Stereoactive Presents - ‘Us’ // a movie discussion

‘Us’ // a movie discussion

Explicit content warning

03/29/19 • 29 min

Stereoactive Presents

US is Jordan Peele's sophomore directorial effort. Adelaide Wilson and her family visit their summer home in Santa Cruz. Although the boardwalk is a popular spot in the area, Adelaide has reservations about going because she had a traumatic experience there as a child. Although she relents and the family makes their way to the beach, Adelaide's fears escalate when her son seems to go missing.

Despite quickly finding him, the family decides to return home. Later that night, an eerie occurrence happens. A family dressed all in red stands in their driveway, holding hands, unmoving. What follows is an anxiety ridden nightmare straight out of a Twilight Zone episode. Peele once again deftly balances horror and comedy. The film's high intensity is cut with moments of levity to help ease the tension for the viewer.

While Peele's first film, Get Out, found its horrors in an all too familiar situation, playing on the friction that can arise amongst the racially mixed group, US garners its attention from something entirely unusual. Being afraid of the other when the other is us.

J. McVay and Jacqueline discuss the 2nd film by writer and director Jordan Peele, distributed by Universal Pictures.

Us stars Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, and Madison Curry.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Jacqueline Soller

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 3/29/19

Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media

J. McVay and Jacqueline discuss the 2nd film by writer and director Jordan Peele, distributed by Universal Pictures.

Us stars Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, and Madison Curry.

===

Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Jacqueline Soller

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 3/29/19

Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media

Previous Episode

‘Hereditary’ // a movie discussion

Hereditary is a story about grief, so naturally, it begins with a death. Artist Annie Graham attends the funeral of her mother, Ellen, who passed away before the film begins. Through a eulogy, Annie reveals that she had a tenuous relationship with her mother. Ellen was domineering yet distant, shutting out her own family with her secret rituals and secret friends.

Although there was a period of estrangement, Annie not even letting Ellen anywhere near her firstborn, Peter, Annie eventually allowed her mother to live with her by the time her daughter, Charlie, was born. Subsequently, Ellen took a disturbing interest in Charlie, even insisting on being the one to feed her.

So it's no surprise when Charlie begins seeing apparitions of her dead grandmother not long after the funeral. From then on, Hereditary only gets weirder, hitting full tilt by its last act. Despite its unambiguous, bizarre ending, Hereditary's success is placed in Ari Aster's command atmosphere, foregoing cheap jump scares in favor of an escalating, foreboding tension that permeates each scene.

J. McVay and Jacqueline discuss the debut film by writer and director Ari Aster, distributed by A24.

Hereditary stars Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, and Ann Dowd.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Jacqueline Soller

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 6/15/18

Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media

Next Episode

‘Fight Club’ // a 1999 film retrospective

With this, their second episode in a series, J. McVay, Jacqueline Soller, and Charles Hinshaw continue to look back on movies released in 1999, discussing how they stand up 20 years on...

Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (“Paula-nick”) and directed by David Fincher, ‘Fight Club’ stars Edward Norton as a never named narrator who’s more or less fed up with his life and suffering from severe insomnia as he travels from place to place examining auto-accidents. He begins to find cathartic solace through attending support groups for people suffering from various ailments and conditions, before his routine is interrupted by a woman named Marla Singer (Helena Boham Carter), who is also attending these groups for less-than-honest purposes. Eventually, Norton’s character meets Tyler Durden on one of his flights. Played by Brad Pitt, Durden seems to be as free of conformist societal pressures as the Narrator is bound by them. Immediately after this seemingly chance encounter, the Narrator’s high rise condo is destroyed by an explosion, leaving him with nowhere to turn but his new acquaintance. After an evening of bonding and trading personal philosophies, the two decide to have a fist fight free of animus just to see what it feels like. High on the resultant feeling, they end up founding a club of men looking for the same experience. This balloons first into a secret underground network of similar clubs that extends to an unknown size, then to the beginning of Project Mayhem in which men dedicate their entire lives to following Durden’s call to upset the materialist, corporate nature of the society around them.

The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 10th, 1999. It drew both praise and criticism, with many referencing ‘A Clockwork Orange’ as a precedent case of a film that both portrays violence and, it was worried, could also inspire violence. It opened commercially in the US on October 15th and came in first in box office rankings with just over $11 million. Despite this, the film was considered a bit of a financial disappointment by its studio, Fox. However, it was such a popular DVD release that it went on to become one of the studio’s top selling home media items and eventually turned a profit.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Jacqueline Soller, Charles Hinshaw

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 7/19/19

Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media