Review of Get Out (2017) by Lane Z — 01 Aug 2017

I know I am a little late to the party, but I just had to see what all the fuss was about for Get Out, Jordan Peele's debut on the silver screen. I wish someone would have goaded me into watching this sooner because it was a refreshing delight to see a smart and surprisingly entertaining take on social taboos in the form of a thriller/horror/comedy.

Peele seemed out to subvert expectations. It's almost as if the audience knew going in exactly what was going to happen throughout the remainder of the film from the first scene, but even though we see almost everything coming, the routes Peele leads us down take us along paths filled with laughs, awkwardness, disgust, and elation. In Peele's commentary during the alternate ending, he talks about making this movie during Obama's administration, but then things flipped when Get Out actually arrived in theaters. One of the characters played by Stephen Root, a blind older man, actually has one of the lines of the film that perfectly helps the audience understand why anything in Get Out is actually happening. He can't see color, therefore we as an audience are expected to believe his words can land with a heavier blow seeing as how ignorant all the other white people are around this one black man.

There is a simmering anger lying in this film, and it's seen through the eyes of our protagonist Chris played by Daniel Kaluuya. He was also great in Black Mirror. His representation of the black man in a white society gives everyone a glimpse into social cues and ticks black people are cognizant of and those white people never even think twice about.

Most of the uncomfortableness comes from the pristine white family played by Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, and Allison Williams. Peele pretty much spells it out for us that something is wrong but to the extent we really can't understand until those final scenes play out.

Peele's sketch-comedy background dealing with racism, social taboo, and other nuanced themes really helped make Get Out a joy to watch. There's something to be said when a director (and first time at that) can take such a controversial and serious topic like racism and turn it into something we can laugh and joke about without getting all bent out of shape on 'political correctness'. Get Out turned left when it should have turned right.