Get Out Movie Review

Richard Araujo, News Editor

Jordan Peele, an American comedian best known as Peele in the Comedy Central series Key and Peele, released his first movie, Get Out–a box office hit that took $4 million to make but grossed $100 million in 16 days.

Get Out is a mystery/thriller film that plays on the idea of race.

The movie features a black protagonist named Chris Washington (played by Daniel Kaluuya) who has fallen in love with a white girl named Rose Armitage (played by Allison Williams). Their relationship has been going on strong for five months, and Rose decides to take Chris on a trip to visit her parents for the weekend. Little does Chris know, the trip would force him to fend for his life.

When Chris arrived at the estate, tension filled the air. Rose told him that their relationship was her first interracial one, and her parents did not know Chris is black.

When they arrived and Chris met the parents, their behavior made him uncomfortable because they were trying too hard to be “down.” He soon was greeted by excessively polite servants, who were also black. But instead of putting him at ease, their unnatural behavior spooked him further.

To relax, Chris decides to go out for a cigarette one night. Unexpectedly, he encounters Rose’s mother (played by Catherine Keener) who was critical of his smoking habit and offers to hypnotize him to help. The hypnosis is triggered through the use of a tea cup. While Chris is hypnotized, in his mind, he is continuously falling, but in actuality, his body is completely paralyzed. The worst part about it, he can see what is happening to him but is unable to fight back.

Unsure of what actually occurred, Chris even thought the event was a dream because when he woke up the next day, he seemed fine.

To make matters worse, numbers of white people traveled to the parents’ estate for a family reunion. Desperate for a friend, he approaches another black man named Andrew; however, he too acted as strangely as the servants.

Throughout the film, Chris constantly talks to his friend Rod Williams (played by LilRel Howery) who shares Chris’ discomfort when hearing of Chris’ experiences. Both agree Chris should ask Rose if they could leave. One event leads to another, and all of sudden, Chris finds himself cornered by the Armitage family. It turns out, the family worked coherently together in capturing black folk. Rose brought them home, Missy hypnotized them, and the father, Dean (played by Bradley Whitford), who is a neurosurgeon, performed surgery on them.

Why? Well, the premise of the story revolves around the idea of white folk craving what they perceive as the superior bodies of black men and women.

What follows is Chris’ brutal fight for his life.

Along with the great story lied special gems (a.k.a Easter Eggs) with hidden meanings. The references were cleverly placed into the narrative’s story, hinting at the struggles black men and women faced throughout history. The ending is particularly evocative of what goes on between black folks and the police today.

In conclusion, the movie’s great plot and outstanding acting had reviewers cherishing the masterpiece. The movie is rated an outstanding 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, an 8.3/10 on IMDb, and an 83 percent average on Metacritic, a reviewer aggregate. Not bad for Peele’s first film.

All in all, Peele’s movie was a success. The thriller tackled the difficult subject of race and did well. My experience with the movie was great, and I recommend it to all.