A solid "B"

Rating: 7/10 (26 February 2017)

I was intrigued by the fact that Jordan Peele (1/2 of the comedy duo Key and Peele) was writing and directing a "horror" film that I decided to check it out. Interestingly enough, I soon discovered that GET OUT, is NOT a horror film. It is a suspense/action flick with horror and comedic elements.
And it works, quite well.
Following in the footsteps of suspense/horror/comedy films like the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg SHAWN OF THE DEAD, GET OUT tells the story of Chris, a young African-American lad (Daniel Kaluuya) who is dating Rose, a caucasian (Allison Wiliams). Rose invites Chris to meet his parents at her family estate. Once there, Chris realizes that something is terribly wrong...
Written and Directed by Peele, GET OUT zips along breezily for the most part, stopping for a moment for a piece of comedy or suspense. The "estate" is very, very much WASPy and white bread and all the victims are African-Americans, so there is a very real racial element to the story, but Peele does a good job of showing - and not telling - the inherent racism simmering just underneath the facade of those around him.
And these facades are very good - as Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener play Rose's parents and they bring much more to the table than a typical film of this type might otherwise have. Both are congenial, threatening, friendly and covert, showing us layers hidden under layers. Stephen Root shows up as one of their white bread friends, who might be sympathetic to Chris. Williams does a nice job as Rose adding to the tension. Only Caleb Landry Jones as Rose's brother is too over-the-top. The rest of the family are nuanced - he is not.
But the star of this film is Kaluuya as Chris. He is the audience surrogate in this film and brings us along in a winning fashion, trying very hard not to believe what he is seeing, but also slowly and shockingly coming to the realization that something is horribly wrong.
Adding to the fun of this film is the breakout performance of LilRel Howery as Chris' friend back home. His Rod Williams is saying out loud what most in the audience are thinking and he is quite hilarious. I can't help but think that Peele had this film in his head for quite some time with his partner, Keegan-Michael Key playing Chris and Peele portraying Rod, for Rod has the funniest lines in and is the most winning character.
If you are looking for a horror film, go see something else. If you are looking for an entertaining enough Suspense/Comedy/Horror film, than GET OUT fits the bill quite well.
Letter Grade: A solid "B"
7 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)