Movie Review: Get Out

Move over up-and-coming horror directors, there's a new sheriff in town and his name is JORDAN PEELE?!?!?!?!?! The comedian of Key & Peele fame strays into completely uncharted territory with his directorial debut Get Out, an absolutely bonkers piece of satire that is easily one of the most satisfying films to come out of the genre in the last 15 years.

Making a film that combines pointed social commentary with tense thriller and dark comedy elements could've very well ended in disaster, but Peele's wit and palatable passion for the horror genre make this challenging juxtaposition look effortless. The script does an excellent job of addressing the problems with cultural appropriation and the awkwardness/ignorance that can emerge during social interactions between people from different racial backgrounds without ever coming across as preachy or losing any of its entertainment value. I can't disclose anymore about the film without getting into the specifics of the plot, but I urge you to avoid spoilers at all costs before seeing it. Knowing the direction the story heads into over the final 40 minutes or so ahead of time would ruin a lot of the fun and inspired lunacy Get Out offers up.

The effectiveness of Get Out is further enhanced by its game cast that fully understood and embraced Peele's vision. Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario) gives a breakout performance as Chris, a young black photographer that gets all sorts of freaked out when he visits his white girlfriend's (Girls star Allison Williams, also great) upper middle-class family (Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener and Caleb Landry Jones) for the first time while comedian Lil Rel Howrey runs away with the movie as Chris' paranoid best friend. This ensemble of veteran character actors and up-and-coming talent is impeccably-assembled, and deserves every bit as much credit as Peele for the success of this film.

While it's clearly too early to know for sure, I have a strong feeling that Get Out will end up being one of my favorite movies of 2017. It's a truly unique, insane and smart movie that deserves go down to as an instant classic in the horror comedy genre. I urge anybody that's interested in seeing this to do so as soon as possible because the experience of seeing this in a crowded theater with a deeply engaged audience was one of the most fun moviegoing experiences I've had in my life.       

4/5 Stars