‘Get Out’ Is A Fantastic Suspense Thriller | Film Review

Relationships are funny, aren’t they? “They are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.” I think about Churchill’s words, though he was speaking on a matter of much more importance, when I think about the subject of relationships. Why do we choose the people we let into our lives? Is there a key to it all? Is it genetic? Is it learned? I have no idea what the magic code is, but there’s something to think about when it comes to quality. This means that they can be there for anything, they can be there to inspire, to make you laugh, to teach you, and they can even be there to scare you. Somehow, you appreciate them through all of it.

So, what am I about to tell you about Get Out? The directorial debut of funny man Jordan Peele, half of the Key and Peele show. That’s right, the guy who’s made you laugh in all those YouTube videos.  Oh, and he wrote it too. So, this must be rough? Poorly done? Campy even? 

A young African American man, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya),  visits the family of his Caucasian girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams). It’s at the family estate where he learns about a few of its residents, black men and women who have gone missing.  He soon learns the horrible truth behind these disappearances when another frantic African-American warns him to “get out”.  The story is simple and ultimately it isn’t layered too deeply.

What is most intriguing about the film is that hypnotism plays a big part in what is going on. As a longtime consumer of pop culture in movies and television, it’s easy to be accustomed to this specific device to create an unreliable narrator. As the story carries on I found myself asking “Is this in his head or is this happening”. Peele added a great character to get us through these moments of tension and trust issues in Rod (LilRey Howery), Chris’s best friend and devoted TSA agent. Rod grounded the story perfectly and served as a reminder that everything Chris was experiencing, was indeed happening. His character also broke up the tension by allowing us to laugh. I must give it to Peele for thinking of every angle in this story that he could. In numerous movies of this same vein, you start talking to the protagonist. “I wouldn’t go in there!” “Don’t leave without a weapon!” “Don’t walk in there backwards!” None of that happens here.

Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington was entertaining, but unfortunately forgettable in the role. In a lot of ways, you as the viewer are almost a passenger with Chris in his story.  His reaction to it isn’t what catches your eye, it’s what is going on around him. Everything from the family he is visiting to his best friend was just so much bigger and more memorable. It would be interesting to see what the movie would have been like if the character of Chris was played much bigger. Rose Armitage, as played by Allison Williams, threw me for a loop. I am not sure why or how, but I bought everything she was selling. Rose was so damned earnest, extremely interested in Chris’s wellbeing and comfort. She sold it and sold it well.

Get Out is a fantastic suspense thriller. To call it anything else is overselling the premise of the movie. In the process of delivering a movie that gives a lot of tension and some scares, there are also some bigger ideas being played with here. The message of race and racism is front and center in this story. Fortunately, it doesn’t distract and if anything it might cause some people to think before they speak. When it comes down to it, Jordan Peele wrote and directed a tale that shows there is more possibility to the relationship we have with him than simply a comedian. He isn’t just that clown friend that we keep around for giggles. He can teach us, he can scare us, and now we know we can appreciate his biting social commentary few talents would even attempt.