Get Out(Non-Spoilers) Review
Get Out is the directorial debut for Jordan Peele from Key and Peele. Despite all the praise, I can’t say I was too interested to see it. Any time you market a movie as horror, I usually lose interest. I’m really not a big fan. Silence of the Lambs and Seven are some of my favorite films, but I put those in the category of psychological thriller rather than horror. With all that in mind, I had no plans to see Get Out until some friends of mine decided to go.
I’m actually really glad I wasn’t anticipating this movie at all. I think it’s the first time in a long long time that I hadn’t seen a trailer or any clips beforehand. This was definitely the movie to do it for. The less you know…the better. Not having any expectations, made Get Out an extremely pleasant surprise. I wish I could do it for every movie but unfortunately I’m not strong enough to resist clicking on the next Star Wars or Pixar trailer.
Let’s first get into the positives of this film. There are a lot of them. I honestly didn’t think I’d like Get Out but I ended up enjoying it a lot. It’s much more in the vein of a Twilight Zone or Black Mirror tone rather than a slasher horror movie. There are definitely some parts that are there just to shock but most of it is a slow build that gets the audience more and more uneasy. One of the major highlights of the film is its subtly. Get Out actually has some very powerful things to say about race relations and other related topics. However, instead of beating you over the head with it, it establishes a powerful undertone of themes focused on race. It being a fantastical horror/thriller/comedy makes it seem far removed enough that it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to push forward any one given agenda. That being said, it has a lot to say about some really important issues. That's why the story is so strong. Jordan Peele deserves a lot of credit because you need an insane amount of creativity to come up with a premise like this. He puts in small little hints and references that are extremely clever and add a lot to the experience. Besides, the mystery/thriller aspect of Get Out, the comedy is also great. I think my favorite character of the whole thing was Milton Howery, who plays the TSA agent, best friend of the main protagonist. He was hilarious. I think the other thing that adds so much to the experience, is the music. Especially in a movie like this, the creators need to do everything they can to establish tone and unsettle the audience as best they can. In this case, the musical choices succeed in doing that. I couldn’t imagine anything that would have been better suited for this film. The last point I want to make about the positives of Get Out is that I’m going to bet that this movie has a very long shelf life. What I mean by that is that I think it’s going to remain relevant and be rewatched over and over for a really long time. To me, a 99% Rotten Tomatoes score is useless if the movie comes and goes, which I do think is the case more often than not.
I know that so far, I’ve really been praising the movie. There’s a lot to like. Even with all the strong points, there are definitely still some clear negatives to Get Out. The main protagonist, played by Daniel Kaluuya, gives a strong second-half performance. Unfortunately, some of the things he does in the first half, really bothered me. They are small gripes, but to me he came of as a little to unassuming and nonchalant both in how the character was written and how he acted. The biggest negative of Get Out is it’s second act. There’s a lot of good stuff in it, but at the same time a lot of it drags on. I think if they had shaved off maybe 10-20 minutes, the movie would have really benefited.
I’d definitely say go see Get Out in the theatre. Even if you have no interest, I’d give it a shot because you won’t get what you were expecting. I think it’s going to live on as one of those movies you can always rewatch and that you always talk about with your friends and family. 8.5/10
