READERS' CHOICE #39: US (2019)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but only once, in the theatre when it was released

BEST SEQUENCE

The home invasion and the first meeting between the Wilson family and their Tethered counterparts

BEST LINE

"There's a family in our driveway"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

93%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"With Jordan Peele's second inventive, ambitious horror film, we have seen how to beat the sophomore jinx, and it is Us."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A family's serene beach vacation turns to chaos when their doppelgängers appear and begin to terrorize them."

DIRECTOR

Jordan Peele

MAIN CAST

Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker

THOUGHTS

• It's a delicate balance making a horror comedy which is equally effective in both genres. If you emphasize the humour over the horror, especially in the scary moments, you risk undercutting the thrills; if you skimp on the jokes, then what jokes there are will be incongruous at best and absolute mood killers at worst
• Perhaps it's partly due to this high degree of difficulty that there are, by my assessment anyway, no true horror comedies on the official AFI list. There are quite a few on the readers' list, though, including Jordan Peele's first movie, Get Out. This is probably as good a time as any to mention that the readers' list was finalized before the release of Peele's third movie, Nope, but I was also pretty underwhelmed by Nope. I might give it a rewatch eventually, but I wouldn't consider it to be at the same level as Us or Get Out
• I don't want to talk about Get Out too much more, since I'll be talking about it on its own much much later, but when I saw Us in the theatre I remember liking it just a little bit more than Get Out, although I'm not sure if that opinion holds true upon rewatch. I do think, however, that Us hits that absolute sweet spot between horror and comedy with a foot firmly planted in both camps. When they happen, the jokes land, and they're inserted with a sense of tone and timing that don't take away from the scary stuff. My favourite joke in the movie, by the way, is probably "Ophelia, call the police"
• Home invasions are almost always a potent setup for a scary movie, and Us has the added impact of the home invasion being perpetrated by the sinister doppelgängers of the protagonists. One of my favourite scary movie tropes is when a character sees someone watching them through a window, and the lighting and shadows of the "family in our driveway" scene add to the eeriness. If we want to get philosophical about it, perhaps this concept is scary because it demonstrates how permeable one's home and shelter can be, even if (at first) it's just being permeated by eyesight
• I'd bet that the whole cast had a lot of fun playing both of their characters, but Lupita Nyong'o is next level, with her strong performance as Adelaide and her terrifyingly unnerving performance as Red. The way she physically embodies Red is tremendously creepy, and the voice is just perfect
• Also, the scenes set in the house of mirrors are very effective
• While the "home invasion by doppelgängers" premise is already pretty strong by itself, I admire how ambitious the ending gets with its backstory and internal logic, even if much of it doesn't entirely hold up to scrutiny. We've already seen lots of home invasion thrillers. We haven't seen many movies about subterranean clones rising up to kill their above-ground counterparts in order to form a human chain across America. But hey, maybe this is already a whole subgenre and I've just been watching the wrong movies 
• And finally, speaking of which, this may be a better known fact that I'm aware of, or the movie might have made this point more clearly than I realize, but just in case, I think it's worth mentioning that the Hands Across America campaign was a real event that happened on May 25th, 1986. So, for the movie's purposes, it's pretty important to note that the movie begins with young Adelaide seeing a commercial for Hands Across America right before heading to the beach with her parents

Up Next: The oldest movie on the Readers' Choice list, by a fair margin at that, and one of the few that I haven't seen before. The Warriors, from 1979 

READERS' CHOICE #40: ANNIHILATION (2018)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, probably a year or so after it was released

BEST SEQUENCE

The scariest part is the scene with the bear, the most haunting part is the final scene in the lighthouse

BEST LINE

"It's not like us... it's unlike us. I don't know what it wants, or if it wants, but it'll grow until it encompasses everything. Our bodies and our minds will be fragmented into their smallest parts until not one part remains... Annihilation."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

88%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre thrills with an impressively ambitious -- and surprisingly strange -- exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits roll."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply."

DIRECTOR

Alex Garland

MAIN CAST

Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac

THOUGHTS

• From start to finish this movie isn't as thrilling as some of the others I've reviewed, which is fine, that's not really what it's going for. There are certainly some heart-pounding moments, even beyond the ones I mentioned above, but 8.5 might honestly be a bit high if we were judging this movie just based on thrills alone. It's an undeniably excellent movie, though, and the parts that thrill do so in a manner that will worm their way under your skin
• Annihilation has some of the most beautifully bizarre and hauntingly eerie sights I've ever seen in a movie. Worth watching for the visuals alone, and they stay with you long after the credits roll
• Such an effective setting. Even though there are aspects of this movie that make it appear to take place on an alien planet, it's not set on an alien planet - it's set in a Florida swamp, and despite the tweaks and twists to this environment, it's still recognizable to our human eyes. Not that there's anything wrong with alien planets, but I connect more when it's a familiar place
• The cast is great all around, with Jennifer Jason Leigh giving my favourite performance as the steely, blunt and emotionally detached Dr. Ventress
• I found the very last shot of the movie to be less impactful than I think was intended, and I can't really put my finger on why (also I'm going to be purposefully vague just in case people are avoiding spoilers). Perhaps it was because the movie had so much else going on that this final beat seemed unnecessary, or perhaps it was because I've seen similar concepts done better in other movies. Worth acknowledging, though, it's possible that this last scene was deemed important in order to connect with some of the "challenging themes" mentioned in the Rotten Tomatoes consensus above
• Very effective use of the song "Helplessly Hoping" by Crosby, Stills & Nash - a song that I think is just beautiful, and I can't think of any other movies that use it
• The AFI 100 Thrills list doesn't include any movies released after 1999, so considering Alex Garland didn't get into filmmaking until after the turn of the millennium, it makes sense that he isn't included in any of the AFI movies. He made a fair impact on the Readers' Choice list, though. He wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later, and before writing and directing Annihilation he wrote and directed Ex Machina. 28 Days Later and Ex Machina will both be appearing later on in the Readers' Choice list. He also began his career by writing the novel The Beach, which was adapted into a movie by Danny Boyle, who would also collaborate with Garland on 28 Days Later. I only just saw The Beach for the first time recently, and man, I did not connect with that movie one bit. Any Beach defenders out there?

Up next: Us, from 2019, the second movie directed by Jordan Peele (and Get Out will also be appearing much, much later)

#61: CAPE FEAR (1962)

TW: Sexual Violence

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

The confrontation between Cady and Sam's wife on the houseboat, followed by the confrontation between Cady and Sam himself (so, basically, the last 15 minutes of the movie)

BEST LINE

"You shocking degenerate. I've seen the worst - the dregs - but you... you are the lowest. Makes me sick to breathe the same air." - Sam, to Cady

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

96%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"An exemplary thriller powered by Robert Mitchum's chilling performance and Bernard Herrmann's sinister score, Cape Fear seethes with perfectly modulated tension."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail."

DIRECTOR

J. Lee Thompson

MAIN CAST

Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin

THOUGHTS

• This might be a hard one for people to read about because the antagonist's primary threat is not just violence, but specifically sexual violence. As usual, I'm not going to be too graphic, and please don't mistake me treating this movie as a form of entertainment for any sort of levity towards the real subject matter
• For a movie made in 1962, it's interesting how clear they were able to make the villain's intentions, despite never once using the word "rape". Max Cady, played by Robert Mitchum, is evil and single-minded, with a leering, half-lidded gaze. His goal is not just to destroy Gregory Peck's Sam Bowden, but to do so through the people closest to him. It's a memorable performance by Mitchum, and I love his southern drawl, especially on words like "counsellah". Also, is it just me, or is Max Cady a great fictional character name
• I do believe this is the first appearance of Robert Mitchum in these movies, but not the last. He'll be appearing again in The Night of the Hunter, ranked quite high at #34, in a not dissimilar role (at least from what I recall; I only saw it once years ago)
• On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that this is the last we'll see of Gregory Peck. He was in The Guns of Navarone and The Omen as well, and I liked his performances in all of them, including Cape Fear, but I think it's fair to mention that he played essentially the same character in each movie - the stoic and brave leading man. This is not to say that this is a flaw with these movies, or even a flaw with Peck's acting. He plays this character well, and this character was what these movies required. But I'd be interested to see a Peck performance with a little more range. I feel like even Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, the role for which he won the Best Actor Oscar, would fit in pretty snugly with all these other performances in more thrilling movies. And speaking of which, I only just realized this, it turns out To Kill a Mockingbird and Cape Fear came out in the same year
• If one wants to approach Cape Fear from this angle, I saw it as a bit of a critique of due process and the presumption of innocence, or at least a manipulation of the audience's fears about the situations in which the law may not be enough to protect them. Sam knows what Cady has planned for him and his family, but he has no legal way to prevent it, so he needs to wait for Cady to strike before he's able to retaliate. This depiction of vigilantism isn't the sort of thing I cheer for or endorse, but it is a very effective hook for the movie, enhanced by the fact that Sam is a lawyer and well aware of the legal quandary he's in
• The climax is as thrilling as it is harrowing, ending with a pretty visceral fight between Sam and Cady. I also noticed, especially earlier in the movie, there was something reminiscent of a Slasher villain in the depiction of Cady, especially in the way he shows up when he's least expected

MINI REVIEW: CAPE FEAR (1991)

Our first time talking about director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro, who will be popping up a few more times (although fewer than I would have thought; I think a movie like Goodfellas, for example, definitely belongs on this list. Maybe I'll add it at some point). This is a good movie, different enough from the original to be worth watching, but I don't think it's better than the original, and maybe not even as good. The 30 years in between films allowed for the remake to be much more blunt and graphic with its violence and subject matter, but there's still something to be said about the more restrained approach. It's interesting to see De Niro as a full-on villain, not just an anti-hero, and there's something uncanny about hearing his southern accent, considering his normal voice is so recognizable. The original was largely a cat-and-mouse game between Sam and Cady, while the remake fleshes out more of the supporting characters, giving them more connections and backstory, and more agency for Sam's wife and daughter, played by Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis, respectively. And as Sam I liked Nick Nolte's on-edge performance. While watching I realized I haven't seen Nolte in anything else, but I quite liked him in this. Finally, Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis were both nominated for Oscars. They're good performances, but it's interesting to see a pretty pulpy thriller like this get some Oscar love. And again, perhaps this owes something to the 30-year time difference - the original movie didn't get any nominations in any category.

MINI REVIEW: THE SIMPSONS: "CAPE FEARE" (1993)

Perfect. No notes.

Up Next: And with that, we've made our way through another 20-movie block of the AFI list, so it gives me great pleasure to announce that we'll be jumping back into the readers' poll! Here are the next ten movies, in order:

Annihilation

Us

The Warriors

The Babadook

Paranormal Activity

Donnie Darko

It

Pet Sematary

Gone Girl

Robocop

And so, up next, Annihilation from 2018!