Us (2019)

The fact the aggressors are doppelgangers does not make Jordan Peele's home invasion thriller any more interesting than, say, The Strangers, (another home invasion thriller with a bemusing preface note) and in fact simply ends up quadrupling the number of wearying "must try to reach the scissors" scenes of violence that viewers need to wait through before the thriller's US sociopolitical analogy is elucidated, but by the time that rush of exposition comes, your other self, not the mindless zombie tethered in the dark forced to dumbly contemplate rabbits and impossibly weighted coffee tables but your more intelligent, educated equal, will be other places, in the privileged position of making shopping lists and the like.

★★☆☆☆

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Get Out (2017)

Meeting the parents of a partner for the first time is a situation fraught with tension; add issues of race, some sudden loud bangs and some kooky psychological thrills and you'd expect a movie not to be as boring in long stretches as this - part of the problem is it feels unfinished (there are images and scenes from the movie's promotional material which are entirely missing), and the movie's really clever ideas are either cut short too soon (you'll want more time with all of the characters, especially Catherine Keener's hypnotist) or let down with daft plotting (like candlebra in a surgery, or three cops who laugh off a ridiculous story ignoring the Googleable fact of a missing man, or antisocial track and field training in the middle of the night). 

★★★☆☆

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