Get Out - Review

Get Out

Jordan Peele, one part of the comic duo of Key and Peele previously of the Comedy Central Network, takes his stab at blending his cutting edge comic talented mind with a turn at telling a dramatic feature film story in his directorial debut simply titled “Get Out”.

“Get Out” as a plot backdrop is about a young African-American named Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, "Sicario")  who is having a meaningful and loving relationship with an affluent White Woman named Rose (Allison Williams, HBO "Girls"). Rose has convinced Chris he has reached the “meet-the-parents milestone” of dating with her inviting him for a weekend getaway at her parent’s upstate home with her mother named Missy (Catherine Keener, "Captain Phillips") and Dean (Bradley Whitford, NBC "The West Wing"). 

Upon his arrival at her parents estate, Chris feels out of place by the family’s subtle, but obvious over accommodating manner towards him in every way which he attributes to an uneasiness on their part with their daughter’s interracial relationship with him. But as the weekend progresses with the arrival of prominent affluent locals arriving to the estate for a social evening gathering, Chris uneasiness becomes more acute as he begins to become more increasingly aware of the disturbing behaviors by those who work at the estate, which results in Chris discovering the real truth. Something that he could have never imagined…….EVER!!!!!

“Get Out” is a highly imaginative, smart and well written piece of film making. With shades of Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese, the film showcases the real strength of this effort through Peele’s directing, which I found to be very mature in its mannered approach of simply being patient in letting the story tell itself; allowing it to unravel slowly under its own building tense weight. That along with the use of long silences and timely unnerving syncopated music, the film slowly creates real ever increasing palpable tension throughout the entire film without any faux melodramatic gimmicks. But it is also has its moments of honest humor, mostly through the filter of a friend of Chris’s named “Rod” who works for the TSA. “Rods” work of profiling people at airports gives him a slight edge in always being overly suspicious of any slight behavior. His character gives the overall film just the right amount in dosage the needed disengaging comedy and laughter relief at just the right time.

Clearly Director Peele draws from two films and two historical periods in human history. First the 1967 landmark Sidney Poitier film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” a story about a young prominent African American Doctor and an affluent White woman and the racial lines that become unhinged when the daughter introduces him as her fiancé.  The second film is the 1975 provocative effort titled “The Stepford Wives” which tells the story of a woman named Joanna Eberhart who has come to the quaint little town of Stepford, Connecticut, but soon discovers there lies a sinister truth in the all too perfect behavior of the female residents. The two historical periods involves the behind the scenes sinister behaviors of Nazi Germany during World War 2 and the likewise sinister behaviors leading up to the American Civil War. Collectively Peele takes these four prominent pieces mashes them together to tell a brilliantly entertaining satirical story about the cultural tensions that exist between races in both suspicious directions. Not so much on the obvious surface where we typically associated people using hurtful words towards one another, but far more stealthy in that area of our subconciousness that lies underneath, which causes the uneasy psychobiological nervous by one person towards another person simply because of their race.

“Get Out” is at times memorable, horrifying, violent, sharply witty, out loud  funny, both subtle and conspicuous, stereotyping, racially charged, sinister, complex, thrilling, filled with fury and definitely creepy.

Peele in my mind has created as far as first time directing debuts goes a masterpiece in first time story telling that will have you saying under your breath every 5 minutes ………….. “What the “F#@K?..........“What the“F#@K?........ “What the “F#@K?

So, get out of your house and see the smart horror flick “Get Out” in the theaters now………….so you can say as I did…………….. “What the “F#@K?

4.00 Stars