Get Out is a remarkable movie in many ways. The way it handles racism and the tension of being a black man surrounded by white people is sophisticated. It is also a genuinely suspenseful thriller, despite many of its plot points being exposed by the trailer. Killer performances all around make the tone and vibe of the movie effectively unnerving. Get Out is an all-around excellent movie. But, the fact that this is the directorial debut of Jordan Peele is absolutely astonishing.

Jordan Peele is the second half of the powerhouse comedy duo Key & Peele. Their claim to fame is the hilarious and often poignant comedy sketch show they made for Comedy Central. Their comedy style was usually focused around race relations, especially those between white Americans and black Americans. Their comedy was especially effective because the subjects they handled were bold, honest, and real all while neither offending nor alienating audiences of any race. The fact that Peele’s first film would follow similar themes is unsurprising. The realization of how powerfully he could execute a story around these themes is what’s truly shocking.

Get Out is the story of a black man, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), going to meet his white girlfriend’s family for the first time. The problem is that Rose (Allison Williams) has not yet told her family that she is dating a black guy and Chris is understandably nervous that this revelation will create an awkward tension. Even though Rose insists her family is not racist, Chris was right that there would be an uncomfortable air to the whole vacation. As the weekend unfolds, Chris starts to realize that the secluded, rural, and extremely wealthy country community where Rose’s parents live has a potentially sinister underbelly. As the eerie feelings grow, Chris begins to get paranoid that he might be in very real danger and makes to leave before his situation actually becomes dire.

Considering the subject matter and the genre through which it was told, Get Out had many pitfalls that would lead it to be a colossal failure. If it got too preachy with the themes, the narrative would have been lost in the message, killing the tension. If it handled the central conflict wrong, then the whole movie would turn into a farcical mess. If any of the acting or directing missed its mark, then the movie would have turned campy or schlocky. That Get Out successfully navigated all these obstacles suggests that Jordan Peele may have an incredible future as a director.

Some of the best moments of the movie are those that show how the family’s attempts at diffusing the awkwardness of their situation end up ironically creating an awkward situation. The father (played by Bradley Whitford) goes out of his way to show how progressive he is, even saying lame lines like that he would have elected Obama for a third term. Many of the white folk in this movie talk in a way that is meant to be complimentary, but the movie does an incredible job of showing just how awkward and dehumanizing those kinds of words can be — even if said with the best of intentions. Because, it shows that they still see Chris as a black person, thus they lump him in with the rest of “his kind” instead of seeing him as an individual.

I originally wrote this piece without really delving deep into the racism themes this movie centers around, but I cannot feel comfortable talking about them when they are what make this movie so fantastic.

In all honesty, I actually learned something from this movie. For the longest time I have not been able to understand micro-aggressions. Like, of course I understood the ones that were flat-out insults, but never understood why it was considered equally pernicious to complement a person’s race (like saying black people are better athletes than white people). By having this movie shot from the perspective of a black American whose race actually plays an important role, I finally got to see how those kinds of thoughts can still marginalize a person. Even though the people saying it are supposed to be open-minded, liberal, etc. that having assumptions be made about you solely based on the color of your skin, even when those assumptions are positive, is still dehumanizing.

If nothing else, this movie should serve as the perfect example of why it is so — I don’t want to say “important”, but… no, actually yes, I think it is important — important to have movies be told from perspectives other than WASPS (white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, straight).

I hope you don’t misunderstand my intentions here. I am not trying to signal virtue or anything. I am not condemning the Hollywood culture of the past. I am trying to be optimistic and encouraging of new perspectives and voices in Hollywood, because I believe that this is what makes movies great. To tell the truth, I honestly believe that this approach may be the very thing to help dispel the malaise and ennui currently plaguing American movies of late. Even an old, cliché story can feel fresh and new when told from diverse perspectives. So, I am just acting as a cheerleader for more movies like Get Out.

Sorry for anyone who feels that was inappropriate, but I just had to get it off my chest. It has been all I could think about since seeing Get Out. The last few paragraphs were more cathartic, stream-of-consciousness musing than anything. Anyway, back to the review.

For how well he crafted this movie, you would think Jordan Peele was a veteran of filmmaking. What’s more, to be so bold as to make a thriller instead of playing it safe inside his comedy wheelhouse is all the more commendable. The themes of race relations between blacks and whites are exactly as smart and realistic as it is in Peele’s comedic projects, though taken more seriously and to a much larger extreme. Of course the scenario is unrealistic, but it speaks truth to how race relations feel in modern America. The vilest for of racism may not be commonplace in modern America, but a pernicious, lesser form still exists as a riff between many Americans. Even though it gets a bit weird at the end, the fact that race relations and backwards thinking is actual the decorative wrapping of motives and philosophies that are much more clever and sinister is what makes this movie so good.

A-