Get Out is an important movie for where we are right now in this country. It’s a race-relations story that takes things to the extreme.
A young white woman, Rose (Allison Williams), takes her black boyfriend, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), to meet her parents at their rural upstate home. He’s immediately met with friendly, yet uneasy encounters with them. He jumps to the conclusion that it’s because of his race, but still tries to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
It begins with circumstances that are humorous, but that we know still occur in our society. Like blunt comments about his genetics, or awkward conversations about Barack Obama. But then it slowly adds more and more so that it soon becomes ridiculous.
Some things are almost too weird. To the point where almost every scenario exists only to support the twist at the end. So we just end up sitting there, consciously trying to take note of it all because we’re aware that we’ll be needing it again.
Luckily, the film doesn’t take itself that seriously. You might imagine writer/director Jordan Peele laughing to himself as he writes it. It’s silly, but it’s often rooted in truth. And it finds that happy medium for almost the entirety of the film. The tone is established early on. It’s not laugh-out-loud, but it’s also not too stern. And it has some touches of farce. Many touches.
I get that Peele is trying to prove a point. Actually, it’s less polemic than it is a hyper-exaggerated version of some reality (though in some cases, not entirely). It’s hard to believe that there are people out there who actually go around telling black people that they’re fans of Tiger Woods like it’s going to make them happy.
There are a lot of different pieces thrown at you along the way that you’re tempted to doubt that it will all come together in the end, but Peele gains our trust by making a smart movie to where we know it still will.
Peele has an excellent vision for Get Out. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s very good. It may not be as powerful as some would hope, but I also don’t think that was his intent.
It also should be noted that Lil Rel Howery’s role as Chris’ best friend, Rod, may be the highlight of the film. His earth-shattering comedic performance is one of the best I’ve seen in recent cinema and truly grounds this film.
The Twizard 