Get Out

It was Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, a surprise blockbuster that experimented with what can be considered entertainment in a post #BlackLivesMatter world. Peele got the idea to make this movie when everyone started to believe racism was over after Obama became president, and this idea resulted in a motion picture that provides commentary on serious topics while still being fun entertainment for the masses. Peele pulls that off with the ways he orchestrates the audience’s fear; there are the familiar cinematic elements such as shaky cam, dark lighting, extreme closeups, and creepy music, but this steps it up with its treatment of the “Sunken Place,” which represents the metaphorical place people from minority groups cannot speak because White supremacists have marginalized them.
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It’s also worth mentioning how, unlike other horror films, the characters here use common sense to get out of danger, which gives it the needed layer of authenticity and credibility to the way it represents what it’s like being Black in an all-White setting. There’s really so much that Get Out will change about the entire movie industry, but the biggest change will be its evidence that movies about Blackness could indeed do great critically and financially, even when marketed to a primarily White audience. That in turn will open the door for more talented artists who are outside the racial majority and are in the most overdue need of attention.

R (DLV)
Horror/Thriller
1 hr. 44 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to LEARN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY and AFRAID.