Film Review: ‘Get Out’ is Funny, Scary & Tells Us About Us

CHICAGO – When he got his chance, writer/director Jordan Peele (“Key & Peele”) completely understood what he had to do – combine his skewered hilarity, love of horror movies and true social conscience, and put them all into one great movie. Ladies and germs, “Get Out.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

The title is a riff on an old Eddie Murphy routine, as in, “a black man would never stay in the ‘Amityville Horror’ house, they would ‘tip out the door’ as soon as they heard the house say, ‘GET OUT!’” Peele combines this with a “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (50th Anniversary) vibe, as a African American photographer meets his white girlfriend’s upper middle class parents. Through the brilliant filter of Mr. P, the whole atmosphere of the film is so funny, so chilling and so knowing that it joins the rare company of the horror film that actually means something. If you’ve seen all the Oscar Best Picture picks, this is the perfect film to clear the jets before the big night, and kick off the 2017 film year in earnest.

Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is a successful New York City photographer who enjoys a new relationship with Rose (Allison Williams). It is time to “meet the parents,” but Rose has neglected to tell her Mom and Dad (Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitfield) that her new beau is African American. When Chris’s best friend Rod (LilRel Howery) finds this out, he advises caution.

It turns out that the parents are fine with the relationship, but the house has a limousine liberal vibe, as well as two bizarre black “house staffers” (Marcus Henderson and Betty Gabriel). When Rose’s mother, a psychiatrist, suggests hypnotism to cure Chris’s smoking habit, a series of events begin to occur that are larger than the awkward greetings Chris has to endure from the lily white house visitors, including gallery owner Jim Hudson (Stephen Root).

“Get Out” opens every where on February 24th. Featuring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Stephen Root, LilRel Howery, Marcus Henderson and Betty Gabriel. Written and directed by Jordan Peele. Rated “R”