(4 / 5)
Get Out, in it’s purest striped down form, is about being the odd one out in a crowd and environment. On the next level it is about how race relations have merely been pushed down under the surface, but to be sure, they are still the same.
Our story centers around a young man named Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), who’s a successful black and white photographer in the city and will be visiting his girlfriends Rose (Allison Williams) parents house for the weekend. He is a little nervous about meeting them though, cause he is black and she’s white. They take the drive and hit a deer on the road (never a good sign), when a police officer is taking their information he asks for Chris i.d. too, even though he wasn’t driving (equally not a good sign).
When they get to the house the parents are all too accommodating and enthusiastic. They say all the right things and act how your suppose to, but not in a genuine way. They say and act like they’ve been instructed to, smiling through toothpaste grins and offering a tour of the house simply because that’s what you do.
The performances in this movie are all sharp. Everyone is either grounded normal and convincing in that, or they are just off is a way. Like their smile is too wholesome to be genuine, or when they do it comes with a tilt of the head, making it seem wrong. It’s greatly contrasted by Chris and Rose that are people in the real world so everyone eases is strange behaviour is even more off-setting.

The creation of this movie is like a channeling of the school of Alfred Hitchcock on how to make a suspense. The camera lingers on elements and very little is said that makes the characters intentions clear. There is sharp attention to detail on the sound, most notable with the mother and how she stirs her teacup and clinks the spoon.
Adding to the Hitchcock comparisons is Michael Abels music, which is conceived in the same mindset of Bernard Herman’s score for Psycho. Completely removed from all other instruments than the strings, which make a sharp, shrieking, stabbing sensation.
One of the most surprising elements of the movie is not any of the plot twists or the imagery, but the talent behind it. Jordan Peele, the other half of the comedy duo Key & Peele, one of the most consistently hilarious sketch shows. Here he is writer director with an already deft mastery of handling a feature film. The screenplay is well-crafted, having elements that payoff later, he has bold ideas of what to do with the camera as well as able to get a wide range of performances out of his actors. If there is any complaint I can find with his execution it is that he constantly has his characters talking, instead of letting the images and what’s been said before speak for itself.
In terms of a suspense movie with shocks, it is extremely well crafted and acted. As a stylised portrayal of race relations, it’s more tricky to comment on. Recent times have shown that strong racial inequality feeling have been far from whipped out and have merely been pushed down and can come back given the chance. This movie probably serves as a reminder for that if anything else and we need to be reminded so we never fall back on our mistakes.