Get Out

Get Out (2017)

99% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 301 reviews)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Jordan Peele

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, 

From: Universal/Blumhouse

Or: why in the hell did I not watch the movie on March 3, 2017? What a stupid SOB I am:

Yes, I am the last one to have seen this movie. I have no good explanation for why I did not see this February of 2017; plenty of reliable people gave it sterling reviews and the fact that a horror movie with some comedic elements has a decent chance at winning Best Picture at the Oscars... shame on me, I'll be honest here; shame on me. Thankfully this did live up to the great hype and despite not going into the film blind concerning story beats, the movie is still effectual.

By now everyone should know the general plot of how a white girl brings her black boyfriend to meet her family and things go really wrong. People should also know that the movie skewers “white liberal racism” and it demonstrates two things I've actually experienced while hanging out with people I know (I am a white man, for the record)... white people acting strangely around black people, and whites being condescending in appealing to blacks, whether it be via usage of slang, making comments such as “If Obama could have ran for a third time, I'd definitely vote for him again.”, or what have you. I cannot fully know what it's like to be black and have to deal with all sorts of behavior from whites, whether it be racial insults, stereotypes, having their culture appropriated-I am looking at pigs like Miley Cyrus-etc.

There is a jump scare or two (as this is from Blumhose, I know they couldn't help themselves) but otherwise this isn't a traditional horror movie by modern standards; this is not full of loud noises and demons jumped at the camera. Rather, it makes you more and more uncomfortable; you don't have to be black like our lead (Chris) to feel more and more uneasy with the way that his girlfriend's parents, friends, and servants act. There various unsettling bits I won't spoil and even if the big reveal is something that is highly improbable, you go with it.

The cast as a whole does a solid job but the highlights were LilRel Howery as Rod, the TSA agent you occasionally see that is Chris's best friend and is a voice of reason/audience surrogate, & Chris himself; what a masterful job by Daniel Kaluuya. And what a masterful job Jordan Peele did in his feature film directorial debut. He was assured and confident behind the camera; viewing the film you'd assume it was from someone who was far more experienced in that field.

To me it'd be incredible to have Jason Blum, Oscar-winning producer; I am delighted this was as much a delight as it has been for millions of people. This was the final movie in a 5 movie all day marathon me and a few hundred random people experienced... even after the long day people loved Rod and the ending got a very enthusiastic response. This winning Best Picture would be a marvelous story.