When I initially saw the trailers for the new film Get Out, I was intrigued. It looked to be cool melding of comedy and horror from the mind of Jordan Peele. What I got even I didn’t expect, but let’s just say Peele’s film exceeded my hopes.
Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and Rose (Allison Williams) have been a couple for five months. They are extremely comfortable with each other and have a great rapport. Rose is excited to bring her boyfriend to meet her parents at their country estate. Chris is nervous, as any man can relate, for that first meeting with a girl’s parents. Not only is it that first meeting, but Rose also hasn’t mentioned to her white family that he is a black man, and Chris knows that can cause problems with some people.
Arriving at her parents’ home, Rose finds Dad (Bradley Whitford) is using a variety of slang around Chris that she has never heard before, while Mom (Catherine Keener) seems removed from the discussion and its uneasy nature. It is embarrassing to say the least, but Rose and Chris just roll with the situation.
The visit gets a bit creepier with every encounter. Chris quickly realizes that all of the black people in the home seem to be a shell of what one would expect. From the housekeeper and gardener Rose’s parents kept on staff after her grandparents had passed, to every individual Chris meets during his stay there. Everything seems odd. But is it? Or is Chris just imagining the behavior with a heightened sensitivity? Not everything may be what it seems.
It was seeing Jordan Peele’s name attached to this film that made this intriguing — a study of race relations within a humorous yet scary film. While many will look to this as a look at race in the current society under a new president, I believe this is something that existed long before today. What makes the film work is Peele’s ability to put the viewer into Chris’ shoes. We see the oddities around and as we work through the situation, Peele uses humor to help us relate. In doing so, Peele makes the frightening aspects of the film into a distinctive social statement.
To make that social statement, it is necessary to have a cast who can embody the roles. Kaluuya as Chris is strong yet vulnerable. Williams’ portrayal of Rose as the defender of her man is exactly what you’d expect from someone who sees through the attacks that can cripple a relationship and I believed everything she brought to the character. Bring along a dad in Bradley Whitford who tries really hard to be cool and a mom in Catherine Keener as a therapist who seems aloof, and I was hooked. And I’ve said nothing about the amazingly funny and spot-on performance of Lil Rel Howery, who plays Chris’s best friend Rod, a TSA agent, of course.
Sometimes things are black and white, and sometimes that shade of gray clouds the truth. But there is no gray here for this film that combines a witty and thought-provoking script with a cast who embodies the characters they are portraying. Get Out is something that I really got in to.
Get Out premieres On Demand beginning May 23. Check your cable system for availability
