GET OUT

		Review by E.C.McMullen Jr.
WILL YOU? TIP JAR GET OUT - 2017 USA Release: Feb. 24, 2017 Monkeypaw Productions, Dentsu, Fuji Television Network, QC Entertainment, Blumhouse, Universal Pictures Ratings: USA: PG-13

GET OUT starts with a creepy opening 5 minute gotcha. While I've commented on other movie reviews that this is a worn-out trope, the kind that are unnecessary to the rest of the movie (30 Years Later!), I have to admit it gave me the creeps, so let it ride.

Unusually good opening.

But of course, the next people we meet seemingly have nothing to do with the Gotcha.

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya: CHATROOM, PSYCHOVILLE [TV], JONAH, KICK-ASS 2) has dated Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) long enough, it's time to meet her parents.

Chris is way hesitant about it all. He's black, his girlfriend is blue-eyed white, and her parents live in the uber-liberal rural white enclave of a fiefdom off the beaten path.

Believe me when I say that the 1967 Sidney Poitier movie, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner has nothing on GET OUT.

During a lovable and loving roadtrip to her parent's home, ROse does her best to put her man at ease.

Then they have a car accident. Know that Jordan takes his time getting to the point of his movie yet he peppers the wait with creepy moments so that the audience never has a moment to feel comfortable about the situation. Rather than feel Rose's confidence, we feel Chris' growing dread.

Getting on the phone to his friend, Rod (Lil Rel Howery), doesn't calm him. While Rod likes Rose well enough, he is adamant that going into white people land with his white girlfriend is hella bad.

Once Chris and Rose arrive, Rose's parents are as uncomfortably liberal as Rose warned.

Her Mother, Missy (Catherine Keener: SURVIVAL QUEST, THE GUN IN BETTY LOU'S HANDBAG, 8MM, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) wears a brittle smile and is awkwardly stiff in her attempts to be warm toward him.

Rose's Father, Dean (Bradley Whitford: PRESUMED INNOCENT, ROBOCOP 3, THE CLIENT, CLONED, THE CABIN IN THE WOODS), is the opposite. He's overly touchy, huggy, and far too familiar. "My man!" "You know, I would have voted for Obama a third time!"

Uncomfortable as it all is, Chris feels he can deal with it. After all, it's just one weekend.

However, all of the white liberalism straining to display its racial tolerance becomes such a burden that as soon as Chris sees another black person, he nearly runs to them just to re-assert his racial identity.

Except the first two black people he meets are the Armitage servants. They dress like people from the 1950s and 1960s and are meek, servile, and hesitant.

Taken aback, Chris is ready to run away screaming when he is approached by Fatherly Dean.

Dean explains that they were the children of his father's servants and he understands how it looks. "By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term, if I could. Best President in my lifetime, hands down."

That night, Rose's brother, Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, ANTIVIRAL, BYZANTIUM) makes his appearance and he is not about pretending to be anything other than he is: a blatant, pushy racist.

Later, Rose's mom, who is a psychiatrist that cures people through hypnosis, lures Chris into a "Let's talk" session and before he knows it...

Writer and Director Jordan Peele's GET OUT follows in the suburban creepiness of movies from VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS all the way up to THE STEPFORD WIVES and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, just to name a few.

You'd think that with such classics, the storyline of losing one's body to an intruder who takes over your life, usually as an unwilling part of a conspiracy, would be pretty much done.

Not so with GET OUT. While Director Jordan followed the recipe, he cooked up a great dish of a Horror movie on his first time at it. Although fans of MADtv (2003 - 2004) and Key and Peele already knew that Jordan knows the machinery of great cinematic storytelling.

For me there was only one jarring scene but it was a biggie: a reveal to draw everything together that felt rushed and pasted on the first time and doesn't get better with repeated viewings. Doesn't kill the movie for me but I nearly want to fast forward through that moment.

That said, it's not a deal break and GET OUT has the makings of a Horror classic.

Four Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 2019 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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