Review of Get Out (2017) by Johnny T — 16 Jul 2017

Jordan Peele's directorial debut may not be what fans were expecting from the comedian, but it's a clever and confident genre mashup that expertly blends suspense and humor with biting social commentary on race relations. This scathing satire is the perfect horror film for the post-Obama era, taking a razor-sharp scalpel to white liberal attitudes on race. Peele succeeds where sometimes even more experienced filmmakers fail: He's made an agile entertainment whose social and cultural observations are woven so tightly into the fabric that you're laughing even as you're thinking, and vice-versa. What makes Get Out more than just a slam-bang scarefest is that, in its own darkly satiric way, it is also a movie about racial paranoia that captures the zeitgeist in ways that many more "prestigious" movies don't. I think studios need to take more chances on films like this. Films that try to be different and push boundaries. Get Out is bold and daring and most importantly, unique. A marvel of tightly controlled pacing, off-kilter visuals, and rich atmosphere, Peele's film owes a good deal of its exquisite shocks to the claustrophobic terrors of Rosemary's Baby and the manicured dread of Bryan Forbes's The Stepford Wives. Funny, scary, and thought-provoking, Get Out seamlessly weaves its trenchant social critiques into a brilliantly effective and entertaining horror/comedy thrill ride.

VERDICT: "High-Quality Stuff" - [Positive Reaction] This is a rating to a movie I view as very entertaining and well made, and definitely worth paying the full price at a theatre to see or own on DVD. It is not perfect, but it is definitely excellent. (Films that are rated 3.5 or 4 stars).