"Get Out"

In an attempt to see as many of the Oscar nominated Best Picture movies as possible, we took ourselves out to the Cinemark last night - for a 10:00 PM showing, no less! - to see Jordan Peele's "Get Out".  This film was released in February of last year and was billed as a horror movie with a bit more heft than the usual slasher/Halloween/Friday the 13th blood-and-gore type of flick.  The movie drew critical acclaim and when the Oscar nominations were announced,  it pulled down four biggies: Picture, Actor (Daniel Kaluuya), Director (Jordan Peele) and Screenplay (Peele).

The premise:  African-American Chris Washington (Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), are going to spend the weekend at Rose's parents' (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) country home.  Chris is apprehensive because (a) he will meeting them for the first time, and (b) Rose hasn't told her family that he, Chris, is black.  Also, a weekend party has been planned with guests who all seem to have a Stepford Wives quality to them and who take a decidedly odd interest in Chris.  There are only three other black people in site, the Armitages' maid and groundskeeper, and one guest at the party, a young man with a white wife who is at east thirty years older than he, and all three of them have a certain off kilter demeanor about them.

After an odd incident involving a camera flash, and a phone call to his friend, TSA agent Rod (Lil Rel Howery, who plays a critical role and also provides some comic relief), Chris begins to suspect that something really, really bad is taking place among the Armitages and their circle of friends.

I will say no more, plot-wise.

Directer/Writer Jordan Peele is getting lots of raves for this movie, and deservedly so.  The mood is set almost immediately with the very first scene in the movie, and other techniques used throughout makes this a great movie, visually speaking.  It is also a very well written and many terrific pieces make some biting commentary on racial relations and perceptions. There are several examples of see-how-cool-I-am pieces of dialog among the Armitages and their party guests concerning Barack Obama, Jesse Owens, and Tiger Woods that make you cringe in embarrassment, but those comments take on a completely different tone as the film unwinds.  There is also a scene where Rod goes to the police to report his concerns about Chris that is funny at first blush, but that also has different layers beneath the surface.

Kaluuya was great as the initially shy, then apprehensive, then befuddled, then terrified, then forceful Chris.  There are other very good performances by Williams as Rose, and Whitford and Keener as the creepy parents. As for Jordan Peele, well, I can't wait to see what he does next as a filmmaker.

We skipped this movie when it first came out because, hey, we don't like horror movies, but the critical acclaim, awards and nominations, and the recommendations of friends whose opinions I value (that means you, Tim Baker and Billy Hepfinger!), made us want to see this, and see it in an honest to God movie theater, before Oscar night.  We are really glad that we did, and Marilyn and I haven't really stopped talking about it since we left the theater.

I don't think that "Get Out" was the best movie of 2017, but it certainly deserves its nomination, and I am glad that we saw it.

It gets Three Stars from The Grandstander.