GET OUT MOVIE REVIEW
This world is full of Ridley Scotts. And by that I don’t mean visionaries that produce either genre-defining work or films that are as boring and bland as the color brown, I mean people that believe cinema is pretty much dead, or have significantly decreased in quality. This is simply not true. Modern technology has allowed for incredible mainstream cinematic achievements and more independant film than ever before. The beauty of cinema is there if you look beyond the muck of what your television advertises (and even then, summer blockbusters tend to have much more heart and character than most blockbusters of years past). However, the same cannot be said for the horror genre. The horror genre is pretty much dead. But, it’s movies like 2017’s Get Out that are why we always say ‘pretty much’ rather than ‘totally’.
Get Out is the directorial debut for comedy star (and fellow cinephile) Jordan Peele, and stars Daniel Kaluuya as a black man that visits his white girlfriend’s parents home, only to find disturbing discoveries about the estate. The first thing that really surprised me in this film was how good of an original score it had. It sounds somewhat-folksy, with strings influences by Danny Elfman. The main theme starts off sounding playful, yet cautious, then followed by dread in something akin to The Shining's score.
The score is a perfect culmination of how the film plays off, with a certain kind of innocence that is nothing short of suspicious, but then turns with an intense horror. Get Out or that reason, the tone of is difficult to pin down. The first half of the movie isn't as much as a comedy as it awkwardly humorous (almost like M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening), but the awkwardness translates to uneasiness with the content of the film, and when the actual horror kicks in, it's ten times more powerful. And out of context that final half of the movie wouldn't be all that intense. It wouldn't exactly be a Sunday drive either, but it works despite its simplicity because Peele engineered it to.
This being said, there is plenty of laugh out loud comedy to be found here. The character that audiences will come out remembering the most would be Lil Rel Howery's Rod Williams, but the true 'star' of the film is its satire and social commentary on race, which comes from Peele's personal experience with a sort of racism that is very prevalent today, and it's found not just against African-Americans, but all minorities (I'm looking t you, weaboos). It's almost a type of anti-racism that results in the objectification of someone based solely off of their ethnicity, and the plot is spun from that idea, making for a meaningful and unique movie.
Everything else in the movie is up to par. The acting from Daniel Kaluuya is very good, thanks to Peele's direction, which is also consistently solid. Get Out is a difficult film to direct, it's a horror movie, it blends tones, and has plenty of awkward moments for the characters, and it's incredible for Jordan Peele to knock it out of the park like he did for his debut film.
The fantastical blend of all of these elements allow Get Out to surpass all expectations of a horror movie, making for a rather meaningful film, thus earning it a 9 out of 10.
★★★★★★★★★☆