Us

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Jordan Peele
Screenplay:  Jordan Peele
Starring:  Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Madison Curry, Tim Heidecker, Elisabeth Moss
Running Time:  116 minutes
Genre:  Horror

The Wilson family, Adelaide (Nyong'o) and Gabe (Duke) and their children Zora (Joseph) and Jason (Alex), head out on vacation to their beach house.  Adelaide doesn't like the beach due to something that happened to her as a child.  She notices that their seem to be an unusual number of strange coincidences surrounding them.  One night their house is invaded by another family, who are their exact doubles. 

Jordan Peele made a huge splash with his debut feature, the multi-award winning Get Out (2017), and he follows it up with another disturbing look at modern-day America through the lens of horror.  Us is more of a straightforward horror film than Get Out, and it is genuinely scary and funny.  While it doesn't have as much of an overt satirical bite and social commentary as Get Out it is still there as subtext.  The idea of the doppelganger is a scary one and this is an interesting variation on the "evil double" theme.  The film is overlong and it does slow down with an exposition heavy climax, sometimes it feels like an extended Twilight Zone episode (Peele has acknowledged the 1960 Twilight Zone episode "Mirror Image" as an inspiration).  The cast are excellent in dual roles.  The film takes it's time building up the characters and their personalities and relationships and so you care about them.  You're interested in spending time with these people, even before the horror elements kick off. 

Lupita Nyong'o in Us

Black Panther

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Ryan Cooglar
Screenplay:  Ryan Cooglar and Joe Robert Cole, based on the comic book character Black Panther created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
Starring:  Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Guira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright
Running Time:  134 minutes
Genre:  Action, fantasy, superhero

The African nation of Wakanda is seen as one of the most poverty-stricken nations on Earth, and ignored by most of the world.  However, that is just a front.  In fact is a hugely technologically advanced nation, powered by the alien metal "vibranium".  In order to keep it's secrets, Wakanda deliberately hides itself from the world, protected by the superbeing "Black Panther", a mantle handed down from king to king.  Following the death of the previous king, Prince T'Challa (Boseman) becomes the new king and assumes the mantle and powers of Black Panther.  His first mission is to track down the arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) who has stolen some vibranium.  However there is someone else pulling Klaue's strings.

This is the eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and the first solo outing for the superhero Black Panther, although Chadwick Boseman first appeared in the role in Captain America: Civil War (2016).  This is an important film because it features an almost entirely black cast, the only two principal white characters (played by Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis) really have little more than supporting roles.  The storyline may not be anything very new, with it having to do the necessary worldbuilding and origin story,  it is still a hugely entertaining film, full of spectacular action and special effects with plenty of humour and engaging characters, including a villain who, while vicious and brutal, kind of has a goal that does have a valid point.  Wakanda is a visually ravishing world, with it's afrofuturistic city genuinely impressive.  Despite being the eighteenth film in the seemingly endless MCU franchise, this is a stand-alone film, although previous films in the series are referenced, it is not necessary to have seen them to enjoy this one.  Hopefully there will be more solo Black Panther movies, because this is a world and these are characters that I want to revisit.  As always with MCU films, remember to stay in your seat for some extra scenes during the credits.

The Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) in action in Black Panther