Get Out

Although I had heard some things regarding the Academy Award nominated film Get Out, I wasn’t really all that well informed about what the movie was about. Described as horror-comedy and social thriller, it is everything this type of film should be: a knuckle biting, writhing in your chair experience, with you and your fellow moviegoers whispering, “Get Out” as the film progresses. The film is rated R for violence, bloody images, and language including sexual references.

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is an African-American photographer who has been dating a white woman, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) for four months. She insists on taking him to her parents’ home in the secluded countryside for a weekend.

Things are strange right from the start of Chris’s visit. Rose’s father Dean (Bradley Whitford) and mother Missy (Catherine Keener) seem typical parents, kind of clueless as to how their conversation and actions may be perceived by Chris. Their live-in help are even stranger: two African-Americans, Georgina (Betty Gabriel) and Walter (Marcus Henderson) who are just plain odd. Chris is an observant young man and notices the incongruent behavior immediately.

Chris has a friend who works for the TSA, Rod Williams (LilRel Howery), who had warned him prior to his leaving the city not to take this trip. The situation at the Armitage estate becomes crazier and crazier, and eventually the sheer terror of Chris’s situation takes hold of him. These people are up to no good.

Get Out has been nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Jordan Peele, Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya, and Best Original Screenplay, written by Jordan Peele. As a first time director, Mr. Peele did a fantastic job. He also did a fantastic job writing the screenplay; it is so tight and well thought out, and I really admired it. There is just the right amount of fear and comedic relief in this horror story. His vision to show what it is like for African-Americans, the stereotypes and the actual harm others can wish on them, is shown here along with the more sci-fi aspects of this very evil family Chris finds himself stuck with for the weekend.

The film had a kind of feel I recalled from seeing The Stepford Wives long ago. Walter and Georgina, and a guest at a party the Armitage’s host particularly had that same vacant expression on their faces, which really made me wonder what was going on. When it is revealed what this family is doing, it was truly horrific.

I saw Get Out in the theater and enjoyed my fellow movie lover’s reactions. We were all held glued to the screen by this story. All the actors did a marvelous job at their really quirky characters, and I especially enjoyed the performance of LilRel Howery who played TSA agent Rod. Will Chris get out okay? And will Jordan Peele or Daniel Kaluuya get out of the Academy Awards ceremony with a coveted award? Watch and see for yourself.