It Has Something to Say
Get Out is Jordan Peele's (Of Key & Peele and Madtv fame) directorial debut and jesus christ, he is not playing around. Get Out is the best (and most original) movie to come out this year, and it's amazing that this is Peele's first film, and not his fifth.
Basic premise of Get Out is that Chris, played by Daniel Kaluuya, is meeting his white GF's parents for the first time. He has reservations, especially given his gf hasn't told her parents that he's black and the idea of being the only black person (so he thinks) in a white suburb makes him uneasy, but he's expecting run of the mill racial awkwardness. However when he arrives he notices that things seem off, and potentially dangerous with the suburban locals and the few other black people he meets. Add in mental breakdowns, hypnosis and Chris's friend who figure out the whole mystery from miles away, and you got a already solid base for a satirical horror film. But Peele as a writer-director goes beyond solid. A lesser, but still passable movie would have made the the white people in the town secretly loud and out racists or something like that, because that is what Hollywood wants you to associate with racism. But Peele's perspective in the film is more personal i.e. it focuses on the more implicit forms of racism, which ultimately makes the feeling of the film more sinister and Freudian. If Chris got to the town and everyone was wearing a Trump hat, there would be no reason for him to logically stay. Rather, the racism and tension of the film comes from people "complimenting" on how good his genetic make-up is, how they love black people and black culture, how beautiful mixed babies will look, and just the general uneasiness of being put of place. The kind of implicit racism where you can't just run from, but you gotta just smile and push through. So when the big reveal of "something is really messed up here" finally arrives, the film built up tension without over-playing its hand.
Technically the film is great. Key & Peele always had a distinct, above average for what it was, look but it good to see that it wasn't a fluke. Peele has an eye knack for visual, aesthetically pleasing filmmaking that you'd expect from a veteran filmmaker. I'm excited to see what Peele comes up with next
