Monday, January 15, 2018

Monday at the Movies - January 15, 2018

Welcome to another installment of “Monday at the Movies.” The Cinema King had noted that Get Out was up for “Best Picture – Musical or Comedy” at the Golden Globes, and this week, he finds it to belong to neither genre.

Get Out (2017) – Jordan Peele’s directorial film debut has a much-hyped 99% on Rotten Tomatoes (you guessed it, Armond White is one of the naysayers), and while I have my own problems with that site’s aggregate approach to film ranking, in this instance I can only say, “I’m with them.” Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris, a man visiting his girlfriend Rose (Alison Williams) and her parents (Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener), when he discovers that the family’s black servants are acting strangely. Peele’s script manages to generate empathy for Chris and his mindset, and Kaluuya gives a first-rate performance in communicating all the unease, fear, and hesitation that Chris feels in this strange place. It’s not a musical or a comedy, though it is thickly satirical; without spoiling anything, the film leans into some strange plot elements that regardless manage to align with the story’s thematic concerns. I’m impressed that Peele has created a film that is very much of its moment but is also a highly successful genre outing in its own respect. My cynical hackles had been raised purely by the overwhelming number of people who said Get Out was one of the best movies of the year (last time I heard that claim, it was Mad Max: Fury Road, and we all remember how that turned out). But I found myself hypnotized by the film, unnerved in all the right places, and surprised that – in a world where we’re told that cultural divides are too deep and unbridgeable – a first-time writer/director effortlessly took me into Chris’s head and told a parable about how painful, violent, and condescending even the best intentions can be. Peele has said he’s mulling a sequel, and I have no idea how that’d play out, but I’ll be right there for it; I can only hope, however, that Lil Rel Howery’s TSA agent Rod can somehow team up with Michael Peña’s Luis from Ant-Man in a race to see who can be the more charming and helpful.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you next week!

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