'Get Out' Movie Review

   Get Out is directed by Jordan Peele, and it stars Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, and Lil Rel Howery. It tells the story of Chris, an African-American man in his mid-twenties, as he goes to his Caucasian girlfriend’s home and meets her family for the first time. From the moment he arrives, things seem to be a little off. People are acting strange, and there's a lot of weird stuff going on. Basically, it’s a scary movie version of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. 

   Get Out is getting rave reviews from every film critic out there. Well, except for the one person that gave it a rotten review on Rotten Tomatoes. (I’m not kidding, just one guy). Does it deserve all of the praise that it’s getting? The short answer: mostly. Get Out was a unique take on the horror genre, and the inclusion of a social commentary in the film added a level that is uncommon in most “scary movies” of today. It was refreshing to see a thriller that had such originality to it, instead of the formulaic scary movies that get shoved into theaters a couple times a month. 
    It feels a bit misleading to call Get Out a horror movie because there is a lot more to it than that. Plus, I don’t think it ever dips into horror, it’s more of a thriller. When this film is in thriller mode, it goes for it. The film does a great job building suspense, so much so that the smallest things scare you way more than they should. If you were looking for an extremely quick way to describe the film to somebody it would be “a scary movie about racism”, but in reality, it’s a film that has a lot of different elements to it. That is only one aspect of the film, though. It has some thriller, it has some political things, oddly enough it has some humor, and much more.
   The film does have a bit of a social commentary to it, but thankfully it never became preachy. It showed the situation at hand and a lot of the suspicions that the characters were having, but it was never fully blatant about it, which I believe made it even more effective. It made it significantly more realistic. I don’t want to get into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil it, but just know that this isn’t two hours of “Hey look! Racism!”.
   The most surprising thing about Get Out, to me, was the amount of humor in the film. I found myself laughing out loud in the theater several times during this movie. Lil Rel Howery, in particular, was hilarious. The humor added into the film also added a layer of realism. People are sarcastic and quick to jump to irrational conclusions, this film shows that magnificently. The best part about the humor is that it never felt out of place. Not once did I found myself asking why they were making jokes. Get Out shows brilliantly how to infuse the right amount of humor into a film like this.
   Where the film struggled for me was in the final act. To quote my friend that I saw the film with, “it was a bit hokey”. It got a little weird, and even a bit cliché. There were several lines of dialogue in the last act that didn’t help either. The conclusion to the film worked fine, but personally, I would’ve liked to have seen it end differently. There is a direction that they could’ve gone at the very end that would’ve really driven home some of the messages in the film, it would’ve been really depressing, but it would’ve given the film a much bigger emotional impact. They didn’t go in that direction, and the actual ending worked, but I can’t help but wonder what they ending could’ve been.
   Overall, I really enjoyed Get Out. It wasn’t the straight-up horror movie about racism that I was expecting. It had a lot more to it. It had social commentary, yes, but it was never overly in your face about it. The humor that was in the film worked surprisingly well and proves that not all thrillers need to be deadly serious to be scary. It stumbled a little bit in the final act, but it was still a very enjoyable experience. Is it the best film of the year so far? No, I’d still give that award to Logan, but it’s definitely up there.

8/10

​   So what did you think of Get Out? Are you excited to see more films from Jordan Peele? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this review, share it on Facebook and Twitter. It really helps! Don’t forget, I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and miscellaneous movie thoughts!
 
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