An absorbing psychological thriller, that's even darker than it seems

Rating: 9/10 (23 March 2017)

I wasn't sure when I saw the trailer. It had the potential to be one of two things, either a very clever psychological thriller, or a puff piece telling us how all white people are evil.
I'm glad to report, that it's the former. This is a cracking film.
The set up; a young black guy is about to meet the family of his white girlfriend for the first time. He's a little apprehensive, but she assures him that it'll be fine, her parents are anything but racist, in fact her dad would have voted for Obama for a third term if he'd been allowed too. But, when they get there, things don't seem quite right, it's hard to explain why, but something's definitely wrong.
Daniel Kaluuya (nice to see an English guy in an American film not playing the bad guy) plays Chris, our poor unsuspecting boyfriend. He is the lynch pin to the story, everything revolves around him, and he's superb. Allison Williams plays Rose, the girlfriend.
If you've seen the trailer you'll know that Rose's family live in the whitest of white neighbourhoods, the handful of black people that do live in the area, seem to be acting very oddly indeed.
This is another film with a small budget. There have been a few recently, and I'm starting to believe that some films just spend money for the sake of it, sometimes at the expense of telling a story. Get Out cost somewhere around $5,000,000 to make. As I write this, it's apparently taken more than $130,000,000 in the USA alone. This shows just what you can do with a well written script, some good acting, and some high-quality production values, if you have all that, then you have a really good piece of work on your hands. There are also very few special effects in this film, and those that are used, are very simple, you could probably recreate them on your phone. The film relies on its astute writing, and that's a great thing.
I was just asked if this is a horror? No. I don't care what IMDb says, I don't care what anyone else tells you, Get Out is a thriller, and a good one at that. There is very little in the way of blood and guts violence, it's all about atmosphere, about a palpable creepiness factor. There are points where it's actually hard to watch. There was also one moment that springs to mind, that caused popcorn fly around the theatre, but even that wasn't a horror moment, it was a great use of sound.
The story is a good one. The production values are lovely. It's creepy, it's funnydid I mention the humour? The interactions between Chris and his best friend Rod (LilRel Howery) are wonderful. They might be a little over the top at times, but if you took this situation and transposed it into real life, then it would be pretty surreal, it would be over the top, so oddly, those moments fit in beautifully with the rest of the film.
Get Out isn't just Chris on his own, it's also filled with a litany of wonderful performances. Everyone portrays their character perfectly. Roses parents walk a fine line between seeming awkward and menacing. Her brother is an off the wall loon. The other local white people are so odd, even for rich white people. As for the few black people that Chris meets whilst he's there, wow, they would make anyone feel uncomfortable.
The score is powerful, I can't think of a better way to describe it, it adds so much to the feel, to the atmosphere. The story moves along at a good pace, there isn't time for you to switch off or get bored. In fact, the story is key here, you think you know what's going on, but things aren't quite what they seem, even in a film that is based around the concept of things not being as they seem, and the film is clever in the way that it let's go of its secrets, you find out when Chris finds out, because of that, you really feel a part of the narrative, it draws you in.
I was worried that this was going to be a film that states that all white people are racist, and this is evidence of how far they'll go. But its not, it's so much more than that.
I don't want to go into details, but there are moments when you're thinking "how are you going to get out of this one Chris?" It brings out genuine intrigue, it makes you think, it keeps you on your toes.
I really liked it. I'm not going to do what a friend of mind would do, and scream "it's the film of the year!" from the highest point I can find, but it's defiantly up there as one of the best of the year so far. At 104 minutes, it's not a very long film, but like everything else about it, it seems just right.
This is well worth watching, in fact I'd say you're an idiot if you pass up the opportunity to see it.
A wonderful film.