“Not me. Not today.”

The film opens with a Black man being followed by a car in the suburbs, and after the real world murders of men like Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, both the audience and the characters know how this will potentially end.

And thus the tone is set for Jordan Peele’s Get Out.

The film follows Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington, a photographer and one-half of an interracial couple meeting his White girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Once at their isolated house in upstate New York, it becomes obvious that everything is not exactly as it seems.

Get Out has been described as a “comedy horror,” but at times it seems like it would be more aptly categorized as a psychological thriller. While the gore is definitely there, it does not actually appear until the very end and it is no bloodier than your average action movie. Jump scares are used, and while they are used from the start, they are used sparingly.

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The horror of Get Out is much more tonal than blood and guts, but it’s no less terrifying.

Uttered at least three times, the line “I would’ve voted for Obama for a third time, if I could” grounds Get Out in a very specific time, around late 2016 to early 2017. While fears around dating is a common cinematic theme, it is necessary for Get Out to take place now, in post-Obama, and supposedly “post-racial” America. While it relies on the audience to have some understanding of current events, it works.

Part of the movie’s brilliance lies within its characters and its actors’ understanding of them. There is not one weak link in the cast; from its headliners to its bit players. The performance Kaluuya gives as Chris paints him as the perfect protagonist: charming and vulnerable, and it’s incredibly difficult not to root for him.

Allison Williams’ Rose Armitage, Chris’ girlfriend, manages the tonal shifts brilliantly. The other members of the Armitage family, Bradley Whitford as Dean, Catherine Keener as Missy, and Caleb Landry Jones as Jeremy are both entirely welcoming and unsettling at once.

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In a film of incredible performances, Lil Rel Howery as Rod Williams, the TSA Agent and one of Chris’ friends, stands out. Rod acts as the entirely welcome comedic cornerstone of the film. It’s a joy every time he’s on screen, and his hilarious performance allows the audiences a break from the tension.

If anything negative can to be said about the film, it’s that it is very “American”. While that’s entirely the point -- the whole film is specifically about the African-American experience -- it was hard not to notice the murmurs of the Indonesian audience explaining context to each other. For international audiences, some very specific, intentional references to American culture and figures may go unnoticed, but that still doesn’t lessen the experience.

Get Out is undoubtedly a movie that requires multiple rewatches. Just make sure to not fall into The Sunken Place. (sul/kes)

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