don't really remember but do you know off the top of your head? I don't know off the top of my
Critique of Societal Norms in 'Us'
00:21:00
Speaker
head I mean I just don't remember Bible stuff but for just just on the 11 11 of it all it seems like damn it we should have done this on 11 11 come back and re-listen to this in a week or next week whenever the 11th is it says uh 11 11 is a bible verse from the old testament that warns of god's impending judgment on the Israelites for their disobedience. The text says, therefore, this is what the Lord says. I am about to bring on them disaster that they cannot escape. They will cry out to me, but I will not hear them. It's chilling. What were you saying, though, about 1111? No, that's just making me think of stuff and how that relates to this movie. But for me, it works just on the even if I didn't dive any deeper than just visually, it's just, you know, the parallels of some of the clones. You know, it's just like, I mean, you could you could do a pairing pairing of any repeating number but something about the one because it looks like a person standing up you know that it's just like the right next to each other that it's it's it's a mirror thing like it wouldn't have the same effect if it was you're seeing two twos everywhere yeah that is the only number that can repeat four times on the digital clock, though, right? Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't do that with any other time. If your clock's doing that, something's fucked up. It's just, you know, it's so simple, and it's something that everybody knows, you know, like 11-11 make a wish, but Jordan P peele just found a way to fit it perfectly into his story and you know find a bible verse along with it too that fits direct it's like just and i feel like none of it's completely like necessary you can tell the story without all of that but it adds so much it just shows that he's like just so thoughtful with the way he's putting these things together and it's like easter eggs for something that doesn't have a cinematic universe yeah yeah that's that well well put um i was gonna say turn it up because the score is so good in this it is yeah uh this i hear people complain about the rabbits it's like guys who gives your i feel like people just like to nitpick especially for things that they don't enjoy but horror is especially i mean for me i'm i want to get on any movie's wavelength and like you know just vibe out to whatever the filmmaker is trying to show me but horror especially is the kind of genre of the most it's like you can just show me shit and you don't even have to just you really don't have to justify much in horror for me it's just you could just be like this is a creepy weird visual i wanted to show you and the rabbits do have a significance to the movie but like appeal when asked about it was just like rabbits are just fucking terrifying to me like his quote was in the in the interview was like you ever looked into the eyes of a rabbit just nothing there's nothing in there yeah no rabbits are strange creatures a lot of like rodents or rodent adjacent creaturesjacent creatures kind of freak me out. But, I mean, because that's something someone actually asked me when I was talking about this movie with them. They're like, I was like, I think I could probably, if I sat there with enough time, could probably explain any holes you try to poke in this. Like, this isn't a hole. The rabbits are... Yeah, someone was like explain like why the rabbits are down there and i'm like well there are like government like projects and experiments going down down down here like it's not uncommon to like test on an animal like a rabbit and that's like the whole mythology of cloning and like how when people think of those experiments trying to be made, like things are just tested on rabbits, you know? So like the fact that they started with cloning rabbits makes sense. And then later you find out that was their only food source down there because they didn't, they were just abandoned and then they just had all these rabbits. Yeah. like a retroactive thing like no the rabbits weren't there to feed them it's like the rabbits were there for other purposes because look they're in a classroom setting right now yeah like they could have been cutting them open and dissecting them or doing whatever
Narrative Style and Performances in 'Us'
00:25:40
Speaker
with those rabbits they're like these are the test subjects before we bring it to trial on humans or whatever. But yeah, it's just, I don't know. I enjoy it. By nope, is Peel fully divorced from Blumhouse? Because I still saw Jason Blum's name as a producer in this. I don't know. I love this Janelle Monae song. Oh, yeah. This was in my Apple replay or whatever of the year this movie came out. All the music Jordan Peele uses is just perfect. Introducing the family this way, it's just such a perfect feel. Lupita Nyong'o's sleeping. She's incredible. I love it. I don't know. No, I love all this. If he's divorced from Blumhouse, my guess would be I think he's done by Nope. Okay, good, because it has wanted to... It has nothing to do with this movie, but fuck Jason Blum. Anyway, back to a good horror movie. Yeah, he's wearing a Jaws shirt. Yeah, love that. And it's imagery that, I mean, you could just, not just in movies, but anywhere in the world, find on the back of like a family van or vehicle, that little sticker showing the family. But like, I feel like he's so good at recontextualizing things that are normally innocuous. And it just felt sinister when they looked at that in the back of the car before we actually cut to the family. Like just it's a family holding hands too so and and and just he's good at like especially the opening with the fun house a little i mean you could argue carnival adjacent things or fun houses are already creepy but he's taking like a a kid a thing from childhood and and adding this like sinister context to all these things. He's really good at tapping into that. Yeah. I also like that this kid has... Is it a werewolf mask that he has? I think it's werewolf. At first I thought it was Chewbacca, but I think it is werewolf. Yeah. I mean, what's a Chewbacca if not a werewolf? It? Universal. He's like, yeah, I can use their IP now. The Invisible Man is just in the next Peel movie in the background. He's in every scene. Oh, damn. Yeah, he's played by John Cena too. You just can't see him. These two are so great as like a husband and wife. Do you think Winston Duke should have gotten best supporting actor for this? Yes. Everyone should have been nominated for this. That's dad. He's also looking fine with those glasses. Do you think he's intentional... Whether Peel styled or wrote it that way or if Duke came to this decision, do you think Duke's kind of playing Jordan Peel? Because if you look... I mean, his nerdy dad almost feels like, what if Jordan Peel was in this and was the nerdy dad? That was the take. I don't know if this helps you in any way get an answer, but there was someone, I won't call him a friend, he's arguably racist, thought Winston Duke was Jordan Peele. Well, he was like, I'm racist, make solves it for me. He makes my case. No, he like had, I had shared the trailer for this movie saying it looked awesome. And then he had commented being like, I'm not going to see some hack comedian write and direct his own horror movie just so he can give a shitty performance in it too. And was like he's not in this and I was like does he think Winston Duke is Jordan Peele and I like never even addressed him at all or that comment but I was just like yeah I was like is this guy think when I don't know it was similar but not identical to the point where I would be like, yeah, that's Jordan Peele. Jordan Peele is a very like you people know what he looks like. I like I don't know. It's so weird. He had a very popular TV show that ran for like six seasons or something. But I wouldn't be surprised if in some way he is playing Jordan Peele or if like him channeling a dad just comes off as Jordan Peele. Yeah. Is Jordan Peele a father? Do we know this? I don't know. That might give some, you know, shed some light. He is married. A real spider crawling away from that toy spider. I know. That spider better not have been harmed in the making of this production. Actually, no. I hope they killed it and then left its body where other spiders hang out to send a message. I hate all bugs and think they should die. Like, when I'm watching Starship Troopers, I'm not like, oh, wow, this is like great satire on fascism. I'm like, good. Kill the bugs. Exterminate them. Yes. I was like, Verhoeven, you picked the wrong species. You know, you should pick like dogs or something. Something people care about. Now I'm just picturing a movie where there's a planet of dogs and marines are just being sent there to slaughter them. Like really cute looking dogs too. Do you think that Spider has an IMDB? Yeah, he was in Amazing Spider-Man. This is so cute. You see, he's like, you're really not going to kiss me? Yeah, he is a father. I forgot he's with Chelsea Peretti. I keep forgetting they're a thing. Parks and Recreation fame? Who is she on Parks and Rec? Was she a news reporter? She was on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Oh, she might be a reporter. Chelsea Pretty. She looks kind of like Lauren Lapkus, right? A little bit. The main thing I know her from is in the scene in Popstar when it keeps cutting back to... Oh, she's also in Game... TMZ. To TMZ. She's like the shrill, laughing woman who keeps, I don't think so. You know, like when they have that one bit where they keep saying, I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah. I, she might be in parks and rec. I know who she is. I feel like every comedy adjacent person has been in parks and rec to some degree. Yeah. Yeah. I just Googled her in parks and rec and she's definitely in a episode at least nice i like the little rabbit she was like i have to remember my days from being in the tunnel it is crazy too i know how this movie ends and the first time i saw it in theaters i watched it with all of that in mind and it like you know gave me a whole new experience but now every time I watch this movie I'm not even thinking about the twist I'm just taking it as it comes still yeah I that's normally what happens when I rewatch it I'm trying to make myself kind of think about that while rewatching it and seeing like how that adds to the performance because I think her behaviors a lot more because she's like very like odd when you'll kind of see but just in this house we already we already we already saw her being a little bit there but then it also it just recontextualizes how she really is so desperate not just to protect her family but it's that she has to hold on to this life and is is like go i mean yes parents and movies are things do go to extreme lengths to protect their family or do things but but there's almost like this like manic quality to that she's like i am not surrendering any of this like i worked i went through so much just to get here and i'm not giving this up like this this is mine this is
00:34:22
Speaker
and just imagine how like gary this must be for her to come back here i'm guessing every single summer probably so close to where you know she escaped from that tunnel all those years ago like wondering is this person ever going to come back they're right but i'm closer than i've ever been i would probably
00:34:49
Speaker
my the husband be like hey we got this beach house near where is it by no i'm sorry let's get a different one it's it's the one it's her beach house
Family Dynamics and Moral Complexities in 'Us'
00:35:00
Speaker
i think she got from her family. It's the same one from when they were kids. Right, right, almost like right. So it's almost like she's i mean it seems like the husband is kind of the driving force for this vacation he seems to be no but i think you're right that it's from her family yeah she should just like push to get rid of it she should burn down but that almost says something about her mindset of maybe not even overconfidence that she's not worried about this coming back to bite her but more that like she feels in touch she's like this is my life now so I should have all the things that you had access to like this this beach house whatever family privileges or or wealth things that come to like that that's mine i I have the right to this do you at any point think of her as a bad guy i mean her performance is so good that it makes me sympathetic to her even though she's done horrible things so she did a horrible thing yeah like she kept going down there every year and being like, you stay down there, you know, but re continuing bringing her a new handcuff, hand cuffing her down there by falling up on that horrible thing. And then building a life on top of it is kind of sick and demented a little bit. Like what else would she do though? She got out. I mean, she is she like, and I'm not justifying it. I'm trying to play devil's advocate a little bit, but it's like, you know, should she not enjoy um her spoils? yeah I mean, that's, I think the movie is America. Well, in this this is what the movie does such a good job of, of not just her. she do Should she just be homeless? and She had pretend like I'm not your daughter. I'm going to go die in the woods somewhere, you know, or just renounce her family name or change her name or something or something. But but no, i I totally get what you're saying and i think that's like the brilliance of this movie of not just her character but the tethered themselves because like i think there is a i mean with all peel movies there's a lot of social commentary or themes you can delve into the thing i like about this is how he's like i made it it. what What the fuck is all this? Who are these people? What language is this? Yeah. I'm not breathing weird. You're breathing weird. What was I going with? Oh, oh because like... ah and And people use this as a critique of the movie. For me, it's a strength that like the social commentary metaphor gets murky or changes from certain scenes or some people would say is inconsistent of like who we're supposed to sympathize with i think it's intentional with peel playing with our sympathies of the tethered as like you because ah there is a clear like class metaphor you can but apply to like they're a lower class the you know the have and have nots of like they're deprived of this thing and then you know they're rising up and and taking it for for themselves but i think the movie is having you play with of like should you be sympathetic to that i mean because in most things you are supposed to root for the underdogs the the underprivileged and and then for them for them to like gain freedom or whatever but then also like well they're really scary and they're they're they're killing people and scissors yeah they're doing it in a really disturbing and fucked up way and then even even her herself who you're supposed to i think you you are supposed to be sympathetic i mean how can you not to lapido but like but then even at the end they really do emphasize these really like kind of demented looks she has and like and she looks kind of scary as as the mother like not not the um i' i'm getting the names red's the well obviously there's the switch but red is the one who's ah underground right yeah yeah but even her the mom has like these really like intense kind of scary looks and i think that's the the movie is intentionally like going back and forth about who where you're who you're supposed to feel for and like it it it wants you to be conflicted about a lot of a lot of things and for me that's a strength like so people are like i don't know this is a metaphor work if if if the the the tethered are are like scary monster people who brutally murder i'm like yeah it does still work i don't know yeah i mean there is a sympathetic quality to them like i think them not really being able to speak and it kind of like coming and them having like such a odd way of like communicating almost makes them more sympathetic it's to me it does but then also certain scenes when you hear them like roaring it's scary you like it does both at the same time i've heard other people find it funny too i i do want to say before we get off of the beach scene i love the music that plays like when they were um walking and just as they were walking the part of the score is called beach walking the guy who did this it's like mike abel i think michael abels or something no no yeah we we i guess that wasn't on mike abels he's a great score i just wanted to shout out the score before we go ahead because i love that specific piece i i love that moment the score i hope he keeps working with peel because that's also honestly a highlight for nope like me is and i and i fully love no for for me the ranking for peel is is us number one with a bullet but then nope and then get out and a large part of why nope 60 besides the imagery that ah will stick with me forever about nope is that score is so fucking good it's like scary when it needs to be but then it's also like a western in parts there's like a part towards the end of nope where it like has this rousing quality when when when he's like on the horse trying to outrun uh you know jean jacket or or whatever where you're like it gets me amped when i listen to it i'm like fuck yeah yeah i've got a re-watch nope i i'll try to get to it eventually um maybe we should do that as a maybe i'll pick it for my mom i don't know yeah i think that would be a good commentary jordan all of jordan peele's movies are just and great watches i don't. know They're great watches and like you talked about taking your ah mom to see like even people who don't normally do horror. I feel like these movies cut through in a way. I think Us was a little more alienating to more normal ah audiences. I mean it was still successful. why It feels so, exciting it feels like his most accessible movie. At least for me. It's like Twilight Zone. You don't even have to think all this, we're going to talk about a ton of themes and like imagery and stuff. You can just enjoy this as like ah ah basically like a slasher movie where clone people are trying to kill you. yeah and it And it's really satisfying and intense in that way. This was my number one of 2019. And it didn't even like nudge from that spot. No movie. Endgame was like pretty big. But i even when when this came out on Blu-ray, I rewatched it. And then I I re watched it. There's a guy just standing there. That's the 11-11 guy. Yeah, I know. But I watched this the day it came out on Blu-ray. I went out, bought it, watched it with my dad. I was like, I have to show everybody this movie. My dad loved it. And then ah him and I watched all of the everything on the bonus features, all the making of this entire movie, and it was just as entertaining as watching the movie. It's just... It's so good. I don't... It it feels like it should be more loved. It's one of the best like modern horror movies, I think. I think it's just one of the best modern movies. period Just one of the best movies. is yeah This is just one of my favorite movies. In my top 16, I think it was like number 7 on the list. This is like one of the most important movies. of like It was my number 2 or 3 on my like top 10 of the decade. It's like yeah one of the most important like movies of like my movie-going like lifetime. um yeah so it's just the The hate for this or like even the um indifference towards it like doesn't make sense to me. i mean I get someone not being on our wavelength and like it being over the moon it's their favorite thing but the hate is weird and it seems each movie after get out maybe it's just because get out was such a like it was a mainstream hit like everyone and their mom was talking about get out it won you know oscars it was is people just people who don't normally even think about horror or know about horror things were going to see get out and then it is i don't know what it is that each subsequent movie like turns different kinds of people off in different ways because i know my uncle like hates i don't remember if he liked us or not but he hated nope and like a lot of other there's there's the there's general been general audience hope is a very like that that movie goes hard like yeah harder than i think these other two go that's interesting for me because even though with the disturbing stuff in nope i don't think it's well you do see the house get rain blood on but like i i think this is has more visceral horror to me this is his hardest horror movie in terms of like you're seeing people get stabbed with scissors there's like a lot of murdering on screen happening whereas a lot of the most disturbing things in the other movies is like off screen like yeah you do see people get swallowed and nope and you follow them up in the camera but then it cuts away like the idea of that is more disturbing than than like what we're being shown i i agree um but this shows you everything kind of like you like like he's not he's not i
Horror as a Mirror to Society in 'Us'
00:46:00
Speaker
guess it's the less is more thing at least for me me. Like when you don't show like it's, it's terrifier three. The bit, the beginning is scarier to me. And when they show the dismembered child corpse, it's slightly less scary. Yeah. It makes it more fake. Cause you're like, that's not what a kid looks like chopped up. But hearing it, especially with that sound design, it's like all squishy and stuff. You're like, oh my God. And like, nope, there's something to like, oh, as time passes, like I'm aware these people are still alive. They're being digested. You can hear the screams. It's making you think about things. it's it's It's upsetting. It goes to places that these other two movies don't. Plus, he puts characters and how it's and this isn't a criticism, but it's a bit more mean to characters. Characters are kind of helpless, sitting ducks. Yeah, no. i Not really, you know, you could say innocent i guess i don't know they're like it's yeah i i get what you're saying and i normally do agree and feel that like less is more the less you show is scary but to me this is i don't know what it is. Maybe I'll, with some do being very funny right now. I like the boxers, but with a sweater too. It's like, it's ah and just saying, Hey, like it's deliberate. While, while his wife is like mentally not even processing anything. I want to leave. Yeah. And then he's like ready. Like I'm ready for sex. Yeah. She's like, I want to go. And he's like, go where baby? I mean, my, ah regardless of like that is certain is Howard too, it's like, he's such a dad. Well, that's a school. And I she, know, but it's like... Oh, you mean like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. it's just It's just a shirt that he had. You know what I mean? He's not wearing like designer stuff or stuff that's cool. And she's dressed like a mom. I don't know. It's very believable. No, they, they, I like their chemistry point out like how good they are as a couple and as parents. Like I, I, I don't think the film works if, if, if you don't buy them. It would almost be like better if he was wearing a shirt to like one of his kids schools or something. Yes. That would almost be like a more of a dad move. It is crazy that how long, I mean, well, based on, they have a teenage daughter, so they've been married at least, or been together at least that long. And and she in and he's just finding out about, that I mean, she's telling him an altered version of perspective of of of how this night went out, because, you know, they haven't revealed that that's that's her but like hopefully if i'm hopefully just a couple of years into a real i mean honestly i don't want people telling me this level of trauma shit like six months in if we're if we're if it looks like we're going to be long term you better tell me every fucked up thing that ever happened to you so i i want to know if you saw your clone in a funhouse mirror as a kid ladies i'm saying if you think it's gonna be real you can tell me on the first date you'd be like hey i know this is weird we just met when i was a kid i went to the beach and there was a funhouse and i saw my clone have you ever ever seen the movie 45 Years? No. um That's a movie I've been thinking about lately. um I don't know why why it came to my mind, actually, but it's basically like ah something that a husband kept for like a whole 45 years of marriage and they're like an old, old couple. Their 45 year anniversary is coming up. I think they're renewing their vows or there's a big party. But and spoilers for 45. This happens at the beginning, but it's revealed that like he gets news that they found the body of a girlfriend that he used to have or a wife that he used to have and ah they had like went on like a hiking trip and she fell like through the cracks in this like icy mountain and like froze to death and wasn't recovered until all these years later and the wife is like I never knew about this and it's kind of like grappling with that a little bit and ah that that that sounds good. good is It it necessary to even it's a very quiet like indie very like kind of sweet introspective um the movie's about to pop off yeah and get into some crazy stuff but i i wanted to speak to that idea because that sounds like an interesting movie but also the theme of like can you, you like, and I've thought about that. You you can't really people, you people have lived a whole, even if you're so close with someone, they lived a whole fucking life before they met you. And some of that you may never even know anything about. And, and, and, and that's just the things that happened and that they did inside everyone's mind is their own world and of thoughts and like things and like you may never really ever know someone yeah like this is gonna get like weirdly personal to say on mic but in like 2016 i had um uh a ex-girlfriend pass away and it was like a really like hard moment and that's something where it's like in my last relationship i like it was the first girl i had dated where i like was open and told her about that and that didn't sit well with her she didn't like knowing that information and i was like so is that something you just kind of keep to yourself you know you have to choose and different people have different views of like what you should and shouldn't share. But for me and what I value in some kind of partnership, especially like something that I wouldn't envision as long term, ah I should be able to talk to them about that kind of stuff. like
00:52:24
Speaker
if if that's making you uncomfortable then then maybe this won't be that serious you know like yeah because because that's that's my life and a thing that happened and it's like i'm not gonna i shouldn't have to like sugarcoat my past or something i don't know because she was like oh you like so it's unresolved feelings you still love this person that you were with and they passed away and all that and it's like you know so that's i guess we're like 45 years like him i'm like is this something i just like keep to myself in future relationships like well it does add the angle then because it's like and again again, not to unpack all this on Mike, but it's like, oh, then now you're getting kind of jealous of a dead girl. What dynamic is that? Yeah, it's really odd. It was something I didn't like at all about my last relationship, but enough about we're watching winston duke handle a situation very well i like oh okay he doesn't have the bat yet because doesn't he come he grabs a bat like he's he's gonna scare them off with that an aluminum bat too it's something not even like that dense but that that's like the most dad that my dad has a bad let's call it uh i love i love just the actual discussion of of like there's i feel like peel is good at doing in horror movies people are always like why didn't the characters do this logical thing why didn't you just do that i well i think it's it's a lot of times people are being dumb because it's like well yeah characters might be doing dumb decisions and stuff but like when you're in a situation you're gonna be freaking out not doing the most logical thing but a lot of times in peel movies characters are doing like they call the cops they're doing they're they're thinking this through. We watch him freak out, lose his cool inside a little bit, and then put on a fake person and be like, I have to pretend to be tough guy. Oh, man. I like that the one kid crawls in the bushes. It's so disconcerting. He just lumbers towards him him. oh man and he quickly backs down i it's a good touch it's the differences in acting choices they make too yeah that's that's why like i was saying earlier everyone's really delivering the whole ensemble on like both their normal person and tethered performances and i just want to say like i feel like most of the trailers and promos showed imagery from this part of the movie that, like, when this other, you know, like, this family's mirror image shows up and, like, something's happening. But, like, nothing else was, you know, like, I didn't know that this was, like, a whole clone apocalypse thing, basically. Everyone, when the trailer came out, everyone was like, home invasion doppelganger movie. Right. Sweet. And it is that, but more. The home invasion part is like 10 more minutes, you know? Like we're not, we're not. It's such a good part. Oh, this is terrifying. It's like, yeah, when they're like faced off against other. And it takes the time to even get really quiet, too. Home Invasion stuff is scary. I've always thought clone doppelganger stuff is really scary. Maybe that's why David Lynch stuff speaks to
Identity and Fear in 'Us'
00:56:00
Speaker
me on a certain level, because he's always dealing with that kind of stuff. Like a straight straight story i haven't watched straight story i hope there's i hope there's doppelgangers in it yeah um what about a gay story you know why is it why is it only a story i had that same thought i was like what is david lynch some kind of bigot david lynch come on um but to what you said like it's this is tense and but also quiet moments because they're about to like break in no effort you know and it could be the part of you know there's plenty different home invasion things there's i haven't even seen the funny games movies but i know that's like they're torturing this family who have like, you know, they're just at the mercy of these, these killers. But like, this doesn't, isn't like a torture thing that happens. They kind of sit down and have a conversation. It's not really a conversation. It's more like red monologues to them, but like it, it's just an unusual rhythm for like, this is not how home invasion movies normally operate or just horror movies in general don't have these kind of rhythms so there's it just so many things just throw you off yeah they're surrounding in like a pack of lions basically yeah getting them from all angles um now i've heard heard people complain about them not just killing the family immediately like they do everyone else. The whole, like, we're taking our time or whatever Lupita Nyong'o, whatever Red says. But it's like... Doesn't she have motivation more than... Yeah, why wouldn't they have extra reason to keep these people alive or prolong it? She... Red has the most reason to have beef with the other... She's had all this resentment. The other tethered who are killing their others or whatever. Sure, there's there's the like resentment of like i had to live with nothing underground but it wasn't literally in the literal sense like red where it this was her life that was stolen from her so she i i fully she wants the other girl to really feel it she She was like, I want this loss to hit you hard because I feel like you deserve this. You took my life from me. Like, and not only am I coming back for Vendor, like, I'm not just letting you off the hook. Cause like killing, just killing someone like, you know, I mean, maybe that's just like a movie TV trope that's like it's not as satisfying. But I would believe that, that you would want more emotion, especially for something where the motivation is so emotional and personal that you're like, I want you to suffer. I want you to really feel this. Plus, they do have like empathy even, like, love for each other's kids, too. So it makes sense why she wouldn't just immediately kill the kids. I mean, part of me believes maybe she would leave her kids alive because there's a chance those would end up, like, this could all be hers. Those kids could be swapped, you know? Right. Like, do you think, I mean, we know the full plan as it gets laid out later for like the tethered uprising but is her end goal after that she's like all right guys I got your freedom you're up on top uh where where where you should be but I'm taking my normal family and then we're gonna go live the life that I should have had. You guys can do your weird grunt talk stuff and figure out what you want but like I should have this. Because yeah, like you said, this would have been her life. And I mean, maybe the kids do have to kill the other kids in order for it to like fully play out. But I do kind of imagine once their plan like plays out and they kill everybody, I kind of imagine that they're just like, okay, we are just going to fall. Like, where's my house? Like, where was the other me living? Okay, I'm going to go there and we're just going to live life how we were underground, but up here now, you know, try to pick up. Instead of imitating, though, we're going to be the main people doing it right uh this monologue is really good and also just okay this this actually is like i said this movie shows you everything this is actually kind of disturbing in the sense of she's detailing her whole underground tethered upbringing because you're you're learning how fully connected and transitive if she has has a kid up top she had to have that happen to her below so this was like forced upon her like that she has has this forced birth and forced except they're all weird now because she's stuck with weird Winston Duke yeah and just the idea of that is really disturbing that yeah it was just all horrific versions of what she was supposed to have yeah which kind of makes me think is there a god with a plan in all of this no probably not are they following god's plan oh and yeah they are following god's plan for sure this is what god's killing this. Lupita should, I know she already has an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, whatever. She'd give her two Oscars for this. She's playing two characters. Could she have gotten a dual nomination? I wonder. Has that ever happened? Can that happen for one movie? Or would you just get the one nomination for both roles? Right. Maybe it's just for one. I like that Winston Duke is trying to still take this as a home. That they can be negotiated with. I'll give you my wallet, the boat, money, right? You obviously want money. Because that's something i can deal with and solve whereas i love that just the immediate echoing of the glass is fixing oh this is almost my favorite line delivery that she's about to say i love that line in her delivery because it it like yeah so all the people who who say like the metaphor in social commentary and this is like unclear inconsistent I'm like I I want I mean I'm fine with movies being like very on the nose and everything spelled out like I rewatched They Live. That's a very unsubtle movie that you don't have to work hard to figure out what. You think They Live is unsubtle? Yeah, I think it's a hot take. I've never heard. I've never heard that. But I like when I have to think about like what does something because i still am like i mean like i said there's like you know class commentary stuff about an underclass and have have nots that is going on with the tethered but like just when she says we're americans and the way she says it there's something chilling about it but this starts me make me like why not just in the thematic level but like why is red say that now as the answer to like who are you people and her saying we're Americans is she saying like yeah we live underground and we're clone monster people but we don't we deserve the same rights as you like that we like this you think that's in like a mocking way i think it is mocking but maybe also we're supposed to think of what you know what i was just talking about of like of like well yeah does she deserve the same rights as us as an underground person we're people too your rules say you know we we deserve these rights too. Right. You're not happy with it? It's your rules. Right. So we dig over now. She should have had a copy of the Constitution. Nowhere does it say doppelgangers can't have rights. Doesn't seem anywhere in the rule books that a dog can't play basketball. The red voice is so good, too. What were you going to say? Because I want to talk about the red voice, actually, because I got in an argument with someone about the red voice. Well, by the end. One of our mutual friends. By the end, it's clear that that's from when, as a kid, they did the swap. Her windpipe or something got crushed. Yeah, when she strangled her. Yeah, you can crush someone's windpipe if you're choking them for a a really long time or hard enough. And that's the argument someone said with me. He was like, why does she talk weird? And I was like, because she like was strangled as a little kid. And he was like, that wouldn't make you talk weird. And I was like, I feel like especially if you were strangled at an age where you're still developing. Yeah, that would probably affect your speech if it's like violent and aggressive enough and like I got called an idiot for that it was just I was like you don't know what you're talking about well that person's an idiot yeah you know this person yeah for
Audience Reception and Cultural Impact of 'Us'
01:06:00
Speaker
sure I know what you're talking about and all this stuff is so effective with the like cat and my you know like killers in in horror movies often will you know like whatever you want to call it play with their food where they're gonna like i'm gonna fuck with you before i kill you but like there's another layer of like uncomfortable and and sometimes it's funny the way that like i think intentionally so the way the tethered are mocking i mean they're not mock it's not even voluntary that they're doing those movements but it is almost in a mocking way that they're mimicking that these actions that that that they're doing but it adds this other layer of like this is so fun like i said before we started it's like a waking nightmare like not only being hunted by this person looks just like me they're almost like throwing it in my face by doing all these little mannerisms and things like that i'm doing in the moment yeah oh man and for her even knowing this twist i'm like i'm feeling for for her because i'm like this is like her worst nightmare that like she's dreaded this half i mean she's like you know she got out she got a life that she she wanted and and felt entitled to but it's like fuck fuck this is finally finally come home you know the chickens have come home the rooster there's there's a there's a funny meme where it's like uh someone sewing sewing and they're like yes yes and then they're reap it says reaping and they're like oh fuck fuck. She's reaping what she sowed, and it's not good. Now, this is another thing someone didn't understand. Let's bring up every complaint everyone's ever had and go through why they're wrong, because I want to tell them. Let me hear what they said about that. They were talking about the burnt face, and I explained, like, I assume that came from, because he's always messing with the lighter. He's trying to get it, and it won't light. And my impression is that guy down there is also doing the same thing, but his shit is lighting. And it lit up in a big way, some whatever, whenever, that, like, really burned him. And, like, yeah. So it's's like a result of his his fuckery up there all these things have explanations in the movie so people don't try sometimes i feel like they like to be upset about it's like long legs yeah people complain i'm like well you're saying things that that weren't weren't explained explained. you're You're saying saying things things that weren't explained. Actually, it's got things. So what was the deal with the black ball and the dolls? They never addressed that. There were things that were explained that people say weren't explained. And I'm like, no, you can't fault the movie because you didn't pick up on it. You know, you can say you don't like the explanation, but like it's, it was explained. And then it's like, I try to tell these people. I'm like, no, it was explained. Here's the explanation. And they half listen. It's like they don't want to hear the explanation. They just want to hate it. People don't want to understand things. They hate us because they ain't us. Sorry, I'm congested if that sounded weird. Oh, I didn't even notice anything sounding weird about that. I always get on edge in horror things when someone has to look under something, whether it's like this car right now, the bed. I'm like, well, either one or a couple things can happen one is gonna be a fucking thing down there and it's gonna jump out jump scare or it's not gonna be down there and that makes me more concerned because now i'm like now where is it i think instinctually i probably would have have done done the the opposite opposite move move where where i I would would have have gotten gotten on on top top of of the the car car instead instead of of looked looked underneath underneath it. it just Just because because that's that's a a small small car. car it It would would have been probably easy for me to hop on there real quick and it's like I am the high ground. She's about to stab the shit out of this guy. That's the one part where I'm like well so she took someone else's kill. Right. Unless she's just like not killing him. She's just hurting. Well, it's out of focus, but you see her like go down almost like she went for the leg with her cut. So I'm like, I hope she's precise enough that she didn't hit something that he's going to bleed out and just die. Maybe was she just trying to like take, you know, take him down. Like, you know know she stabbed him in a non-lethal way in the legs so he's out of commission or something right she she she's getting him out of her way but she's leaving it for a kill or she could have killed her you know like i don't know like i
Peele's Unique Filmmaking Techniques in 'Us'
01:11:00
Speaker
mean the stabbing almost seemed like it was like playful like this will be be fun to do. What if I just stab this guy? He's here. It's like a sugar kind of situation. Like, do you see me? Okay, you're getting stabbed then. Right. I think something about... I mean, I guess a lot of the tethered have this quality, and we'll see when we meet some of the other ones, but feel like specifically with red's kids we're supposed to feel like they're a little more sadistic right that they're they're they i mean not only do they have do does red and then by extension her family have more motivation but just just there's something about her kids where it's like these kids are fucked up like they i think their family is just more aware because red is more aware everyone else seems like they're kind of just falling in line like red was able to corral them up and be like okay here's what you're all doing but you know these guys they're taking on red's battle you know they're like this is our mom this is is our wife, we're going to stand by her. This is personal to us too. And Red was probably able to teach them a bit more, especially the two kids. Yeah, they do. They were really able to teach them to hate. They do seemingly have that kind of recognition and understanding in their eyes. And I do like there is something like just imagining her whole life down there and just gathering all the tethered and getting them on board with this plan. But there's something, too, that her... I mean, she still can speak but her her windpipe is crushed or are fucked up but like basically you know her voice was taken away from her and and like the tethered themselves have no real speech like you like you said they get they like have these grunts and roars they do like they're they're people who were not given a voice and even her yeah they still can't even vote in our country that's what she said we're Americans that's what they're that's what they're marching for really they just why they're holding hands yeah I like the little ambulance toy. Yeah. And they set that up earlier, too, with the door and the toy. It is good. They drive home in an ambulance at the end. Oh, shit. It's full circle. It was the same ambulance. They Ant-Manned it. I didn't even think Ant-Man. I was just saying they Red One'd it, like in the Red One trailer when they make the toys in the store into full-size toys. I haven't seen that trailer. I didn't even know. Honestly, for some reason, I thought that movie wasn't even going to have a trailer. It was just going to be pictures of the three actors, and I was just going to see that forever. It was just never even going to come out. I think they're going to still advertise and show those pictures. I hope the movie just never stops being marketed and never comes out. It would be a really good bit, actually. I mean, then I would be pro Red 1 if it's just a gag that keeps getting run into the ground. They keep going with it instead of a bad movie. There's always a Red One poster in the lobby of every movie theater. It's like coming out this Christmas. And in interviews, like the actors are keeping it up too that they're just like, man, I'm so excited for you guys to see this and and maybe they just keep coming up with a thing of like sorry we had to delay it it was it was like it was just being fine-tuned or we had to reshoot something but like you guys are gonna love this movie yeah jk simmons dies but they hide it from the public because they're just they keep pushing they're just releasing old clips ofK. Simmons being like, he's still alive and promoting this. I hope there's a bunch of Red One sequels. I cannot wait. I hope they tie into... The movie's so forgetful. I mean, I haven't even seen it, but I can't remember the name. Whatever The Rock's Netflix fake movie is that has Red Notice. I hope it ties in the Red Notice. God. I thought that... Okay. We can't talk about... I thought that movie didn't exist because I thought I was mistaking it for Red 1. So that's also a Christmas movie with The Rock? No, it's not Christmas. It's just The Rock and Ryan Reynolds just, I don't know, being annoying. I think that's the description on IMDb is The Rock and Ryan Reynolds being annoying. And that's not a Christmas movie. Was Ryan Reynolds in a Christmas movie with Will Ferrell recently? Elf 2. No, yeah, he was. It was called... I'm combining a lot of movies. No, it was Spirited? What was... Spirited Away. That's another fake movie. No, I think Spirited Away is real. I'm a conspiracy theorist, but for Miyazaki. You think Miyazaki's real? Okay. I like that the doppelganger just got all grinded up. I love a good like killed or ground up by the engine or thing on a vehicle like that with the boat or when someone gets sucked into a plane engine or turbine I'm like fuck yeah like in game night oh no he died she should have gotten an Oscar for that line before that movie that movie is always a blast when I put it on I I always forget just how delightful Game Night is. That would be so scary. Oh, I thought that was the doppelganger. That actually made me jump. I forgot that he comes out like that. I was like, oh good, it's the real one. Oh no. I love when you could see a movie a bunch and it still work. That is really cool how he jumped over that cabinet. So I mean maybe I'm just not going to give enough credit to child actors when I'm assuming I'm like well it's a mask so that's just a stunt actor doing the climb. Maybe it's really him and he committed and did the full performance. i think it's all ai yeah i'm if i know anything about peel i know that he's big on ai yeah that shot of him jumping over that dresser i'd never noticed that like how i've had this whole sequence of him just like running how well shot and like framed all of it is I've never really paid that close attention to but that was great yeah everything about this movie rules um I just think it was a brilliant short just from like a horror filmmaking standpoint of like not only is her family family, Bizarro family, going to be really weird and scary, but yeah, like the son's going to be like dog-like. Like he runs around on all fours. She kind of pets him like a dog. I like in the background too, when she was standing there, you could see the daughter like just start to already run ahead of everybody after them. Yeah's just like ah so amped up elizabeth moss and fucking tim heidecker that a tom cruise's girlfriend i feel like every literally everyone forgets that she is a scientologist i mean i'm not gonna make a whole big thing out of it but it's funny when under any Tom Cruise things even though like I feel like at least well at least people I talk to or hang out now are at least on board with him as an actor because he makes great movies but there'll still be someone in the comments of any Tom Cruise and I'm like uh do you guys know he's a Scientologist like like that we just like hadn't heard about you know this? Did you know? Yeah. But no one does that with Elizabeth Moss. I don't know. It's interesting. The handmaiden herself. Right, yeah. She liberated all those women. Yeah, she loves women so much. Scientology, they're known for their love of women too i think so he he's good as a dickhead husband i i think tim heidecker he's i mean i i was a early you know fan of i knew them before they got big tim and air no i i've i've i like tim tim and air since since you know they were a thing but like just tim himself as a an actor as a whole he because he has a whole thing he does now like because his whole on cinema persona that he does like that started as a spoof of like movie review shows but it has its own mythology and like meta narrative this kill is so fucking one of my favorites it's just oh fuck great yeah but you were saying about tim heidecker's, it's just so. I love a good. It's great. I mean, maybe there's bad versions of this. I'm not thinking about, but most versions that I'm recalling right now, when, when you zoom out of a, a space and you do like,
Character Development and Thematic Depth in 'Us'
01:21:00
Speaker
like a really far away wide and, and that we're also not hearing the thing, it can often make it more disturbing and impactful. I like that we're in the house and like, you know, the cameras focused on the normal family. We cut outside. Then the next time we're back in the house, it's just the psychotic version all in the same spots. It's so well staged. Yeah. Fucking Jordan Peele. I think I already said I love Heidecker's performance in this, but he has a really good moment. I think it's... is Is it it, is it here here where where he he offers offers to... to grab Yeah, her grab her hand hand. and And he he does does the the like, like... Oh, It's it's so so good. good. And And it's, it's like all these faces we were just seeing now just delivering different performances. Oh my God. It's so good. He could be, I think, I think that's the power of, of peel stuff, but then also just general comedians who then pivot to horror is that there I feel like there's some innate understanding like they share so many like rhythms in terms like how you set up a scare and setting up a joke but also just tones of performances I think comedians I think all anyone in comedy should have to either make a horror movie or act in a horror movie. That's my new decree. I really like the fuck the police playing over this whole scene. I've heard people complain about it, being like, it doesn't make it scary. It makes it funny now. But I feel like it just livens the whole thing up. I never found it funny. I just, as like the kids are walking through with their weapons and the fuck the police keeps playing like over and over. It's like, it, I don't know. It gets me kind of amped up. I'm like, yeah, go fucking fight these people, you know? Yeah, no, no. I get what you're saying. I never like felt it as like, oh, it makes the the scene too funny but I've heard that like a lot with this movie I think the initial playing of it when she asked her Siri or whatever to call the police and then it plays it is funny and I got a huge laugh in my theaters but then the rest of the scene I'm not laughing during the rest of the scene yeah i don't think it like undermines um what's trying to happen i feel like you're supposed to get kind of like amped like like right now i don't think this is supposed to be funny like these kids walking in but like i've heard people being like oh he just had to like make it funny i don't know yeah I don't think that's what he was trying to do. Like I said, I think, yeah, it's obviously a punchline or joke when it switches to this because she was trying to call the cop. It's like a darkly comic moment because you're like, well, you're so fucked. Even if she had called for help, she would have been fucked. But it's like your device can't even help you or whatever. Like you can't call for help. You're fucked. Yeah. Now it's just having the song play gives this scene like a nice, unique atmosphere as opposed to like any other horror movie that's been shot with like, you know, it would feel like when is something going to pop out? When is there going to be a jump scare moment? And something does pop out at them, but it just, it plays differently than, um, I feel like how most horror movies like handle scenes like this. It gives it a different rhythm and a different energy. Like you said, just like different than other horror. And I think that's, we've been citing other things in this movie like like like the home invasion part is played differently than other home invasion like he he's he's throwing things off he's like starting from something that is kind of familiar that you're like okay well i've seen that kind of thing in a movie before and then and then taking it to a place where where like you i don't know that i've seen this that like done in this way like most horror movies right now would be dead silent you'd be like oh my god when's it gonna pop out and then right here you turn the corner the score would creep up or something and it would be shot like totally differently you know but yeah there's i don't know i don't quite know how to describe it but there's like personality that this scene has also for me the biggest impact this scene had on first viewing was like I said the ads were just like this clone family stalk stalking this family maybe it's a home invasion thing but I didn't even consider that it was like oh this is happening to other people too that this is like a clone apocalypse is happening once that starts happening and we see that it's like
Narrative Complexity and Symbolism in 'Us'
01:26:00
Speaker
the implications of that I'm like that is crazy I did not even expect this movie to like have that kind of scope or be like a worldwide well I guess at least in America I don't know that there's I don't know that the tethered are in other countries I think it's just America because that's where the experiment was happening yeah yeah so it's it's like like 28 28 Days days Later, later but but in in America America. no No, I I do do really really like like movies movies like like this this where where it's like, you know, this isn't a zombie outbreak movie, but from a genre level, it plays like a zombie outbreak movie. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. In ways like Re--Animator does or I feel like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or something like that. When it escalates to you're like, oh, we're involving the whole world. I mean, I keep saying world even though this is amazing. I'm talking in terms of just like general scale. Like, wow, we're going beyond that it's just happening to these characters. Yeah, like, I could call it a takeover movie. In a way, zombies are taking over, so you could put zombies in that category. But it's something I really love where it's like there's something coming after the people and taking out the people. It's really nice. I love the spin that Jordan Peele put on it. Taking a Twilight Zone concept, home invasion concept, and then expanding it to a nationwide problem people are dealing with. And by nationwide, we mean the insurance company. Nationwide is on your side. That's what they're saying to everyone before they stab them. I like too, like Elizabeth Moss doesn't harm her. It seems like she really wants to out of like some kind of like envy or whatever. But I feel like part of it is like, they were probably
01:28:09
Speaker
you know yeah but then someone i know pointed out like she starts um making marks into her face and people were like that's kind of commenting on like like plastic surgery or work that she had done to her face earlier that she like references. And it's kind of like, you know, just like her main, just like her giving it orders. character is like making these alterations. Like her tethered is someone who's like probably like now that she's in this position, going to try and like make self altercations for beauty. Well, and we already saw her putting on the make. I like in anything and the tethered are more human than other kind of because of course they are like clones of of humans but like there's like things where like normally inhuman kind of things are doing human behaviors and it makes it more unsettling like like like i I said before, like the mimicking of, of different physicalities or movements, but then her just putting on the mirror or putting on the makeup in the mirror, that wasn't even, she's, she's killed her other, her, you know, like she's, she's the one in charge now. And now she's kind of just trying out like, Oh yeah, what's, what's this this all all about? about well too earlier on at the beach doesn't she like say something or show some envy for lupita nyong'o's character like oh like i hate your face it's just perfect or something like that yeah she says so to say that like and we have the moment of the doppelganger like going in her face and almost like showing like a wordless moment of like envy towards her, like something about her face, like, you know, upset her, like was like, I want that. So then she steps in the mirror and starts carving herself, making an altercation, you know, it kind of like goes back to like, oh, she's showing envy for her, just like the normal Elizabeth Moss did did. now Now you know she probably knows or was given orders like yeah i i gotta leave the mom for for red i can't i can't do shit about that but do you think she would have killed the daughter just then if she hadn't been interrupted or maybe just start cutting her up i guess i don't know what was she about to do there with the daughter do you think it's hard to tell because then would you did it seem like the Elizabeth Moss's daughters were trying to kill them or did it seem more like this was capture it's hard to tell I didn't really like try to clock it either. I've always assumed like they're trying to capture them. Yeah. Their orders are don't kill the family, save the family for, you know. I definitely think that's... It almost seems like you're supposed
Reflecting on 'Us' in Modern Cinema
01:31:00
Speaker
to kill your respective doppelganger almost like that's your main focus and like that's it right yeah no i think that's definitely the main objective and they just happen to to to be here uh i think if it was anyone else they probably would have killed them because it was a problem but i think this family they're like all right we just need to capture them For the boss Yeah that makes sense I wish Winston Duke was still in his boxers That would be funny He should have been in them the whole I also like that he Is like Injured the whole movie You know like he got fucked up during that first fight with his tethered and he was like limping during the fight with tim heidecker uh tethered and and he's he's limping and kind of out of commission for the whole movie which is it's it's just a fun inversion because it's like you know the dad has to rise up and protect his family it's like no no, dad dad has to like, you know, take a breather because he's, he's not going to be as useful and mom has to save everyone. Do you think you'd be able to kill your doppelganger? It seems like nobody except for these guys successfully kills their doppelganger. Yeah. It's, it's especially by the end. The implication is like the tethered success ratio other than this one family, a hundred percent. Like the, it's just, it's the plans going off. It couldn't have gone better. They're, they're, they're fucking nailing it. I will say there probably should be more dead bodies everywhere. Especially in a major city. There should be littered with dead bodies right now. Yeah. It should be like Cell when he shows up in Dragon Ball Z. How there's just clothes everywhere because he's absorbed everyone. Look at how many people are in that one area. Yeah, there should be a lot more bodies. I agree. CinemaSins. They were like, no, this was actually on Vanilla Sky Day. That's a good example. Vanilla Sky. Yeah, I don't know exactly what it means. Were they filming Vanilla Sky that day and that's why? Was it the day where the city that they were in just recreates that scene from Vanilla Sky? Who knows? They could just go to Mexico. Yeah, that's a good idea, Lupita. Well, because she knows. She was like, this is just America. It'd be funny if she accidentally let that switch slip here. She's like, I know for a fact this is not going to be in other countries. And they would be like, wait, how do you know? Yeah.
01:34:07
Speaker
you know i love lupita's hair too in this she's got such a specific look you know yeah she does and again i love he's good at incorporating like when when winston duke does a funny thing or says a funny thing it's not the movie stopping to then be like we're gonna have some sarcastic humor or something like he's not deadpooling it but he yeah it feels like a genuine character thing that this lame dorky dad would be like yeah what if we set some home alone traps and then and then for lupita to immediately call him on it too is feel is funny but then also real to be like did you just reference home alone yeah weren't you what if she didn't know what home alone was and they were like hmm it's almost like you were living in a tunnel for the first eight years of your life. They keep making of references before, when did the Switch happen? 86. Yeah. You're like, wow, I really love that first Ghostbusters. She's like, what? I only saw two. I didn't know there was a first one. Man, weird how there's only three Star Wars movies and they just end with you know evil winning and there's just no follow-up. We introduced Darth Vader and that's it. She lives in a world where only the prequels exist. Wow. And the sequel trilogy. Damn. So she's really lucky is what you're saying. She doesn't know good Star Wars. I just get ah whatever casually he's walking in. Yeah. And even though this is a defensive kill, she was being attacked and, you know, she had to to to take her out, this is definitely, he just saw a side of his mom that he had never seen before. Yeah, but he should fucking lighten up a little bit, okay? sit youu It's a little dire, you know? Yeah, you've never seen your mom behave like this. You've also never seen her stab somebody with a fire poker or stoker. Well, I don't even think that it's that she killed someone because they've all had to kill this guy. Honestly, I would probably be breathing like that if I smelled... I'd be amped up. Sure, sure, sure. But if you saw someone like that, it would be especially like a loved one who most of the time is not doing that. it'd be I think I would be understanding. Like, if I walked upstairs and you were standing over a dead version of yourself and you were like, I'd be like, I feel like that whatever Doug is, that's justified. his Whatever he's doing right now. I don't have a lot of contact, but this feels strange. I'm i'm glad i'm glad that you automatically got my back. Because there's a body we might have to clean up. I'm not arguing with the movie. I'm just saying I have different sensibilities than this kid and I feel like I you know I I'm with you Lupita grunt away you know even if you're like mopping and you like you know get the mop caught on something and that's your reaction, you know, grunt away. Well, and I think he, I mean, i I think we're probably even discussing, thinking about this more than the kid has. Kid's probably already moving on because they got a lot of other stuff going on. ah But I'm sure he also had that thought process of like, well, she did what she had to do. I kind of get this. What if we kept cutting back to him and there was an inner monologue of like that grunting was weird he just shows he is thinking about it the whole time i yeah it would be really funny just and and we keep in no other narration or monologues for other characters.
Pop Culture References and Scene Comparisons
01:38:26
Speaker
This death is disturbing. when they because Isn't she impaled on something? Yeah, and she's stuck in a tree impaled on like a branch. i was honestly like I know we were talking a lot, but i was pretty like my adrenaline was pumping watching like that scene just now. Her like stabbing through the window. and I really like the windshield wiper too. The little girl's reaction. She's like, oh what the fuck is that? I'm familiar with cars, but the thing on the car that just slapped me? Yeah, I never dealt with that type of shit before. She's all mangled in there. God's it's kind of like when you uh it's kind of it has the same energy i mean we already compared this to like a zombie apocalypse thing it has the same energy as when you find a zombie that's in a like it can't kill you because it's already lost its legs or something like you open the cooler and it's like the zombie's head is in there and it's like yeah or i'm thinking it's reanimator it's just it's a scientist talking to you right yeah but uh or specifically in the the one good season of the walking dead and in that first episode when when rick sees that crawling zombie and that season two, everybody's favorite. I just wish they were on the farm longer. That's my one complaint about season two. I was like, stay on the farm. My complaint about season two was there weren't five other spinoffs going on at the same time. There should have been 10 spinoffs. There should be Walking Dead should be playing on every channel at every hour. What was the moment in your favorite part of The Walking Dead? Oh, just that that crawling zombie that Rick finds. And it has that really cool moment in in the the pilot episode where he comes back to after he's armed himself and has guns finally he finds this one crawling zombie to kill her not because she was a threat because she can't really i mean i guess she could grab your legs and like bite you by that but like it's like putting her out of her misery and even says like i'm sorry that this happened to you and stuff it's actually a really emotional part but oh how did i get oh just from find finding her in the tree like that has that same energy. of like It can't kill you right now. It's not a longer a threat, but it's still fucked up and unnerving. I didn't realize we were on to daylight this soon. um Every house in the background has American flags. We also did see dead bodies in the street when they were just driving through right now. They heard your complaints, Nick, and they're addressing it. Jordan Peele wouldn't reshot the movie. In real time, and he got it edited and set up so quick. Yeah, he stopped production on his current movie. He's like, Nick said what? Hold on. That's the upstanding guy that Jordan Peele is. What a guy. Uh-oh. Now, was the little kid latched onto the car the whole time? He cut... Did he cut the gas? What what was the... There's... I'm not sure because he set up this flaming car so, like, he was just, just like hiding and then popped up when they're they're there now look at that guy texting on the bench back there no that's just a funny position it's like the hell or high water death like when he like falls in like a funny way at the very end um suppose for hell or high water i do like when movies do unglamorous or weird things when for like deaths and stuff for for specifically because it's like you know ah people have died in so many ways but it's also not gonna be like like cinematic or like like a glory thing it's gonna be like i don't know you your body's going limp and some weird things happen when you die. Dead weight just drops in whatever way. um Yeah, I kind of imagine he was hiding nearby. Then as they drove closer, he kind of like ran up and latched onto the car or something because it looks like he comes from under it.
01:42:45
Speaker
i imagine he was just hanging by near that flaming car but yeah did he cut the gas line oh because that's what they backed up i was like that's what that has to be because like i i'm sorry i forgot all about that's what he like i remember that he lights this but i forgot that that's that's from the car he would have been under the car then there's that's the the only only way way that's that he could have done that because i was like yeah he cuts the gas line then they reverse and i that's what i creates the trail I just love the visual of this and just like the editing the music he's like I can become Jesus watch me and. And then he becomes Jesus. Can we all do that? If we just do the shape of the cross with our arms, we just control somebody near us? Yes. And it does it yeah it doesn't even have to be your tethered or clone. You can just you just control them. It's interesting. Do you. So right then. Do you think she is having some protectiveness of Bluto of of yeah the other kid? Because she was like, I don't. think That would have been mine if I didn't. I don't want to see this kid lit on fire. I want to protect my family that I have now. But I also, you
01:44:11
Speaker
on them like that
01:44:20
Speaker
It's like, if circumstances were different, we'd be fighting on the same side and I'd be, you know, working with you. So it's, there's still the now, but that could have been my kid. motherly instinct because it's like, under different circumstances, I'm your mother. Yeah. Yeah. It adds a whole, it adds another layer of complexity and emotional weight to it. In the water. Like, what fucking shit straw did you have to draw to get in the water? Is it just first come, first serve after you've done your kill? Yeah, just hop in the line. I would be complaining. I'd, like, walk way out of the way just to not have to stand in the water. But they're also probably we have been on what is this stuff that we're standing in water and what's that there's an ocean what's an ocean uh they're probably just glad to get out and yeah it's it's the the man we he was posted up before anybody else he got his shit out of the way quick he's like i've been here since yesterday 11 11 god sent him without warning or was it with warning what was the bible verse i think guy usually gives warning right um if i know god no 11 11 is his warning so i mean was that that guy guy sent sent from from God? god He he was was smiling smiling like like he he looked looked relieved relieved and and he he had had 11 1111 11 carved carved in in his his forehead forehead. was Was that guy sent by God all those years ago to warn people like, hey, this is coming. He should have. God should have sent a more detailed warning. He was also the first one to kill. Right. So is this guy. I mean, God isn't really known for detail. But, you know, he should probably be better at sending... He's a bit of a prankster. He's the kind of guy that's like, hey, go kill your son. Just kidding. At the last moment. You you know like the work on your relationship your son's never gonna look at you the same way again but uh yeah at least i know you love me now yeah so this could be a part of his twisted sense of humor or he could be like guys gave you all the signs the one guy you just needed the one guy guy in this one place at Santa Monica. Did you not see that? I sent him. The last time I sent one guy, you made a whole religion out of him. You were supposed to do it this time. You just missed him? Yeah. He had the sign that had my Bible verse on it. It was all right there. She's going down, but the arrows are pointing up. She's just a rule breaker. She's a habitual line stepper. Breaking the law. Breaking the law. Well, she already goes against the stab of short, you know, she was conditioned to only live in this underground hellscape, but she was like, no. What if I did something different? By underground hellscape, you mean America? Whoa! That was good. Yeah, that's right, folks. We went there. I love that she's still got the handcuff kind of on her. She's still got the fire stoker from the house. It's like these people have battle damage. The same thing I was saying about the dad that like he's not just going to suddenly be fine and like running around by the end of the movie. Like this is cumulative of like this has been one really long night that spilled over to the next day and they don't they haven't had time to like you know catch a breather their son has actually turned into a werewolf that's how long what if they like this visual is so good what if they cut to like all the tethered like trying to figure out how to get the escalator.
Reality vs Movie Logic Expectations
01:48:25
Speaker
And it's like just whatever elaborate scheme they did. My theory is they just couldn't find it. Couldn't find the escalator? Yeah. They never turned this corner and then 20 years later they're like, oh, finally!'t think to go here. You just it's always where you never think to look. Well, they make the whole thing about like at the beginning, the text of like all the undocumented or unknown tunnels ways in America. It makes me think that that like are there other random exit points at just right because it like a beach in santa monica has a house of mirrors that has a back way to this for some reason and again like i said i think that's cool because it's it's almost in and how little sense that makes makes it creepier to me but like are there other entrances like that or like are there just random places across the country where if like if you just stumble upon it you just find something really fucked up down there I'd like that again that's one of those things too where it's like it always worked for me the mirror house just, it felt like Twilight Zone-y. I'm like, I don't know. No, I'm, again, I'm, I, I. What the fuck is with people, not you, this isn't at you at all, but what is with people, like, needing some movies to just fit so into reality, and then just like, other movies they just don't care about, like some movies they like hold it to the reality this movie like isn't really playing in our world from the very beginning like it's kind of off right away even like the tv and the hands across america and seeing the reflection in the tv which it's like like, it's, I don't, it just all feels kind of off. Yeah, which I love. Is maybe some people having that expectation or trying to pick it apart? Does this scene maybe make people think, like, well, they explained this, so now I'm going to, like, hold it to the stand, I'm going to go through scene by scene, and if it doesn't match up or if i don't have an explanation i'm gonna be very mad like they think that because there is an in-world logic to this that then that that they they jump to the next conclusion of like well now this all needs to make sense
Audience Reception: 'Get Out' vs 'Us'
01:50:59
Speaker
yeah i don't know also split split diapeter diapeter shot. shot yeah Yeah, it it was was great. great but One um one thing thing i I don't don't get... get so I i, saw Get Out that Thursday it came out before it became the biggest horror movie of all time. So you saw Get Out before it was cool. Yeah, basically. It was so weird because when I saw it in theaters, I didn't know it was going to be as big as it was. I had no idea what was going to come. I remember like really, really liking it and thinking this end is not going to work for people, you know? Because it's like a huge tone shift. And it's crazy that that works so hard for people. And this is just like nitpicked so much because the whole idea and i'm not even talking about like the tone of the end of get out but the idea that the whole conspiracy and thing is that these these rich white people are putting their brains into the body of these it's it's like a b-movie concept yeah which i love i like that i love that that is what it is and and that we're taking an idea that absurd and like putting it in this like it's not grounded but it feels like it feels like somebody you can really invest in and i've never heard anyone dispute, like, get out or have complaints about that. And it's like, just not touched in that regard. But maybe people, there's a group of people that are like, well, I can't trash get out because people love it. So I'm going to take all of that to us and just dump on that. But I'm like, it's just, it's odd to me that like one is like so much more easier to digest for people than the other i never thought of that until just i mean i i thought of like how weird the turn and end of get out is but never in terms of like wait yeah how did that become the biggest movie and no one questioned that and And then in the... I don't know, people are weird. And then us, every step of the way, there are people that will question this movie from top to bottom and try to say it's a bad movie. Because they can't... And Nope doesn't even get that. I don't really hear people talk about Nope on that level. It seems people just really wanted to gun out have their guns out for us they do it more for this i i saw a little bit of nope people trying to i don't i don't even know if it was necessarily that but like there were there were people criticizing nope for whatever reasons but um not to the degree of this. I think, honestly, now that I'm thinking about it, it might just be because of how much acclaim Get Out had that people then have their knives out more for the next thing. It's kind of like how anytime there's a Best Picture winner, people are like, well, that movie sucked, right? Just because Knives Out came out in the same year as this doesn't mean you should have your Knives Out for it. That was good. I didn't even think about that connection. I don't know, man. This movie's bulletproof for me. People's criticisms, I'm just like, no skin off my back. I have a Hands Across America shirt. It's one of my favorites. Hell yeah. Don't wear it that much because I'm afraid afraid of staining it and even though i said at the top that i didn't even need an explanation i do like this scene and because there's like emotional motivation for red to like be like going kind of like needing to like i need you to understand like what i went through because of what you did to me and like how this all came to be, you know, that I'm, I'm finally able to like, you know, turn the tables on you after all these years. But like, I don't know to maybe, maybe in the same way that I think the get out ending it's, you know, the whole like B movie taken more seriously idea that it's, I don't, I like the idea we're gonna well of course as we know two bodies would share the same soul if we clone people and we're gonna use that to control the popular like just the whole concept is is so weird and like i don't even maybe buy it as like they know for a fact this is going to happen. It's almost like they just tried that. This is our hypothesis. Let's like test it out. And they're like, well, it doesn't work because we share the same soul or whatever. Because isn't that the thing? Like, why didn't it work? Why did they abandon it? Because they share the same soul? No, I thought that was why what they thought would why they thought they'd be able to control people what's the reason they abandoned it i thought it maybe i'm mixing it up and it is the reason they abandoned it but i i um also one thing i someone uh i listened to in a review and it wasn't as a criticism, but they said that Red was the good ballet dancer in those scenes. And I can't remember Lupita's character's name. They said she, up top, was the bad dancer. But I, oh, I think they're talking about this scene. They're like... That's like... They were saying she's a good dancer because she was actually from the real world and this Lupita right here is the bad dancer because she's from the underground. But it's like... I don't know. I felt like when they showed them as kids, Red was showed as a bad ballet dancer. Or maybe I just don't know know ballet hmm i i don't know ballet or know enough to like critique
Choreography and Music in 'Us'
01:56:50
Speaker
form and stuff i think it's an interesting idea red looks like she's better here but then when they cut to them as kids it almost looks like red is the bad ballet dancer and it's like well red Red kept kept at at it, it so so she she got got good good. and And lupita's Lupita's character character, normal normal character, character, didn't keep at it, so she isn't as skilled in this moment. But I don't really... Yeah, I don't know. Sorry, I'm thinking about what you said, but I'm also just locking in because I fucking love this fight, the choreography of it, because it is... I got five on it being remixed a little bit. That was such a nice touch seeing it in theaters. I was like, you don't... You see the remake happening all the time, but this is like a wordless orchestral remake that like, oh, it's just so cool. Jordan Peele's that someone tries to use because it happens so much now especially like post guardians of the galaxy not that they are started a genius with the music voices he makes in these movies.
01:58:10
Speaker
started that but like using a popular song to like any kind of like violence or like an action scene or there's so many bad versions of that now that it really makes me appreciate like when it's like actual thought is put into like because it's not just like we're using the original... No, we made a new version of it. I really like that moment there where Red grabbed Lupita and just like slammed her to the ground. I like ineloquent fighting where that wasn't like an actual like fight. It was just just so raw and cool this is a fucking good fight yeah also just makes me think of how the fuck any of this was I mean obviously you can you could do a lot when you're in post in terms of like putting her in to make it look like she's fighting herself. But I assume it was just like they choreographed and shot it with just like a double. And then like, then did the replacement. I mean, cause there are shots where you see both of their faces at the same time. So, but it always looks seem. I'm never, I'm never brought out and thought of like so many older things when they try and have like twins or clones it's like you really the the technology's not there yet in terms of like their ability to to pull it off convincingly yeah but like this is seamless it is they go and they show you a good amount of this in the making of too like how they pulled off a lot of the doppelganger shit. It's one of the most interesting making ups I've seen for a movie. I feel like there's a significance that I really want to pick up on next time I watch this to like why they're cutting back to the specific dance moves when they're cutting in the fight. It feels like there's deliberate choices being made in the editing that I really want to pay attention to more. Well, because it's not like I ah get like wanting to have like, okay, she's doing the the ballet dance and they're having this like this dance-like fight now in in the present. But yeah, are there the specific moves that the ballerina young her is doing that like correlate to like ballerinas ah chime in in the comments? I like her like chomping of the teeth when she let out that scream. And then she does like some weird vocal shit that we really couldn't hear when she did that. But no, I mean, I remember from all the other times I've seen everything she's doing in the scene. Like she's I mean, I know that. Well, I don't know what I was about to say. This is not the kind of movie they give Oscars to. But get out nominated in one Oscar. So like, us get, get ah ah a nomination, especially for her? It's just, it's just like one of my favorite performances ever. I don't know. Yeah. It's amazing. And she does. Jordan Peele got an Oscar for get out a couple of years before this would have been able to get nominations. So it's like, yeah, we've already shown that a Jordan Peele horror movie is worthy of an above-the-line Oscar nomination. Why not just start nominating the actors in his movies now? I don't know. I don't know, man. um There's a lot of good. Get out one too, I think. First screenplay. Yeah. And all of this is great. Everything she's been doing has been crushing it, but her eyes, like her, and eye acting she's so emotive and like there's like this look of of desperation when she's talking to her son where she's like i really need you to buy back it like we can't have any issue here right we're gonna be able to move on
02:02:23
Speaker
of like the like the the the like the almost like she's scared of like if you if so this can't change our relationship i'm still your mother and she still is his mother but i think she's afraid that like that even though she you know she stopped the threat but she's like Is this going to fuck things up for me? like Do you think he knows anything more? like Do you think Red told him anything or able to move on. he heard any of Red's monologue? Or do you think he's still completely in the dark that his mom was even one of them? Because as long as he doesn't know that she's one of them, I mean, all right now he's just thinking is, man, my mom's pretty fucking sick, isn't
Mother-Son Dynamics and Revelations in 'Us'
02:03:06
Speaker
she? Like, sick in a bad way. Like, man, she, like, gets some kind of joy out of murdering these people. But I don't know if he's thinking, like, is my mom one of them? I... It's up to... enter it's up to What would put that thought in his head unless he heard any of Red's monologue? what Well was in the classroom and then he was in a locker right yeah and but that was a different room yeah he could have conceivably maybe heard i also would buy that red would just tell him in terms of like she you know that that that's just another level of her wanting to fuck with her but then also like maybe want to reclaim her life of like well you should be my son so I'm gonna tell you what what the deal is ah you don't know about the twist until the very end just because I've seen this so many times I was like oh yeah most people first time watching it you don't know till this very point i mean by the time you get to the classroom scene even before this i feel like we know where this is going at least when i was first time in theaters i know like the sinister nature of it though like the smile her choking her dragging her just like how creepy this is it like it makes it a villain turn yeah no absolutely um I'm gonna go with the son somehow does know she's a tethered it may it maybe be Red told her honestly though it's the apocalypse you gotta just move on but sure no I he's gotta get over it I mean she still is regardless of whatever things happen that is biologically and is ah his his mother but i yeah something about this look it almost looks like he does know but then when he turns and puts the mask down that's almost like does that mean he's deciding to be blind to it of like i i'm i'm just gonna compartmentalize that i'm good you know she's my my's mom, whatever. let's just and What do you think her smile, her like little grin is in that moment? Like, oh, boys. but Boys will be boys. I don't know. It had that energy. You kids. Yeah, I don't know. There was almost something sinister about the smile but sorry i'm getting this this needle drop of this mini riperton song it's a great song choice for them it's a great song choice and there's something about this i mean maybe it's just like a great ending for a movie i love but like i get literal physical chills and like basically the moment an image we see right before cutting to credits is like it's not even that it's like scarier i mean it's kind of chilling the implication but like i something about the combination of this music and an image that really sits with me and like makes me feel some kind of way because it's like oh my god you see i mean yeah obviously we've been seeing news reports about that this is happening everywhere but you
02:06:35
Speaker
forever in the distance and and and the fan had stopp right at mexico
02:06:45
Speaker
and then the song has this triumphant energy it's like they did it you know but it not in a but but i don't i don't leave the movie feeling amped for the tethered but it almost is like the movie is trying to conflict that I was talking about of like that makes you go back and forth is encapsulated there where it's like, yeah, wait, what does this mean that they won?
Ending Implications and Future of the Tethered
02:07:10
Speaker
You know, like, like, OK, so they got on top and they killed their other. Now what? They had news helicopters in the sky. So, I mean, those people in there, they didn't die unless there's tethered flying. Tethered news here with our man in the helicopter. Why doesn't the military just fly in a helicopter with like some guns? They're all in a line. Like it's not like they're moving or hard to find. Like you find one of them and you found all of them. Basically, there's a line. I feel like you could easily like end this problem oh yeah 100 i i feel like well that's the benefit of this specifically having this unreal weird logic to it but like a lot of apocalypse things you could be like especially slow zombies where i'm like really the military wasn't able to take care of this yeah you know like was it their day off like i get how one person could be a few or you know people could get caught off guard they uh by they're not expecting zombies and they get taken but it was like eventually we we get it under control uh before it like ruined the world but but this i don't even like yeah you are right they could easily do it but in my mind i'm like b i mean she took out red but i'm like they did it they've they've conquered the the surface world like i mean you could draw whatever conclusions from from that that that end i I don. don't think that there's like one definitive thing you're supposed to interpret from the world. You just start driving through them with that ambulance. It should have been the ending. She's like, she finds an entry point in the line. She's like, all buckle up just full speed go through turn back around they keep like reconnecting their hands yeah they're like we don't know what to do after the hand-holding process our leader's dead we don't we didn't make it this far in the plan yeah it would be funny like like, without without Red's red leadership, they're just like... What if they all just collapsed and fell? Like, in Star Wars, they take out the fucking droid army thing, and they just, like, all can't function. There's, like, news footage going, and it's like, we've discovered after 28 days, they all starve to death. They didn't think to leave the chain. They just, like, we have to do this. This is important. And then they just starve. They're like, there are no rabbits. Damn it. We only eat one thing. If only there was anything we could eat. They're surrounded by like a buffet table. There's no food. I'm so hungry hungry i just wish there was something anything i could eat yeah good movie uh perfect movie i i don't know i love this movie it's one of my favorites steven spielberg got a thank you on this movie sure why not paul thomas anderson is the connection i mean i'm sure they know each other a lot of directors just are friends or know each other but now my brain is making the connection i'm like they played a mini ripperton song mini ripperton maya rudolph's mom paul thomas anderson's with maya rudolph that's obviously connection. Paul Thomas Anderson's with Maya Rudolph? Mm-hmm. I had no idea. I don't know if they're married, but they have a kid or so. They've been together for a while. Oh, interesting. What if there was an after-credits scene we've just never seen before? Wait, who are these doubles? And it's like the new King of the Tethered making a speech on live TV. He now our new agenda and this is setting up the tethered cinematic universe and i don't remember seeing that perfect world pictures at the beginning of the movie it's just at the end who are who are these people who is ai did fandango put this at the end of the movie you have to ask if everything's ai now it's it's troubling i mean fandango very well could have fucked with it they are they're always fucking with stuff yeah was that boy and man were those ai people and i don't mean generated by ai i mean the boy and the man in the image are are robots yeah that's exactly what i like irobot style yeah 100 oh yeah well guys thanks for tuning into our commentary yeah thanks thanks for uh for watching along i mean we're gonna have a lot of other cool stuff this month we're gonna be be covering and watching, re-watching. We started with such a strong one and now it's going to be like, the rest of the month is going to be fucking shit. What if the Heretics sucked? We're like, well, it wasn't us. Yeah, it just set the bar too high. What if we watch it? We're like, it was weird that it was just us. they just played us when we saw the heretic or so we're just gonna review us again no or it's you start off with these other characters and it's it's hugh grant but then he turns on a tv and it's us like another like it's just a full movie within another movie we can only hope so um yeah that's the next thing we got coming up guys is the heretic the herit trick i'm excited for it the herit trick it's it it looks good and a lot of like i keep saying horror but especially this year with how a lot of these things have been smartly marketed i don't know what the movie's about really other than it's you grant fucking with a couple of girls who are trapped i guess but yeah i don't know what it's about either even judging from the trailer i was like is it like escape room like it looks escape room-esque but like it feels like the kind of movie that's gonna like really change the what you're even watching like part. I'm like, I didn't even know this was what we were doing.
Concluding Thoughts and Future Commentary Plans
02:13:29
Speaker
Yeah, like, is he sending these girls into the seven seals of hell? Like, what is going on? So I'm pretty excited to see what that's about, actually. Yeah, I haven't been thinking about movies too much this week, but now that we're talking about it, hell yeah, I'm excited to do that shit in a couple of days. Hell yeah. Yeah. Well, not too sure what the next commentary will be. Doug and I are probably going to talk that out, but if we're doing four movies this month, I was thinking one of them might be one of the King Kong movies. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah, we'll talk through that, figure it out. But any one of them I would be. Yeah, I guess it really depends on if we want to go the original classic or if we, I mean, I would do Peter Jackson's King Kong. I love that movie. I haven't revisited that one. It's like three hours. It really depends on if we want to do a three-hour commentary or not. I mean, it would be a good reason to... Three-hour, 80 minutes. Those are the choices we have to make if we're doing King Kong. Or Skull Island. No, I'm not suggesting that over the original or Peter J. I just like Skull Island a lot. I think it's pretty fun. Yeah, maybe we flip a coin or, you know, we'll talk about it. We'll figure it out. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Yeah. Well, we don't do plugs on this set. You got any last messages for the people uh go suck a lemon i don't know go suck a lemon um bon voyage i guess that yeah bon voyage i hope you look i hope you find what you're looking for that's what i'm saying to the uh there's just at the end i was re-watching the uh steve mcqueen movie this morning the getaway and at the end he says to a guy that he doesn't really know they just met he's like i hope you find what you're looking for it almost felt a little profound like wow this guy's a stranger and you just were able to just you like just just general in general of like just saying like you know what i don't know this dude but i hope you find what you're looking for and if you're bono your response to that would probably be but i still haven't found what i'm looking for a little youtube reference to send you guys out on.