People looking for more in the way of direct, allegorical social horror from the Get Out guy will surely be disappointed—at least to me, on one watch, Us doesn't seem to have its laser focus or brutal simplicity (not to suggest Us isn't at least as brutal) and I don't get what it's "about" in the same way or as immediately as I did Get Out—but what you get in return is (at the very least) 116 minutes of really intensely good horror filmmaking. I was optimistic going into this, as I would be watching the sophomore feature of anyone who made (not to be too Get Out about it) one of my favorite horror movies in recent years, but at the same time, all the new projects Peele's signed on to direct and write and produce in the couple of years since Get Out had me worried he'd be worked a little thin. But Us shows no signs of weariness. Once it gets going, the whole movie is almost a series of really wonderfully staged horror scenario after horror scenario, so bursting at the seams with ideas (both visual ideas and, y'know, capital-I Ideas) that it never gets old. Needs a re-watch to really gel, so the 4.5 is both for the excitement I had watching this and a bit of the benefit of the doubt, because I certainly don't "get" it yet.

Anyway I haven't seen her in a lot because, you all know me, I sometimes don't get around to watching a lot of recent stuff, but wow Lupita Nyong’o can really, like, act. (Every performance here is kind of just like extremely very good. Elisabeth Moss, too, with very little screen time, fucking nails it.)