brilliant suspense thriller that is way too real

Rating: 10/10 (29 August 2019)

I avoided this brilliant movie for some time simply because people kept referring to it as a horror film, and when I think horror films I think gouged out eyes and chopped off limbs and intestines on the floor. So the first thing I want to say is, this is really more of a suspense movie and there's very little gore.
Once I finally watched it I was blown away. This is one of those times when a movie really is as good as people say. The movie does a beautiful job of oh-so-slowly ramping up the strangeness, letting each event build on the other in order to build something wonderfully convincing. The suspense always builds slowly, but by the end the movie is soooooo intense that, half an hour after watching it, I still feel jittery as hell.
The filmmaking is sparse and economical, telling a lot with every little movement, every shot, every comment. Daniel Kaluuya is pitch perfect in the lead, offering the sort of deep, nuanced performance more common in searing dramas than thrillers.
The story is fascinating and beautifully constructed, with surprises that never come out of left field.
This is also a very political movie. It brought to mind a movie from my youth, The Stepford Wives, which also used suspense to highlight society's dark side. The early parts of the movie are almost a treatise on micro-aggressions, explaining them to white folk like me better than any of the million articles you can read on the subject.
An amazing film from a first-time director. I can't wait to see what Jordan Peele comes up with next.