Grade: B
I am beginning to discover that my favorite parts of thrillers are when things are still building, and characters, as well as the audience, are still trying to figure out what’s going on. Writer/director Jordan Peele makes a supremely impressive feature film debut with Get Out, which is about a white girl bringing her black boyfriend to her parents’ home in the country to meet them. I found it akin to a more thought-provoking version of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, Meet the Parents, and…I fear I’ll reveal more than I want to if I name another title it reminded me of. It works as a thriller, and in the first half, as an intriguing social commentary. Once the major plot points are revealed, it settles into standard horror fare in the final act, but I admired Peele’s twist on the old cliche of a killer waiting just outside the frame waiting to attack, because here, the tables are turned in a different way than normal.
Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams are effective as the main couple, and the parents are played by the only two faces I recognized – Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener. Whitford, who had quite a career in the 90s with TV’s The West Wing and a handful of high-profile movies, always had a cool-but-condescending, handsome-in-a-dorky way presence that I enjoyed, so it was a hoot to not only see him again, but to see him here, balding, bespectacled, and grey-bearded. Keener shines as always, and LilRel Howery steals every scene he’s in as a TSA security guard, with some of the snappiest one-liners I’ve heard since all those movies that came out in the second half of the 90s that tried to be the next Pulp Fiction. The laughs are many, fun, and sneaky. I chuckled at the sudden appearance of a ping pong table in a late scene, where I don’t remember it being there the last time we were shown that location. This is worth seeing, and worth seeing again. And yes, a character does end up speaking the film’s title to the protagonist, as a piece of advice. He should have listened, and kept his keys on him.
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
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