Get Out (2017)
Nearly all of this is due to Jordan Peele’s writing and
direction. This guy amazed me in how he was able to move into a completely
opposite genre from his prior comedy work and make his first movie and not miss
a single beat. There is so much tension and eeriness surrounding the first and
second acts that play beautifully into the third act that I swear Hitchcock or
Kubrick must have been responsible. Peele has a way of using somewhat
unconventional shots in cool ways – in particular when Chris (the film’s
protagonist) arrives at his girlfriend Rose’s house, using a wide shot the whole
time instead of cutting close to see Chris meet her parents for the very first
time. Because it doesn’t show their reaction, it sets a bit of an unsettling
tone for the rest of the film. Peele does a great job with ensuring that his
timing on his scares is right too – a piece of evidence that comedy can
translate into horror to some degree.
All of this would be enough to make Get Out a good
horror film, but what takes the movie to another level is Peele’s screenplay
and its subtext. It deals with racial issues as one might expect for a horror
film starring a black man, but that is where my expectations were stopped dead
in their tracks. The racist villains of the film are not white supremacists but
middle- to upper-class liberals – people that, according to the film, would
have voted for Obama a third time if they could, donate to the ACLU, and shop
at Trader Joe’s. These are not on the surface bad people, but in Get Out
there is a scene at a party where Chris is meeting all of Rose’s family friends
where it makes the viewer feel like Chris does – awkward, pandered to, and
uncomfortable. They are so incredibly ignorant of what they are doing, and they’re
doing it completely unintentionally; but that does not lessen the blow of what
this mindset leads them to do in the film’s conclusion.
The secret to making this film work is its characters and
the performances behind them. Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris excels in every scene he
was in, but the best moments come in the aforementioned party scene. I felt his
discomfort; I felt his anxiety; I felt every pandering remark that was made in
his direction hit me like a knife. It’s a more terrifying experience than most
of the rest of the film, and his performance makes the film’s points about
racism hit that much harder. All of Rose’s family – played by Allison Williams,
Bradley Whitford, and Catherine Keener – are not just caricatures of the
stereotypes they fit but have some real depth. The standout, though, is Chris’s
friend Rod, a TSA officer played by Lil Rel Howard. He is this film’s primary
source of comic relief, but instead of becoming grating he ends up being one of
the most enjoyable parts of the film. It doesn’t feel like Rod is ever being
forced as a character to be funny; instead, he seems like he would act this way
in the situation in which he is put, and that is why his comedy works so, so
well.
Get Out transcends its genre. It does this not just
in its old-school style but in its shaming of unintentional pandering to those
of another race, and for that reason it both thrilled and provoked thought in
me. It made me confront my belief that I am not a racist person in any way and
forced me to see another perspective so that I might change the way I act. There
hasn’t been a film that has done this to me in such a poignant way before, and
I hope that this film will have the same staying effect on you. I know that it
will be entertaining, but if you investigate beyond its surface it can be so
much more than just a horror flick.
My recommendation: Definitely, definitely, definitely see
it.
My grade: 97/100
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