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Review: ‘One of Us,’ a Portrait of Starting a New Life

By Ben Kenigsberg

• Oct. 19, 2017

A thread emerges early in “One of Us,” a documentary about three Hasidic Jews who have left that community, and it’s that leaving doesn’t only mean severing a spiritual connection; the toll is complete. “Nobody leaves unless they’re willing to pay the price,” says Chani Getter of Footsteps , a support group for former ultra-Orthodox Jews as well as those considering straying from the fold.

In the film, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (“Jesus Camp,” “Detropia”), the three have left for different reasons. One, a teenager, Ari, left as his thirst for knowledge came into conflict with religious restrictions . “Wikipedia,” he says, “was a gift from God.” He attends a Christian gathering simply out of curiosity. He also says he has been abused in his past.

Another of the three, Luzer, initially seems like the cutup of the bunch, an aspiring actor who lives part-time in Los Angeles and says he had forged his impression of the outside world from furtive movie viewings. We learn later that leaving meant effectively walking away from his family and children.

But the most wrenching journey is that of Etty, in her early 30s, who seeks a divorce from a husband who, a title card says, was removed by the police from their home for alleged abuse. (At the start of the film, we hear audio from a 911 call that Etty placed after he was escorted out.) The movie makes the case that the Hasidic community has effectively exploited legal loopholes and financial muscle to win custody battles. Ms. Grady and Ms. Ewing don’t show Etty’s face until a powerful moment midway through the film.

As a documentary, “One of Us” is a small act of portraiture, but each portrait captures the pain of having a life upended.

Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

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Netflix’s ‘One Of Us’ Delivers A Harrowing Look Inside The Hasidic Community

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Living in a diverse city like New York, you’re made aware every single day of just how many communities exist. Even beyond race, orientation, gender expression, you see people united by the kinds of clothes they wear or their mode of transit. But even if crowded together on a packed subway car, there’s one community that feels isolated. They exist just out of phase with the rest of reality, as if your hand would pass through them if you reached out. That separation is by design, giving this community a feeling of protection and strength. What the new Netflix documentary  One of Us reveals, though, is that bridging the gap between worlds is nearly impossible–and sometimes dangerous–for those looking to break out.

Cut off from modern culture and cloaked in tradition, the Hasidic community seem like a small enclave on the surface–that is, until about halfway through  One of Us when you see thousands and thousands of members of the faith gathered at a baseball stadium. It’s then that you realize that all of that, an entire world, exists just out of sight of your day to day. This realization makes the world feel uncertain, unknowable. If  all this can go on under my radar, what else is happening out there?

The disorientation that those outside the faith feel in that one moment is similar to the disorientation felt by the documentary’s three subjects: Luzer, a man that traded in his faith for Hollywood (literally); Ari, a college-aged survivor of abuse within the community that’s eager to escape via Google; and Etty, a mother of seven fighting for freedom and also  One of Us’ tragic heart. Their stories follow them as they traverse worlds, jumping from the dangers they know to the dangers of a mysterious new reality.

Leaving the Hasidic community is not an option given to its members at any point. That doesn’t mean the Hasidic community has a perfect retention rate; when young Ari confronts a  community elder about religious hypocrisy, the elder shrugs it off, telling the kid that he’s far from the first person to have a crisis of faith. What’s clear are the consequences: you leave, then you  leave . You’re done. No contact with anyone in the community, your family or friends, and–in One of Us’ most painful sequence of events–the entire Hasidic community will unite to wreck your life. Those are the stakes, and the film–which comes from the same team that delivered the intense study of evangelical Christianity  Jesus Camp –makes them feel insurmountable.

Aspiring actor Luzer lost contact with his family immediately after telling them that he had given up on religion. He relocated to the west coast and followed the same life path that plenty of others have trod: aspiring actor by day, Uber driver also by day. Unlike others, he doesn’t have a familial safety net and lives in an RV to keep costs down. At times, the otherwise upbeat, Bee Gees singin’ guy  comes across as (rightfully) angry about his past. He’s the one that makes the observation that life in the Hasidic community sets everyone who wishes to leave up for failure. This indoctrination starts with heavily censored textbooks with illustrations of cartoon women masked in black marker and continues throughout the formative years, resulting in adults that know how to live in the Hasidic community and nowhere else. Luzer explains what he’s up against: “Everybody who leaves [the community], they end up in jail or rehab.”

Through Ari, a similarly curious man about a decade younger than Luzer, we see the hunt for knowledge in action. “I couldn’t Goole how to Google because I didn’t know how to Google in the first place,” he says, relaying with a wry smile just how difficult it is to learn what the community wants to keep hidden. Initially, Ari’s journey seems like it’s going to be the least fraught as he’s a young, energetic guy whose quest for knowledge isn’t combative. He cuts off his sidecurls but still wears a yarmulke as he searches for the way  he  wants to express his faith. But Ari’s casual questioning leads to intense interrogation from everyone around him and, as the past traumas of our lead subjects come into focus, his story turns into a tense push and pull with no easy way out.

There are developments I’m withholding to preserve the narrative impact of  One of Us , although I can’t say that the doc really has  spoilers . If you’ve seen other films about tightly controlled religious communities, ones about the Catholic church or even Scientology , then you’re already familiar with what’s at play in  One of Us . The worst happens to those that speak out against the dangerous people in power, and then the worst  keeps happening until the credits roll. As necessary as Luzer and Ari’s stories are,  One of Us feels, ultimately, all about Etty, a Hasidic woman married off to a domestic abuser at the age of 19 who spends her 20s in a nonstop cycle of battery and childbirth. Since it is against Hasidic code to take legal action against another member of the community, she quickly finds out that  no one is on her side as she fights quite literally to save her life and the lives of her seven children. We see Etty become stronger and more defiant throughout the film as she finds a community with Footsteps, an organization founded to help ex-Orthodox adjust to outside life. But the more she fights, the stronger the community gets. Stalking, manipulation, intimidation, harassment, a  hit and run –there are no lengths the community won’t go to to expel Etty and separate her from her seven firmly entrenched children.

One of Us is not an easy watch, but there’s no way that it  could be. For all the stability Hasidism offers those who believes, this documentary and so many articles  reveal that it’s not kind to those that wish to step away from it. People that try to speak their truth to those in power are squashed, and this keeps happening–in many religions–time and time again.  One of Us makes this conflict feel draining and damaging, albeit at a fraction of the intensity felt by its subjects. One of Us gives us a peek inside a mostly isolated world, and through it we learn that it has all the same problems.

Stream  One of Us on Netflix

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In the moving Netflix documentary One of Us, 3 ex-Hasidic Jews struggle with secular life

The directors of Jesus Camp show how hard it is to leave an insular religious community.

by Alissa Wilkinson

If you haven’t left an oppressive religious community, peeking inside one may seem novel, a curious poking of your nose into a weird upside-down world where everything mainstream culture takes for granted is swapped out for some alternate reality.

If you have left such a community, though, stories of others who’ve also found their way out induce a mix of panic and relief. Critics try to stay neutral, but I can’t pretend One of Us didn’t sock me in the solar plexus; the documentary about three young people trying to make their way outside of Hasidic Judaism is laden with a familiar sadness and longing.

My own background is much closer to an earlier film from One of Us co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady: the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp , which looked inside a charismatic Christian summer camp for young people that trained them in spiritual warfare (and to an extent, conservative political warfare). That film is hard to watch too.

Whereas Jesus Camp focused on the faithful, though, One of Us takes a different tack in its examination of an insular religious community (and one that’s more impenetrable to outsiders). Instead of talking to the true believers, Ewing and Grady follow the questioners. The film’s revelations are two-pronged: They uncover much about the Hasidic community, while also more broadly exposing how insular groups keep people in and everyone else out. It’s hard to leave, even when staying is impossible too.

One of Us follows three young people who leave the Hasidic Jewish community over three years

The three subjects of One of Us are at different points in their journey away from Hasidic Judaism when we first meet them. Luzer left years earlier, and is living in an RV in a parking lot in Los Angeles while trying to make it as an actor. Ari is still a teenager whose serious questions about his community and his religion stem not just from natural curiosity but also from a traumatic experience of sexual abuse at the hands of an older man.

Both Luzer and Ari are compelling figures, but the film’s most riveting subject is Etty, a mother of seven who has finally broken free of an abusive marriage — but not of the community that enabled it — when we first meet her. The movie’s three-year arc most closely hews to her journey, from her first tentative steps away from a life over which she has no control to a hard-won, grief-tinged freedom that also results in having to surrender her children. Partway through the film, Ewing and Grady finally show her face for the first time; through Etty we encounter Footsteps, a support group for former Hasidic Jews.

Etty isn’t the only one of the subjects whose movement away from the Hasidic community comes with the steep cost of losing her family. Luzer, too, left a family behind when he left. And Ari’s difficulties adjusting to life outside the community leave him casting about for some kind of safety net.

Ewing and Grady stay with Etty, Luzer, and Ari for three years, chronicling their shifting arcs as they navigate life on the outside. Some things feel freeing — eating a cheeseburger, getting a haircut, getting a job, cruising down the freeway singing to the radio. But not everything is like that. There are costs to pay besides losing one’s family. There’s the anxiety that comes along with learning how to navigate a world to which you’ve never been introduced, with a subpar education and no safety net. There’s the panic that can come from learning to live outside the strictures of the laws set by the rabbis, even if you chafed against those laws. There’s the fear that you may be in physical danger whether you stay or go.

What’s clear — and implicit in the film’s title — is that there are stringent lines drawn around what it is to be “us” and what it is to be other, and that crossing that line has extreme consequences. As the film notes, a straight line can be drawn between many of the community’s actions and the staggering losses they sustained during the Holocaust; children are considered to belong to the community, not the parents, and the extreme ways they choose to protect themselves from the outside extends almost to flouting the law, something toward which, Etty claims, the city of New York turns a blind eye. That can allow abuse, in particular, to flourish, and leaves victims with no recourse if reporting it might threaten the community as a whole.

One of Us gives a way of understanding the feeling of leaving, even to the outsider

That Ewing and Grady managed to find their way into this experience with such clarity and compassion is remarkable, and that it’s so relatable for those who aren’t former Hasidic Jews is a testament to their empathy as filmmakers. Etty, Ari, and Luzer get to tell their stories on their own terms; Ewing and Grady silently fill in a few key details via onscreen text, and that’s it. Instead of being on the inside, we’re experiencing what it’s like to leave. And it’s devastating.

Perhaps the most devastating thing we come to feel is how much it hurts to lose the animating sense of purpose that a community like this can offer. Walking away from a world that you’ve come to believe, or even know, is ruled by abusive people also leaves you devoid of a life trajectory you were brought up to see as your own, as a parent and a member of the group. Losing that sense of purpose has vast psychological consequences too: Ari struggles with a cocaine addiction, Luzer speaks of his suicide attempts, and Etty weeps at Footsteps meetings. All of them look for consolation in places that feel even a little familiar — religious services that share some of the trappings of what they’ve left behind. None of them come to a final conclusion about what comes next.

That experience is familiar and devastating to those who’ve had similar experiences of leaving, of no longer being “one of us.” And it’s broadly understandable, too, which makes One of Us a bridge into empathy even for the outsider. It’s hard enough to live when the rug you were used to standing on is pulled out from under you. It’s even harder to deal with when you made the choice to yank it away yourself.

One of Us premieres on Netflix on October 20.

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One of Us is a Fascinating Look at the Challenges of Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism

Despite the absence of overt editorializing, it’s safe to conclude from Jesus Camp and the new One of Us that documentary co-directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing have a visceral aversion to fundamentalist religions, not only because said religions aggressively stifle individualism, but also because they foster a kind of dependence that’s murderously hard to throw off.

Grady and Ewing’s focus in One of Us is the Hasidic branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism as it exists in Brooklyn’s Borough Park and certain towns in upstate New York. More specifically, they profile three youngish people attempting to leave the community with the help of a support group called Footsteps, which is regarded by the Hasidim as God’s enemy incarnate.

The Hasidim are not as a rule camera-friendly, although you can see a relatively sympathetic portrait of them in the recent, fictional film Menashe . They dress like their ancestors and speak largely in Yiddish. They strictly forbid their members to use the internet or enter secular libraries. More important, they do not believe that secular laws should affect them.

Grady and Ewing cut among three ex-Hasidim, although the woman’s story is by far the most powerful. Her name is Etty (last name redacted). She has seven children by a man she says she didn’t choose to marry — the marriage was thrust upon her. She says her husband beat her and her children. In recordings of phone calls he made after she left and was forced to get an order of protection, he tells her that leaving their world is like “taking a gun and shooting your kids and yourself.” She hides her face in the first part of the film and then, all at once, she’s all there, in close-up, having made the decision to come out, as it were. She kept quiet for 12 years, she said. No more.

Anyone who saw the Israeli drama Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem understands the relentless psychological abuse that this community inflicts when a member attempts to leave, especially with children in tow. By bizarre coincidence (or is it by design?), the rabbi who runs Footsteps is named Chani Getter. She is not without empathy for the modern Hasidic movement. Most of its adherents were wiped out in the Holocaust. Now, its leaders have carefully designed a society where attrition is as arduous as possible. Its members — being poor in English and ignorant of the larger society — are poorly equipped to make it in the outside world. And if those members attempt to leave with kids, the law (of New York State, at least) says they have to maintain status quo. In other words, they have to keep everything exactly the same for the kids, though often without money or community support.

One of Us has two other protagonists, a teenager named Ari and a man nearing 30 named Luzer. The latter is trying to make it as an actor in L.A. and has the more wry perspective on his past. He’s out — but not quite. Having grown up speaking Yiddish, though, he still has an accent, and he’s a part of a Yiddish theater troupe. Still, he’s a relative success story next to 18-year-old Ari, whose momentous haircut is filmed by Grady and Ewing. Suddenly, Ari is getting off on eating cheeseburgers. He loves Wikipedia. He says Hasidic schools don’t even teach proper math. But he haunts the old neighborhood, listening to rebbes who tell him how wrong he is. And along with those cheeseburgers comes cocaine. As Grady and Ewing end the film, he’s edging back. I wouldn’t be surprised if by now he has let his old hair grow back.

One of Us is a fascinating title. It recalls, among other things, Freaks , the 1932 Tod Browning movie in which a similar phrase is chanted by circus pinheads, fat ladies, and the rest of the circus menagerie when a “normal” woman marries in. Grady and Ewing use music as scary as in any horror film. They had no interest in making an “objective documentary,” although I doubt the Hasidim would have made themselves available to two women with a camera and their own hair. In such cases, they usually say, “If you want to understand us, read the Torah.”

Fundamentalists rarely feel the need to explain anything to anyone outside their respective tribes. But a test of any religion — Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, Mormon, Scientologist — should be, “How hard is it for an individual who wants to leave?” If the answer is “next to impossible,” then basic human rights are at stake and the world needs to hear from people we can confidently call victims.

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One of Us review – we need more mystery down Much Foreboding Lane

There was plenty of hyperventilating and tearful screaming in this new BBC thriller, but a heavier fog wouldn’t have gone amiss. Plus: new bobbies brick it as they take to the streets in Rookies

I ’ve said it once, but I’m a professional, so I’ll say it again: this is a review. I’m not going to go out of my way to include spoilers about last night’s new BBC drama, One of Us, but there will be some. Because this is a review, from the Latin revidere , meaning to have another look at the thing, albeit in a different medium and possibly over breakfast. Maybe eggs and bacon if you live that kind of life, maybe a black coffee grabbed from Starbucks before you vaulted on to the train, a trenchcoat curling stylishly round your ankles as you went. I just don’t know. But I do know that you should stop reading now if you haven’t yet seen the programme. It’s a drama involving a murder and I’m bound to let drop something you would prefer not to know. Off you go. Bookmark, by all means, but then go. Thus will the greatest happiness to the greatest number of viewers and readers be brought, to which single goal is my being always strung.

Right. To the meat of the thing. One of Us (BBC1) got there rather quicker than I did, deftly painting a happy picture of childhood sweethearts Adam and Grace – she heavily pregnant by the time Adam was recapping their history during his speech at their wedding – before swiftly killing them off on their return from honeymoon. Lee, a knife-wielding crackhead who departs from the flat with a bagful of semi-floggable goods, seems to be the culprit. But as he then deviates from standard murderer behaviour by heading straight for the victims’ parents’ homes – they are still neighbours out in desolate countryside, down Much Foreboding Lane – one must entertain the possibility that all is not quite as it seems.

Nor is it anywhere else. Adam’s brother, Rob, is stalking the man who raped his girlfriend, Anna. Grace’s brother, Jamie, is secretly monitoring messages between Adam’s sister and her ex-husband Sam – who, it is hinted, was a bad ’un. And the victims’ mothers (one, played by Juliet Stevenson , is a recovering alcoholic; the other not) are at loggerheads. Jamie himself has an unspecified past but, his mother insists “he’s got his head straight now”. She also suspects Adam brought about the killings somehow because he and Rob “are their father’s sons! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!”

I should note here that this is the kind of drama where everyone has a lot of secrets and says things such as: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!” There is also – once Lee crashes his stolen car as he zooms inadvisably fast up Much Foreboding Lane in a thunderstorm and they match his face to the one being flashed up on the news as the murder suspect’s – much hyperventilating and tearful screaming.

The families put the badly injured Lee in a cage in a barn. Rob secretly cancels the ambulance and does not call the police as instructed. In the morning, Lee – who has inexplicably been left unattended overnight even by Claire, a nurse who treated his injuries as best she could but then evidently considered her duty and interest at an end – is found with his throat cut. Jamie was seen by Grace’s family’s friend entering the barn but did he do it? We do not know.

Do we care? I am not sure. There really was a lot of hyperventilating and “what are you saying” to encourage characters to spell out things that even the dimmest viewer had understood quite some time ago. The fog of mystery never quite thickened to the necessary proportions, but there’s every chance – especially now the police (headed by a DI dealing drugs to pay for her sick daughter’s operation) are, despite Rob’s machinations, on their way – it will gather more thickly next week and swirl us nicely into autumn.

I am afeard for the rookies in Rookies (ITV, 9pm). This new documentary series follows Surrey police’s latest cohort of newbies through their first months as officers on the street. “I’m probably,” says former dance teacher Tyne, thoughtfully, “bricking it a little bit.” “She’s nervous in a good way,” says her supervisor, firmly. Anthony – a big lad who starts every day with an early morning muscle-building session in the gym (“I like looking at something and knowing I can pick it up”) – is more excited. He helps arrest a man during a domestic violence incident, but he breaks a colleague’s leg in the process. It is “just” bad luck, but a short, sharp reminder nevertheless that most of us spend our days far from the remotest likelihood of such a possibility in the course of our jobs. I’d be bricking it, too. I’m bricking it for them.

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Like 1D, concert docu is clean cut, with tiny bit of edge.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Audiences will learn how the band got together via

The guys, who seem as close as siblings, show how

According to the documentary, the guys are all inc

No violence, although the hordes of excited fangir

The guys often hang out backstage shirtless, and i

Language includes a couple uses of "ass,&quot

The British boy band is itself the "product&q

Parents need to know that One Direction: This Is Us follows the international concert tour of Britain's most popular boy band since the Beatles. The documentary, directed by Academy Award nominee Morgan Spurlock, chronicles how Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry, and Louis went from being a bunch of humble British…

Educational Value

Audiences will learn how the band got together via the British talent show The X-Factor , where the guys are all from, and what it's like for them on each international stop of their first global concert tour.

Positive Messages

The guys, who seem as close as siblings, show how important it is to be grateful for success and to realize that without their fans, they'd still be working in bakeries or singing for just their families.

Positive Role Models

According to the documentary, the guys are all incredibly close mates and are grateful to their fans for turning them into a global pop sensation. They take care of their families -- one scene shows Zayn buying his parents a house -- and seem genuinely surprised by their success and the reach of their fandom.

Violence & Scariness

No violence, although the hordes of excited fangirls who follow 1D can sometimes threaten their personal security.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The guys often hang out backstage shirtless, and in one scene, one of them is shown changing (he's momentarily seen in just his boxer briefs). Several of the band members have visible tattoos, and one of Harry's is shown a few times because it's across his chest. Band members don't discuss their personal romantic relationships, but the language in a couple of their ballads can be overtly romantic and makes references to physical attraction/attributes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes a couple uses of "ass," plus "what the hell," "bloody," "crap," "damn," "oh my God," and "mental."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The British boy band is itself the "product" of the film, and it serves as a powerful promotional tool for their unbelievably popular act. The movie capitalizes on the band's origins and popularity, as well as how much social media and young female fandom is responsible for making them so famous. Producer Simon Cowell and his brainchild The X-Factor are also prominently featured.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that One Direction: This Is Us follows the international concert tour of Britain's most popular boy band since the Beatles. The documentary, directed by Academy Award nominee Morgan Spurlock , chronicles how Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry, and Louis went from being a bunch of humble British/Irish boys who could sing to becoming a near-overnight sensation -- first in the United Kingdom and then the world. There's some mild language (including a couple of uses of "ass"), several glimpses of the One Direction guys shirtless (including camera shots of their tattoos), and some romantic song lyrics. Fans -- particularly tween/teen girls -- will want to see this on the big screen. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Oscar-nominated director Morgan Spurlock ( Super Size Me ) helms ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US, a 3D concert documentary that shows the 1D guys -- Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson -- on their first big international concert tour. In between on-stage sets of 1D performing everywhere from Madison Square Garden to Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Scandinavia, and back home at London's O2 Arena, the film chronicles their rise to superstardom -- from their middle-class beginnings to the fateful day producer Simon Cowell put them together on the British talent show The X Factor .

Is It Any Good?

As Zayn admits in one scene, yeah, One Direction "is a boy band, but it's a cool boy band." The five guys don't try to deny that they were completely manufactured by the music and marketing genius that is Cowell, but they also stand by their actual vocal talents. They're not just good-looking blokes Cowell saw walking down the street: They were already on a talent show, proving they could actually sing. And the guys, seemingly humbled by their remarkable near-overnight success, also acknowledge that they aren't amazing dancers (like Usher and Justin Bieber ) or prolific songwriters (like Harry's ex, Taylor Swift ).

What One Direction is good at is harmonizing and making even the youngest of fans (usually girls) squeal with excitement ... like that other English boy band that started out singing pop ditties. The mates are ridiculously charming, and, despite their tattoos, are clean cut enough to be even a single-digit-aged girl's first celebrity crush. Although the film does explore the guys' home lives, there aren't any huge emotional revelations like in Katy Perry's film . Sure, there's much more to these guys than what's included here (for example, Zayn recently got engaged), but for a starter look at how they went from singing in their showers to selling out stadium arenas, This Is Us is as catchy and surface-cute as the band's songs.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about One Direction's meteoric rise. Do you think concert documentaries should be reserved for artists with years in the business, or does it make sense to capitalize on popularity right away?

Why is One Direction's music so appealing to even very young kids (especially girls)? How do they compare to other acts with tween appeal -- like the Jonas Brothers , Taylor Swift , and Katy Perry ?

Do you think the documentary offers a balanced look at the band members' personal lives and their professional lives? What were you surprised they included? What about 1D do you wish you had learned more about?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 30, 2013
• On DVD or streaming : December 17, 2013
• Cast : Harry Styles , Niall Horan , Zayn Malik
• Director : Morgan Spurlock
• Inclusion Information : Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Sony Pictures
• Genre : Documentary
• Topics : Music and Sing-Along
• Run time : 92 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : mild language
• Last updated : October 8, 2022

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘any one of us’: film review | sxsw 2019.

Fernando Villena's documentary 'Any One of Us' chronicles the efforts of mountain biker Paul Basagoitia to recover from a devastating spinal cord injury.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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As has been demonstrated far too many times, devastating spinal cord injuries can happen to any one of us. Although they’re more likely to occur to people engaged in such vocations as, say, professional mountain biking, like Paul Basagoitia, the subject of Fernando Villena’s documentary receiving its world premiere at SXSW. Uncommonly intimate and detailed in its chronicling of Basagoitia’s efforts at recovery, Any One of Us serves as a vivid reminder that we, too, often take our mobility for granted.  

The film begins with harrowing footage of the biking accident that damaged Basagoitia’s spinal cord, with one doctor commenting afterwards, “There’s a solid chance he’s not going to walk again.” But that doctor underestimated his patient’s determination and grit, as demonstrated in a procession of scenes showcasing Basagoitia’s endlessly hard-working efforts to regain the use of his legs.

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As the documentary follows Basagoitia’s physical progress over weeks and months, it doesn’t shy away from such graphic footage as when he self-catheterizes himself. Later, when he is finally able to urinate on his own, he happily proclaims, “That was the best pee I ever had in my life!” Despite the severity of his condition, he makes remarkable strides during rehab and is able to stand on his own after just three weeks. But it takes him a full year before he can walk, and even then, it’s only with the use of two canes. His loyal girlfriend Nichole is seen providing emotional support throughout the lengthy process.

It’s after Basagoitia’s official rehabilitation program concludes that frustration sets in, as his physical progress slows significantly. He begins exploring other options, including the controversial method of using fetal stem cells. He travels to Tijuana for such treatment, only to find it ineffective. “The only thing the procedure did for me was drain my bank account,” he complains.

Basagoitia, who ultimately regains much of his mobility, is luckier than many. The doc effectively broadens its scope by including testimony from numerous other victims of spinal cord injuries who make their comments directly to the camera. Graphics provide information as to how they were injured, such as “epidural complications during childbirth” and “struck by a falling tree.” Their observations are both moving and funny, ranging from a woman who says that her injury actually improved her sex life (she was more in touch with the parts of her body that worked normally) to a man who explains about his condition, “This is a lifestyle. This is a new way of being.”

Any One of Us ends powerfully with a montage of spinal cord injury victims triumphantly engaging in various forms of physical activity. An offscreen interviewer asks several of them what they would do if they woke up the following day completely healed. “I would run and never stop,” one responds. But it’s another answer that proves far more realistic. “I don’t want to ruin the drama,” another man says sheepishly. “But I have no clue.”

Production company: Red Bull Media House Director: Fernando Villena Producers: Ben Bryan, Nate Nash Executive producers: Scott Bradfield, Charlie Rosene, Paul Basgoitia, Aaron Lutze, Jim Sayer, Werner Brell Director of photography: Anthony Vitale Editor: Rose Corr Composer: Turtle Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Documentary Spotlight)

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Julian, a 14-year old, dies surrounded by the colorful products of a huge supermarket. The film is inspired by a true story and shows the rebellion of the local youth against the bleak life ... Read all Julian, a 14-year old, dies surrounded by the colorful products of a huge supermarket. The film is inspired by a true story and shows the rebellion of the local youth against the bleak life of suburbia. Julian, a 14-year old, dies surrounded by the colorful products of a huge supermarket. The film is inspired by a true story and shows the rebellion of the local youth against the bleak life of suburbia.

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• Trivia This movie is playing on the TV in the opening sequence of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S2E13) in Karla Faye Gideon's apartment. She is eating, cutting her steak with robotic hands, and turns the TV off after hearing someone knocking at her door. The name of the episode is titled "One of Us."

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We are republishing this piece on the homepage in allegiance with a critical American movement that upholds Black voices. For a growing resource list with information on where you can donate, connect with activists, learn more about the protests, and find anti-racism reading,  click here . #BlackLivesMatter.

“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.” - Jeremiah 11:11

In Rodney Ascher ’s  documentary “ Room 237 ,” four theorists attempt to explain the hidden messages in Stanley Kubrick ’s movie “ The Shining .” The ideas about what the movie is about range from the possible to the downright bizarre. One theory fixates on the possibility that “The Shining” was Kubrick’s way of confessing he faked the landing on the moon footage, and another obsesses over the details of the hedge maze. The other two see evidence that the 1980 film indirectly references either the genocide of Native Americans or the Holocaust.

Like “The Shining,” there are a number of different ways to interpret Jordan Peele ’s excellent new horror movie, “Us.” Every image seems to be a clue for what’s about to happen or a stand-in for something outside the main story of a family in danger. Peele’s film, which he directed, wrote and produced, will likely reward audiences on multiple viewings, each visit revealing a new secret, showing you something you missed before in a new light.

“Us” begins back in 1986 with a young girl and her parents wandering through the Santa Cruz boardwalk at night. She separates from them to walk out on the empty beach, watching a foreboding flock of thunderclouds roll in. Her eyes find an attraction just off the main pier, and she walks into what looks like an abandoned hall of mirrors, discovering something deeply terrifying—her doppelgänger. The movie shifts to the present day, with Janelle Monae on the radio as the Wilson family is heading towards their vacation home. The little girl has now grown up to be a woman, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), nervous about returning to that spot on the Santa Cruz beach. Her husband, Gabe ( Winston Duke ), thinks her reaction is overblown, but he tries to make her feel at ease so they can take their kids Zora ( Shahadi Wright Joseph ) and Jason ( Evan Alex ) to the beach and meet up with old friends, the Tylers ( Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker ) and their twin daughters. After one small scare and a few strange coincidences on the beach, the family returns home for a quiet night in, only to have their peace broken by a most unlikely set of trespassers lined up across their driveway: doppelgängers of their family.

Part of the appeal of “Us” is how you interpret what all of this information and images mean. No doubt the movie will give audiences plenty to mull over long after the credits. In the film, the Jeremiah 11:11 Bible verse appears twice before pivotal moments, and there are plenty of other Biblical references to dig into, including an analogy to heaven and hell. Perhaps Jason’s “ Jaws ” shirt is a reference to the rocket sweater the little boy wears in “The Shining” or it could be a warning about the film’s oceanside dangers. In the ‘80s scene, when young Adelaide walks into the mysterious attraction, the sign welcoming her is that of a Native American in a headdress above the name “Shaman Vision Quest.” When the family returns to the beach, the sign has been replaced with a more PC-friendly sign bearing a wizard advertising it as “Merlin’s Enchanted Forest,” a bandaid solution to hiding the racist exterior and the horror inside its halls.  

As he did with “ Get Out ,” Peele pays significant tribute to the films that have influenced him in “Us.” Though this time, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus. As I spoke with others who saw the movie, we focused on different titles that stood out to us. For me, “The Shining” looked to be the film that received the most nods in “Us,” including an overhead shot of the Wilson family driving through hilly forests to their vacation home, much like the Torrance family does on the way to the Overlook Hotel. There’s also a reference to “The Shining” twins, a few architectural and cinematography similarities and, in one shot, Nyong’o charges the camera with a weapon much like Jack Nicholson menacingly drags along an ax in a chase. However, “Us” is not just a love letter to one horror movie. Peele also pays tribute to Brian De Palma with a split diopter shot that places both Adelaide and her doppelgänger in equal focus for the first time in the movie. There’s also a tip of the hat to Darren Aronofsky ’s “ Black Swan ” in terms of dueling balletic styles and a gorgeously choreographed fight scene that looks like a combative pas de deux.

This delightfully deranged home invasion-family horror film works because Peele not only knows how to tell his story, he assembled an incredible cast to play two roles. The Wilsons are a picture of an all-American family: a family of four that looks to be middle class, with college-educated (Gabe is wearing a Howard University sweater) parents doting on their two children. Their doppelgängers may look like them and be tied to them in some way, but their lives are inverses of each other, and their existence has been one of limits and misery. It’s one of the most poignant analogies of class in America to come out in a studio film in recent memory. For the actors, it’s a chance to play two extremes, one of intense normality and the other of wretched evil. In “Us,” Duke shows off his comedic strengths as the dorky father who often embarrasses his kids, and his doppelgänger is a frighting wall of violence with little to say other than grunts and fighting his adversary. If Nyong’o doesn’t get some professional recognition for her performances here, I will be very disappointed. As Adelaide, she’s fearful, trying to keep some traumatic memories at bay but putting on a brave face for her family. To play her character’s opposite, Nyong’o adopts a graceful, confident movement for her doppelgänger, sliding into the family’s home with scissors at the ready. The doppelgänger looks wide-eyed and maliciously curious as if she’s looking for new ways to terrorize this family. She whispers in a raspy but sinister voice that would make many people jump and run away.

A suspenseful story and marvelous cast need a great crew to make the film a home run, and “Us” is not short on talent. “ It Follows ” cinematographer Mike Gioulakis creates unsettling images in mundane spaces, like how a strange family standing at a driveway isn’t necessarily scary, but when it’s eerily dark out, they’re backlit so that their faces go unseen and the four bodies are standing at a higher elevation from our heroes, so it looks like evil is swooping in from above. Kym Barrett ’s costume designs not only supply the doppelgängers’ nefarious looking red jumpsuits but also the normal, comfy clothes the Wilsons and Tylers wear on vacation. Michael Abels , who also composed the score for “Get Out,” and the ominous notes from the sound design team lay the groundwork for nerve-wracking sequences.

Jordan Peele isn’t the next Kubrick, M. Night Shyamalan, Alfred Hitchcock or Steven Spielberg . He’s his own director, with a vision that melds comedy, horror and social commentary. And he has a visual style that’s luminous, playful and delightfully unnerving. Peele uses an alternate cinematic language to Kubrick, seems more comfortable at teasing his story’s twists throughout the narrative unlike Shyamalan, uses suspense differently than Hitchcock, and possesses the comedic timing Spielberg never had. “Us” is another thrilling exploration of the past and oppression this country is still too afraid to bring up. Peele wants us to talk, and he’s given audiences the material to think, to feel our way through some of the darker sides of the human condition and the American experience.

This review was originally filed from the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 9, 2019.

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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Film Credits

Rated R for violence/terror, and language.

120 minutes

Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide Wilson

Winston Duke as Gabriel "Gabe" Wilson

Evan Alex as Jason Wilson

Shahadi Wright Joseph as Zora Wilson

Elisabeth Moss as Mrs. Tyler

Tim Heidecker as Mr. Tyler

Kara Hayward as Nancy

• Jordan Peele

Cinematographer

• Mike Gioulakis
• Nicholas Monsour
• Michael Abels

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