Get Out is the directorial debut of
acclaimed comedian Jordan Peele. This is a horror/thriller about a mixed race
couple going to meet the girl’s white family out in the country where
mysterious disturbing things seem to be afoot. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya,
Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Macus
Henderson, Betty Gabriel, and LilRel Howery. I thought this was a solid first
outing and a generally decent thriller with some interesting concepts at play.
What
I think Get Out does really well is
smartly establishing a story that is extremely internally consistent and slowly
builds real tension throughout the film. Peele deserves a lot of credit for his
directorial work on this project and shows tremendous promise in terms of his
technical horror filmmaking which was almost totally on point. Everything in
the film builds to something else and when it takes a few twists you understand
where those came from and appreciate them all for what they are.
I
also thought the film succeeded on the backs of stellar performances. Kaluuya
is really solid throughout the movie and has to carry almost all the weight of
the feature. Betty Gabriel and Allison Williams both gave incredibly striking
performances that captivated me through the end of the film. Whitford and
Keener, similarly deliver performances that are so unique and nefarious that
you can’t help but wonder about them. Finally, LilRel Howery plays a character
dealing with primarily comedic relief throughout the film and does so
brilliantly. He had me rolling in laughter in all the right ways and managed to
loosen the film just enough that it never became overwhelming but also never
released earned tension from the primary storyline.
The
last positive I want to discuss is how I think this is an effective pastiche of
classic horror films. Peele has said (and clearly based on what was on screen)
that he took influences from many famous horror films which was eminently
apparent throughout. The ability to smartly determine which horror films and
horror elements work best together to depict his story was impressively well
done and the films ability to recall memories and nostalgia for those things
positively impacted me as a viewer.
Unlike
many reviewers, and many of my personal friends for that matter, I think that Get Out is far from perfect. For
starters, I found the film to be pretty basic and self-explanatory in where it
was going and how it was going to get there. Sure, it took some twists that I
couldn’t have pointed to at the outset, but the general principal elements were
all expected to a tee in my mind. Further, I thought that the way the film
concludes was a bit underwhelming. Peele manages to keep your attention
throughout the finish and played audiences like his instrument with something
at the very end of the film but outside of those elements the ending was a bit
over-the-top especially in comparison to the slowly mounting tension being
assembled up to that point. If you compared this to another recent slow
building horror/thriller The Invitation
you can see the difference where that film releases its tension in fits and
spurts whereas Get Out is one
continuous swipe making it feel less effective. Finally, I thought the score
was a little overbearing and didn’t work for me on the whole.
The
last thing that really merits discussion in a review of this film is its
message. Normally I don’t get into this (especially in genre filmmaking)
because we tend to read too far into things distorting what is there and
growing an improper impression. Here, the filmmakers and actors have
conscientiously been bringing up the films message in every junket interview
and almost every exceedingly positive review has cited the message as
intelligent and one that merits discussion, so I would feel remised if I didn’t
bring it up. After watching the movie, I didn’t find an intelligent message. In
fact, I think I came up with a pretty negative message. It wasn’t until I
listened to a couple interviews with Jordan Peele that I figured out exactly
what he was trying to say. The reason why I missed it was because what his
social message is is intuitively obvious. All the attempts I made at finding an
intelligent message led to dead ends because I was looking too far into it. I
think my experience in dealing with this film as social commentary exemplifies
why film fans and critics should be more cautious in imputing messages about
the world we live in onto films because we might totally miss the point the
author is trying to make. I think this film works apart from its social satire
and I don’t think that such satire enhanced the film in the slightest.
Overall
I enjoyed Get Out and I thought it
was an effective, tension filled thriller with solid performances. At times I
found the film overly simple and the ending and the score failed to impress me.
I think this is definitely a film worth checking out and is the second solid
outing from Blumhouse this year after the success of Split in January.
Ryan’s Score: 7/10
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