Daniel Kaluuya (Universal Pictures)
With great buzz and nearly universal acclaim, critics may worry about overselling Get Out. But the film truly is one of the funniest comedies, scariest horror films, and most assured cinematic debuts in recent memory.
Key & Peele‘s Jordan Peele wrote and directed this lean, tightly coiled film about a young, black photographer named Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) who embarks on a weekend trip with his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). They’re off to see her parents, Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford), though Chris’ best friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery) strongly advises against it.
The movie seems to set up a Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner rom-com, but the execution is more like Dave Chappelle remaking The Wicker Man.
Watching this film with a mixed race audience, it’s clear that there are two movies unfolding at once. For the non-POC filmgoers, Get Out is a sharp, effective horror thriller with comforting laughter to offset expertly timed jump scares. This is a movie made by a hardcore horror enthusiast gleefully playing within the tricks of the trade while using a career of comedy pacing to make the terror go down smooth.
But for black audiences, horror tropes are fun pauses between some of the queasiest depictions of racial discomfort captured on screen. The psychological fright that gives Get Out so much heft is rooted in leveraging genre expectations against smartly observed bits of realistic awkwardness and social dread. Through some of the film’s more stomach churning sequences, this reviewer found himself scanning the dark auditorium for a fellow black face that might be equally taken aback by the startling realness of it all.
The film’s multi-layered approach works thanks to its auteur. It’s easy to compare Jordan Peele’s directorial debut to Donald Glover’s recent efforts with FX’s Atlanta, which shares a kinship with this film. But it also resonates with another black, nerdy comedian who transitioned to film making; in the films of Richard Ayoade (Submarine and The Double) comedy and horror are bound together, demonstrating that laughter and screams can be elicited through similar means.
Get Out is well cast, particularly with Atlanta vet Keith Stanfield in a Scream-esque cameo role, but especially with the Armitages. If you can cast a whiter family than Marnie from Girls, Josh Lyman from The West Wing and Catherine Keener, then more power to you.
Most films that concern themselves with thorny sociopolitical subject matter couch their themes in a kind of cinéma vérité aimed at awards season gravitas and the acceptance of the art house intelligentsia. But Get Out feels so special because it’s a satire functioning as a blood pumping, ultimately satisfying genre exercise. Black audiences are always subjected to dour dramas reinforcing painful truths that we’re already reminded by in everyday life. Get Out finds a way to explore the same strife and the shared experiences through an exciting and entertaining lens.
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Get Out
Written & Directed by Jordan Peele
Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Keith Stanfield and Bradley Whitford
Rated R for violence, bloody images, and language including sexual references
103 minutes
Opens today at a theater near you.
