Jordan Peele’s film Get Out has been one of the biggest surprises of the last ten years. Bursting onto the scene in his directorial debut, Peele, in a single 104-minute film, established himself as one of the most interesting directors working today. The film, an immediate hit upon release, was wholly and utterly unique, and it launched the career of a Hitchcock-esque director whose full impact on the film industry is still yet to be seen.
Get Out follows Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) as he joins his girlfriend Rose (Alison Williams) on a trip to meet his significant other’s parents for the first time. When Chris first arrives, the parents and their neighborhood friends are sunny, cheerful and over-accommodating, and Chris reads this as anxiety over their daughter’s inter-racial relationship. However, Chris quickly discovers that the family has suspicious ulterior motives, and as he investigates the mystery, his well-being and his life are continually put in danger.
One of Get Out’s biggest triumphs is how genre-bending it is. What starts as a somewhat modern interpretation of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner quickly evolves (or devolves, perhaps) into a chaotic blending of genre. Horror, thriller, action and comedy all collide, creating something that feels like a breath of fresh air in a blockbuster landscape full of derivative ideas. Get Out is original; it’s the kind of film you can’t help but ask your friends if they’ve seen yet. I remember my first viewing of it in 2017; the audience, myself included, had crawled into the backs of their chairs and yelled at the screen for twenty minutes by the time the film was finally over. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced at the theater.
Peele’s previous career in comedy is on full display in this film, and it’s a key to why Get Out never feels confusing or unfocused. Make no mistake, the film is not a thriller in disguise of a comedy; it is a comedy. There are a number of laugh out loud moments in Get Out, some from structured jokes and others from uncomfortable situations, and it’s these moments that ease the audience into a false sense of security. The film would not work nearly as well were there not a comedic veteran behind it.
But in addition to being a hilarious, satisfying and nail-biting film, Get Out is also incredibly and profoundly insightful. The messages it sends and the comments it makes about the experience of a black man in an all white community are somehow both explicit and subtle at the same time. In attracting audiences of all kinds with it’s off-the-wall originality, Get Out is able to present a frenetic tale about the dangers of being black in America, and while everything in the film seems utterly unbelievable at first, it’s not too far of a jump to things that happen in the U.S. every day. It’s this that takes Get Out to the next level, that pushes it beyond an exciting but forgettable watch. There’s layers upon layers to Get Out, more so than in almost any directorial debut around. It is a triumphant example of pre-eminent genre filmmaking.M
December 2017
