US (2019)
Genre: Horror
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker
Duration: 116 minutes
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

The writer and director of the horror film Get Out, which shocked the US when it was released in 2017, returns with another horror movie.

This time, Jordan Peele’s protagonist is a woman, named Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o), who returns to the beachfront home where she grew up, accompanied by her husband, son and daughter.

Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears eventually become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is  horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.

Critics showered the film with praise and inevitably compared it to its predecessor  starring Daniel Kaluuya. 

Jeffrey Anderson of Common Sense Media wrote: “Jordan Peele’s horror shocker can’t compete with its sensational predecessor Get Out, but it doesn’t have to.”

Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine called the film a “stunning sophomore effort from  Jordan Peele”, while Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal described it as “compulsory seeing for everyone who loves the horror genre”.

Sandy Schaefer of Screen Rant also had words of praise: “Us manages to be funny, freaky and thrilling all at once and marks another step forward in Peele’s evolving sense of storytelling  and craftsmanship.”

The film scored the best ever box office opening for an original horror movie, with $70.2 million in its first three days of release in the US.

Ratings
IMDB: 7.6/10 
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Empire: 4 stars

Oleg Ivenko interprets Russian star ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev in The White Crow.

The White Crow (2018)
Genre: Biopic
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Starring: Oleg Ivenko, Ralph Fiennes, Sergei Polunin
Duration: 127 minutes
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd

The British film tells the story of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, here played by Oleg Invenko. Inspired by the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanagh, the movie follows the young ballet dancer’s rise in  Russia and how he makes the decision to seek political asylum in the west at Le Bourget airport in France while on a groundbreaking tour of Paris in 1961.

The film received average reviews.

Wendy Ide of The Observer described the film as “a fitfully impressive take on the life of Rudolf Nureyev” but adds that it “lacks the rhythm of the great dancer”. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote how Nureyev’s escape to the west survives “some flat acting” thanks to David Hare’s nuanced script.

Meanwhile, Ian Freer of Empire magazine laments about the film’s crosscutting of timelines, life decisions and visual textures. He wrote that Fiennes’s “courageous approach showcases a host of interesting scenes but never gels into a coherent, satisfying whole.”

Ratings
IMDB: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 68%
Empire: 3 stars