Get Out (2017)

In a way, I'm glad we've progressed beyond the initial inescapable hype around Get Out. Not because I'm sick of people talking about it - on the contrary, I'm happy to keep discussing it with everyone - but because I could not stand the constant need people would have to make the discussion into one about PC culture. Get Out is a movie with some important ideas in it, but it's also just a really good movie.

It’s Jordan Peele making a foray into horror - still with a heavy comic edge, because what else would you expect? - and it follows Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) meeting his girlfriend’s very white and very odd family for the first time. Setting aside the incisive but admittedly unsubtle social commentary, it's well made and effective in what it sets out to do. It falls victim to the modern reliance on jump scares, which is possibly the biggest strike against it. You'll be primed to pick the beats and sometimes I found myself wishing they'd eased up on the scare chords, but I can't argue against their efficacy.

When there’s a focus on the building of atmosphere and Chris’ turmoil over whether or not he’s going mad, it is genuinely one of the better done movies I’ve seen in years. There is so much interesting use of symbolism and foreshadowing, but not too heavy handed that I ever felt myself drifting into eye-roll territory.

The cast is phenomenal - Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford kill it as the parents of Allison Williams’ girlfriend character, who is wonderful, and even the comic relief character played by Lil Rey Howery is a standout. There’s so much good stuff crammed into such a small space and it plays out with delicious pacing and satisfying storytelling, still managing to subvert expectations and find interesting things to do that don’t seem like easy routes. No one ever feels shortchanged or like a victim of the editing.

Get Out is a great horror film with a hearty dose of comedy that has a few significant flaws - ease up on the scare chords, my man - but it’s also a very clever movie that came out at a really important time. It cuts deep into a culture of deep rooted racism that might not appear as rocks thrown or pitchforks raised but instead as conversational jabs or “positive discrimination”. With any movie that garners a lot of this kind of conversation, there’s going to be a lot of backlash and contrarian kneejerk reactions. I know a lot of people criticise movie discussions that centre on social justice rammifications, but it really is important to consider a movie as a part of its context, and Peele made a really bold filmmaking move that worked out in spades.

I really enjoyed Get Out. This is a movie that made a big impact on the 2017 film landscape and I really hope that impact is a lasting one. I hope that horror as a whole continues to allow for more cutting into the tropes that have long defined it and that are reflective or larger problems in society, which is undeniably the case with the role of black people in film (particularly the horror genre) and how that is emblematic of what is happening in the world. I want people to keep talking about Get Out. I’ll keep talking about it.

Rating: 9/10 - Go see Get Out. It was just a good damn movie. If it had been a bit more sparing with the jump scares and if a few things had been more obstructed, it probably would have been my favourite movie of the year. Good shit, guys.