BLOGTOWN

First of all, its characters are Wayúu, members of an indigenous tribe living in Colombia's northern Guajira Peninsula, and most of the dialogue is spoken in their language. The film—told in five parts, or “songs”—opens with a gorgeous portrayal of a traditional Wayúu coming-of-age ceremony, followed by a courtship and wedding, in which Rapayet (José Acosta) marries Zaida (Natalia Reyes), thus joining the esteemed, desert-dwelling clan of Úrsula (Carmiña Martínez), a matriarch who recognizes the desperate importance of preserving the Wayúu way of life, and trying to prevent the rest of the world from assaulting it with change.

Us Universal

The big movie this weekend is, of course, Jordan Peele's eagerly anticipated follow-up to Get Out, Us, which is at a billion theaters, and which Senior Editor Ciara Dolan calls it "the ultimate anxiety nightmare"—an "exceedingly great slasher movie" with a whole lot going on just beneath the surface.

Also out is a darkly charming Icelandic selection from the just-finished Portland International Film Festival, Woman at War, which opens at Living Room Theaters. Senior Editor Ned Lannamann calls it a "fun, funny movie" about a chorus teacher (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) who's "also Iceland’s most notorious eco-terrorist."

Us is a movie about doppelgängers—our evil twins that, according to folklore, must be killed, lest they kill us and assume our identities. But Us is also about shadows emerging from their own darkness; the illusory depths of mirrors; the fear we project onto the “other” instead of examining our own brutality; and, more abstractly, the barbaric history of slavery and mass genocide that America has unsuccessfully tried to bury, how the country is actively destroying itself, and what it’ll look like when its chickens finally come home to roost. Playground superstitions—like the significance of watching the clock strike 11:11—intersect with apocalyptic omens, like the Bible passage Jeremiah 11:11 (“Therefore thus saith the Lord, ‘Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them’”). Us is the ultimate anxiety nightmare, where coincidences aren’t just coincidences, and you can’t even trust your own reflection, the ground beneath your feet, or your faith that a higher power will protect you from evil.

Woman at War opens Fri March 21 at the Living Room Theaters. For movie times, click here. Read more of the Mercury’s award-winning* movies and TV coverage!

*Not actually award-winning