“White people love making people sex slaves and shit.”
Broaden that statement beyond sex and this one-liner summarizes the
entire movie.
Get Out, a movie by first time director, funnyman Jordan Peele, is anything but just funny,
as it pushes the envelope on racial tension. I mean really pushes it. In
fact, I’m pretty sure that the envelope fell off of the entire table. If the
first five minutes doesn’t have you slightly sinking with discomfort into your
seat then I don’t know what will.
Peele begins the film with an intense but brief scene immersed in musical
jump-cues usually reserved for 1980’s stabbing horrors by openly invoking the
death of Trayvon Martin (as stated repeatedly in more than one interview), a
black 17-year old killed in a gated community by a man who assumed he was a criminal
because of his skin color.
As the movie progresses, the racial tension thickens and micro-aggressions
become as common as the strange behavior of the characters. (If you’re black,
you may find yourself occasionally looking around the theater to see the
reactions of your white counterparts).
Without giving much of the movie away, Get Out touches on a lot of psychological issues and important social
lessons that can be easily missed if you focus too much on the racial aspect of
it. For starters, the reoccurring themes of weak social ties vs. strong social
ties and action vs. inaction are blatantly overshadowed. There is a part in the movie where a young black
man goes missing and instead of active searches for him, all that is mentioned
are missing person posts and photos on social media. Almost immediately after
the display of the posts, a joke is fired off by Rod, Chris’ black, comic-relief, TSA-employed best friend, side-railing any
chance of the audience fixating on why people (especially his family) weren’t
physically looking for him. (Sidebar: I’m
pretty sure recruitment for TSA is going to increase after this movie. They
made that job look awesome. Marketing done right. *thumbs up*)
As far as some of the psychological issues, if the main character, Chris
Washington (played by Daniel Kaluuya who is most noted for his role in the Black Mirror episode “Fifteen Million
Merits”) had previously dealt with his past emotional demons then he may have
not been in a relationship with sociopathic-eyes, Rose in the first place. Chris’
sense of self-responsibility or lack thereof was lightly touched on during a
scene where Rose, his girlfriend of only 4-months questions him about the
efficiency of his packing then later stands up for him after having his license
requested by a cop (He only had a state id. Why would you go on a road trip
with someone you barely know and only have a state id? He might as well have
given her a card with the words “here is all of the responsibility for my
safety” scribbled on the inside and called it a day).
During one of the conversations between Chris and Rod, they poke fun at the avoidance of therapists, shrinks
and hypnotherapists by Black people, further tugging at the lack of concern by
many for professional mental health help.
(Sidebar: Actually, if all
of the characters took mental health seriously and handled their insecurities…...there would be no movie…..so never mind).
Once the Armitage family turns sinister, it becomes a bit apparent that
their motives aren’t necessarily based solely on race, despite how it appears.
Overall, Get Out is worth going
to see. Depending on your own personal feelings, it has the potential to either
spark an amazing dialogue or validate a tightly held prejudice.
Either way, it’s
entertaining!
No comments:
Post a Comment