A few weeks ago Jessica sent me a trailer to a movie, saying we should go check it out. This was exciting, because although she is happy to go to movies with me all the time, it's rare that she finds one she specifically wants to go out of her way to see, so I was pumped to see what it was. Turns out, it was GET OUT. Good eye, Jessica.
I had heard Jordan Peele was making a horror movie, and knew it was called GET OUT, but I didn't know anything about the premise and hadn't seen the trailer yet. I was already sold before I saw the trailer, but even more sold that this would be something we'd have to see opening night once I did see the trailer.
So we went to the Century 16, which has upgraded to sweet reclining seats with lots of legroom, and had a nice date night.
In the intervening weeks pretty much everyone now knows that GET OUT is destined to be a classic. Everyone who has seen it loves it, it's well reviewed and it's making bank. On top of that, it's actually about something, which is nice. Turns out you can have a total crowd pleaser with a message. Who knew?
GET OUT stars Daniel Kaluuya as a young photographer about to visit his new girlfriend's (Allison Williams) parents for the weekend. This will be the first time they've met, which is nerve wrecking for anyone, but even worse in this case because his girlfriend has neglected to warn her upper-class white family that her boyfriend is black. It's okay, she says – they're not racist.
Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener play the parents in question, a neurologist and his psychiatrist wife, who offers to hypnotize Kaluuya to get him over his smoking habit. They're immediately apologetic for how bad it must look that they have black help (Betty Gabriel as the maid and Marcus Henderson as the groundskeeper) and things are a little weird and uncomfortable, but nothing that can't be written off as out-of-touch, unintentional, misguided, tone deaf, entitled, privileged racism. You know, the liberal kind.
As the weekend progresses, it turns out it's time for a big annual party Williams' parents host, and the more creepy white people who show up, the more uncomfortable Kaluuya becomes, and the more overt the passive-aggressive racism becomes. The guests seem patronizingly fascinated by Kaluuya, and the only other black guest in attendance (LaKeith Stanfield) seems strangely zombie-fied, and freaks out when Kaluuya shoots him with a flash camera. As an audience we know something's up, because we've seen the trailer, and Kaluuya is ready to get out as well, though not quite convinced he's in a horror movie, yet. To him, this is just white people being shitty, again.
There is one guy who is easily convinced this is a horror flick, though, and that's Kaluuya's best buddy, a TSA agent played by Lil Rel Howery. He's the comic relief and he steals every scene he's in. From early on he suspects trouble, but later becomes increasingly convinced that something evil's afoot, and eventually becomes the only guy who could possibly save his friend, if his friend can't save himself.
I'd say Howery was the best part of the movie, but I don't want to sell everything else short. He was my favorite part, for sure, but that's just a testament to how well written and constructed this movie is. It's such a slow burn filled with dread that once Howery's scenes comes along it's such a series of crowd pleasing moments it's hard not to love. It's one of those things where you're loving the movie for how well it has "played" you – you're not distracted by anything. The script is solid, the editing's solid, the cinematography is beautiful, the acting is great. This is a text book example of how all you have to do to please a crowd is to make a great film. Hitchcock and Spielberg would be proud.
I won't give the ending away or reveal what these people are up to, but I will say it's a very satisfying and not entirely expected conclusion. I went into this movie knowing it would be a horror satire about racism, but didn't know exactly HOW it would be about racism. Again, without giving too much away, I was surprised that the ending didn't double down on the shock value or exploitation value of racism. Instead, it followed logically from what we've seen before, down the insidious path of "liberal" racism, I guess you could call it, which is something much of the audience of this movie needs to see, something the main character in the movie sees all the time. It's a major strength of this movie but also sad to note that this is just about the first movie, or at least the first mainstream movie, to even feature the point of view of this kind of main character.
From a writing perspective I admire Peele's simultaneous craft and willingness to follow a premise from beginning to end. It's thrilling to see a far out premise fully exploited and crafted into a wonderful story when most movies either feature a boring premise, or a fascinating one that gets immediately discarded. Peele has it both ways: he breaks original ground and honors what makes a great story.
Halfway through this movie I had two thoughts. The first was, "I'll totally go see this movie again." The second was, "I know it's early in the year, but how can this NOT be on my top 10 list for 2017?" That's how good it was.
Here's another example of how good it was: I put off writing this because I didn't feel like I could do it justice. How can you talk about the issues raised in this film AND what a great film it is from an artistic and entertainment standpoint, and still do it justice? Now that I've finally written, I still don't think I've done it justice, so I guess you'll just have to go out and see it. Maybe twice.
I had heard Jordan Peele was making a horror movie, and knew it was called GET OUT, but I didn't know anything about the premise and hadn't seen the trailer yet. I was already sold before I saw the trailer, but even more sold that this would be something we'd have to see opening night once I did see the trailer.
So we went to the Century 16, which has upgraded to sweet reclining seats with lots of legroom, and had a nice date night.
In the intervening weeks pretty much everyone now knows that GET OUT is destined to be a classic. Everyone who has seen it loves it, it's well reviewed and it's making bank. On top of that, it's actually about something, which is nice. Turns out you can have a total crowd pleaser with a message. Who knew?
GET OUT stars Daniel Kaluuya as a young photographer about to visit his new girlfriend's (Allison Williams) parents for the weekend. This will be the first time they've met, which is nerve wrecking for anyone, but even worse in this case because his girlfriend has neglected to warn her upper-class white family that her boyfriend is black. It's okay, she says – they're not racist.
Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener play the parents in question, a neurologist and his psychiatrist wife, who offers to hypnotize Kaluuya to get him over his smoking habit. They're immediately apologetic for how bad it must look that they have black help (Betty Gabriel as the maid and Marcus Henderson as the groundskeeper) and things are a little weird and uncomfortable, but nothing that can't be written off as out-of-touch, unintentional, misguided, tone deaf, entitled, privileged racism. You know, the liberal kind.
As the weekend progresses, it turns out it's time for a big annual party Williams' parents host, and the more creepy white people who show up, the more uncomfortable Kaluuya becomes, and the more overt the passive-aggressive racism becomes. The guests seem patronizingly fascinated by Kaluuya, and the only other black guest in attendance (LaKeith Stanfield) seems strangely zombie-fied, and freaks out when Kaluuya shoots him with a flash camera. As an audience we know something's up, because we've seen the trailer, and Kaluuya is ready to get out as well, though not quite convinced he's in a horror movie, yet. To him, this is just white people being shitty, again.
There is one guy who is easily convinced this is a horror flick, though, and that's Kaluuya's best buddy, a TSA agent played by Lil Rel Howery. He's the comic relief and he steals every scene he's in. From early on he suspects trouble, but later becomes increasingly convinced that something evil's afoot, and eventually becomes the only guy who could possibly save his friend, if his friend can't save himself.
I'd say Howery was the best part of the movie, but I don't want to sell everything else short. He was my favorite part, for sure, but that's just a testament to how well written and constructed this movie is. It's such a slow burn filled with dread that once Howery's scenes comes along it's such a series of crowd pleasing moments it's hard not to love. It's one of those things where you're loving the movie for how well it has "played" you – you're not distracted by anything. The script is solid, the editing's solid, the cinematography is beautiful, the acting is great. This is a text book example of how all you have to do to please a crowd is to make a great film. Hitchcock and Spielberg would be proud.
I won't give the ending away or reveal what these people are up to, but I will say it's a very satisfying and not entirely expected conclusion. I went into this movie knowing it would be a horror satire about racism, but didn't know exactly HOW it would be about racism. Again, without giving too much away, I was surprised that the ending didn't double down on the shock value or exploitation value of racism. Instead, it followed logically from what we've seen before, down the insidious path of "liberal" racism, I guess you could call it, which is something much of the audience of this movie needs to see, something the main character in the movie sees all the time. It's a major strength of this movie but also sad to note that this is just about the first movie, or at least the first mainstream movie, to even feature the point of view of this kind of main character.
From a writing perspective I admire Peele's simultaneous craft and willingness to follow a premise from beginning to end. It's thrilling to see a far out premise fully exploited and crafted into a wonderful story when most movies either feature a boring premise, or a fascinating one that gets immediately discarded. Peele has it both ways: he breaks original ground and honors what makes a great story.
Halfway through this movie I had two thoughts. The first was, "I'll totally go see this movie again." The second was, "I know it's early in the year, but how can this NOT be on my top 10 list for 2017?" That's how good it was.
Here's another example of how good it was: I put off writing this because I didn't feel like I could do it justice. How can you talk about the issues raised in this film AND what a great film it is from an artistic and entertainment standpoint, and still do it justice? Now that I've finally written, I still don't think I've done it justice, so I guess you'll just have to go out and see it. Maybe twice.
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