Get Out Review – Welcome to the Family

<p>If Jordan Peele&&num;8217&semi;s time as co-creator of <em>Key &amp&semi; Peele <&sol;em>has proven anything&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s that he has a firm grasp on intelligent comedy&period; His debut film <em>Get Out <&sol;em>just further goes to show that he has the tightest grasp on blending comedy with a scathing social critique&period; Evident in his shorts &lpar;especially the horror sketches common in <em>Key &amp&semi; Peele<&sol;em>&rpar; Peele knows how to walk the fine line between subversive comedy and horror&period; <em>Get Out <&sol;em>is what happens when Peele takes what could have just been funny and turns it into something truly terrifying&period; As race relations continue to boil in real life&comma; <em>Get Out <&sol;em>aims to highlight the tension through a more positive&comma; but ultimately more creepy perspective&period; And guess what&quest; It does it almost perfectly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When Chris &lpar;Daniel Kaluuya&rpar;&comma; an African American man&comma; visits his Caucasian girlfriend Rose&&num;8217&semi;s &lpar;Allison Williams&rpar;&comma; family for the weekend&comma; he expects the worst&period; Except his version of the worst is that her white family will not approve of their daughter&&num;8217&semi;s boyfriend being black&period; <em>Get Out <&sol;em>is beyond simple racism&period; Chris has no idea how accepting Rose&&num;8217&semi;s family will be&&num;8211&semi;and that&&num;8217&semi;s what makes the film creepy&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s an underlying level of racism that isn&&num;8217&semi;t initially obvious&period; Rose&&num;8217&semi;s Dad&comma; played by Bradley Whitford&comma; starts talking in slang the moment Chris shows up&comma; and Rose&&num;8217&semi;s Mom &lpar;Catherine Keener&rpar;&comma; is a hypnotist that is keen on trying to rid Chris of his addiction to cigarettes&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re helpful and want to be friendly with Chris&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is reminiscent of <em>The Stepford Wives<&sol;em> and the hospitality that the suburban thriller emits which never lets up on the creep factor and holds its darkest secrets close to its chest&period; In fact&comma; <em>Get Out <&sol;em>only really begins the uncomfortable tension when Chris sees two house servants at the family estate&comma; both of which are black and seem to always stare at him with a cold look&period; Issues of slavery and racism are quickly alleviated by the family as &&num;8220&semi;not really what it looks like&&num;8221&semi;&period; In fact&comma; looks are deceiving is also a fair consensus to come out of the film with for various reasons&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120505" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120505" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120505" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;03130556&sol;GetOut&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Get Out" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120505" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Get Out&comma; Blumhouse Productions&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The movie opens with a scene of tension that serves as an excellent introduction to the tone of the film&comma; but compounded with an early jump scare&period; <em>Get Out <&sol;em>feels like it might just be the typical thriller everyone would expect&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s once Chris gets to the family house that the tone begins to land smoothly&period; It wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be enough for the film to just be tense though and while there is an unnerving score to create a matching soundscape&comma; it is the stunning use of silence that truly gets under the skin&period; Combined with sounds seeping into Chris&&num;8217&semi;s head&comma; the film is a marvel just to listen to&comma; let alone watch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Here is where <em>Get Out <&sol;em>is a film worth studying over and over again&colon; its use of horror as comedy&period; Peele has no problem emulating a sketch from <em>Key &amp&semi; Peele<&sol;em>&comma; but that simply wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t fit in a film like this&period; Not in its original form&period; Instead&comma; he has scenes like a black man giving a handshake instead of an offered fistbump&comma; or one of the house servants just staring out of a window creepily&period; The sound editing is on-point for scenes like the latter&comma; but it is the self-awareness of the situation that elevates it to humorous&period; Just another example of subversion at its finest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120467" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120467" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120467" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;01121206&sol;GetOut&lowbar;Clip&lowbar;TwoPartyGuests&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Get Out&comma; Blumhouse Productions&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120467" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Get Out&comma; Blumhouse Productions&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>My only gripe with the film is it often conveys similar information in a redundant manner&period; Without going into too much detail&comma; the movie is often repeating its racism in very overt ways&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not to say that the audience is dumb&comma; but that the ending of the film requires a lot of work from the screenplay in order to make it have its impact&period; Redundancy is the easiest way to bring the twist into the light&comma; but it comes at a cost of slowing things down for the sake of impact later on&period; But really&comma; that is the only area where the film slips and even then&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a graceful slip that has them back on their feet in relatively no time at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I wish I could just break into more of why this is a near-perfect thriller&comma; but much of what makes <em>Get Out <&sol;em>work is revealed in its third act&period; Everything is connected and tied together tightly&comma; with a sense of something grander&comma; just like how last year&&num;8217&semi;s well-received <em>The Invitation <&sol;em>left audiences&period; This is its own personal story and while it does leave itself open to sequels it also could remain isolated as its own social and racial critique&period; Best watched in a theater packed with an audience&comma; <em>Get Out <&sol;em>is an achievement in assured directing that sets Peele above most first-time horror directors because he taps into something real &&num;8211&semi; and for some&comma; too real &&num;8211&semi; but delivers it with a conviction and confidence that helps carry the film to its finish&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;