I kept wanting to yell out
“Time for din-dins.” in the theater.
Opening scene suspenseful one take shot. Made you think of Halloween. It was a great balance of creepy and funny.
The dialog was great.
-realistic
-meaningful
As in the dialog means something. A lot of times movies have empty dialog that is just filler. In this movie when a character talks about something or tells a story it means something within the larger story.
This is a mystery suspense thriller, so there are clues dropped throughout in a very subtle way.
This movie explores covert liberal racism, which is different from overt racism. It’s more subtle. It’s the difference between someone yelling “go back to Africa” and someone assuming you were bussed into a suburban school.
True story. I’m from CT and I did my freshman year of H.S. at South Windsor High. Some of the black students that went there was bused in from Hartford. A lot of the time it was assumed that I was bused in too, but I actually lived in South Windsor.
Speaking of CT. They got that east coast southern new england feel on the nose. The only thing they forgot was Crockett. We played badminton and Crockett at my maternal grandmother’s picnics. They did have some people playing badminton.
The picnic guests felt so real. Even if it was slightly exaggerated for effect. I’ve met people like that at art gallery openings and other events. People who would never consider themselves racist, but will just happen to start a conversation about where they volunteered in South America because they think that’s where you are from.
One more example. I used to work as an assistant technical designer at Vineyard Vines in Greenwich, CT. One coworker started a conversation with me out of the blue like this,
“Hey, do you like Will Smith?”
I think that’s the first black person they could think of. I know they were trying to relate to me, but they could have just
you know spoke to me like they would anyone else.
He really nailed that uncanny Valley between being welcomed and being treated like an ornament or token.
Anyway, kudos to Jordan Peele for including those things on the movie. It is especially awesome because as a biracial man, he has a dual perspective that he uses to great effect in this.
There is so much, I want to say about this movie, but it would get into spoiler territory.
To recap
There was a great balance between suspense and humour.
The acting was excellent. My favorite performance was the no-no-no lady. She did so much acting with her body language.
In that no-no-no scene, she had to cry and laugh at the same time. Actually portraying two emotions simultaneously.
All the actors gave strong performances. They got to really show their range since most of them were in comedies before.
40-year-old Virgin
Cabin in the Woods (horror comedy)
Atlanta
Office Space
The writing was strong. This is thriller movie in which the characters do not just do random acts of stupid to keep the movie going.
The direction and cinematography were great. I mentioned that single continuous shot opening scene, but there were a lot of great shots in this that I can’t discuss because reasons.
The soundtrack and score were also very good. They used a track from Childish Gambino and the score was really effective especially since I saw this in a new Dolby theater that has speakers in the seats and the seats reclined.
Side rant. Last week they put John Wick in two little theaters, and put 40 Shades of suck in the Dolby theater. WTF!? Speaking of stereotypes when me and my sister went to the box office the attendant looked at us and said “two for 50 Shades”…
No! Two for John Wick. I want to see 50 Shades of asking kicking and 50 Shades of getting back shot in the face
“He killed 3 people with a pencil. A fucking pencil!”
Anyway, go see Get Out. I want to watch it again.
This movie will be really a really good second watch.
This is going to be one of those movies that is going to trend every time it’s on TV like Jeepers Creepers.
What Did I Just Watch? 