Movie Review: Get Out (2017)

Can't believe it took me almost an entire year to see this film but it was worth every second. There was not a single "look at your watch" moment; from the very beginning of the film I was riveted. This, my friends, is entertainment. Here's what I loved about it:

• Setup: Going into the film you already know the "basic" plot, and it's already squirm-inducing. A black guy gets trapped amidst a group of suburban white folks who want to do him harm. You know the basic outline, but you have no idea how it's going to play out. This is a far more effective method than you might think, and is especially common in the horror/thriller genre. But, even as far as these thriller movie type setups are concerned, you have to admit this is a pretty bold and extremely uncomfortable one. Who wants to talk openly and frankly about Race in this country? Not many people and even fewer white people. So why not do what we've been doing for centuries (maybe millenia) airing out our social problems and fears through the magic of story.
• Story: It's one thing to come up with a setup and play off of society's fears and hang-ups and problems, its another thing to actually bring-off a good story with that setup. Which Jordan Peele does. The film can basically be divided into two parts: Setup and resolution. There really is no middle, but there doesn't need to be. Almost the entire film is taken up getting the main character, Chis, into the situation he must get out of. Once he's in there, it's pretty simple to get him out ("Get out!"), but the fact is, the steps by which he gets deeper and deeper into the problem are the fun part, and that's the real magic of this film. 
• Multi-Layered Subtext: You can say this film is "about" race, just like it's "about" a daughter bringing her boyfriend home to her parents house, or "about" a (SPOILER ALERT) mad scientist who hypnotizes people and steals their brains. But what is this film actually saying about race? I'm not sure I have the language or education to properly handle this topic, so forgive me for my clumsiness here, but I think this film's commentary on race operates on three levels: 
• First off, IMO the film is trying to poke fun at the liberal idea that we live in a "post-racial" society. It's shining light on the frustrating concept (which few people understand) that the more we try and prove to each other and to people of color how "not-racist" we are, the more attention we draw to our own clumsiness and ignorance, and the more attention we draw toward race itself. A perfect example of this is when the father in the movie tells Chris (a propos of nothing) that he would have "voted for Obama a third time" if he could have, and the increasingly uncomfortable dinner scenes in which the brother comments upon Chris's physique. We now know that the latter was part of the slowly-unfolding plot, but it's the exaggeration of it that draws our attention. 
• The film also plays with the idea that some white people are jealous of and therefore desire certain qualities stereo-typically associated with black people such as superior athleticism; essentially, that many white people -- while outwardly denigrating black people or behaving in racist ways -- secretly want to be black. Such a complicated idea would take (and probably has already taken) PhD dissertations to fully study and appropriately un-pack. However, placed into the film it's a perfect motivation for the "body-snatching" racket Chris uncovers, and makes it all more sick and demented.
•  The third and perhaps most "tongue-in-cheek" sub-stratum of the film's commentary on race is the simple idea of black people being brainwashed by suburban whites. Obviously, the film's version is the extreme. But are black people secretly afraid that if they spend too much time in white society they will lose their "blackness"? The scene that makes me wonder about this is when Chris's friend, a TSA agent, goes to the police and explains his story to them, or at least what he thinks the story is, that Chris has been abducted by his girlfriend's family for use as a sex slave. The police find the notion laughable, but I can't help but wonder if it's a subtle reference to a common fear or hang-up felt by black people toward whites. 
• If I had one critique of the film it would be that once the setup is fully established (which takes nearly the entire film) Chris gets out of his predicament far, far too easily and in one of those classic, James Bond villain situations: "Here, Mr. Bond, let me leave you in this overly elaborate and slow-moving torture device that will start working as soon as I leave the room, leaving you ample time to escape..." but...oh well. It's a movie! And a damned entertaining one at that.