I gave Get Out four stars in 2017. That was a mistake. I’ve seen it six or eight times since, often because I wanted to show it to somebody. I love watching people watch this movie. I promise I’m not trying to make Get Out parties a thing. At least not with the same gusto I put behind Eyes Wide Shut parties.
Peele remains on my enemies list for getting away with title drops in Get Out, Us, and Nope. He keeps naming movies after things the characters have every reason to say, denying me the pleasure of complaining about it. He’s also on my best-friends-who-haven’t-met-me-yet list. I contain multitudes.
So this is a slavery story, and I appreciate how cheerfully the Armitages explain themselves. They want to own Black people, and medical progress has allowed them to get considerably more use out of the arrangement. Even the presentation on the basement TV insists they’re doing Chris a favor. His circumstances will improve once he’s no longer allowed to participate in them. Under all that self-regard, they’re jealous. Peele traces all that supposed superiority back to Grandpa sulking about losing to Jesse Owens.
The excuse for keeping Georgina and Walter around is even better. They took care of Dean’s parents. How could the family possibly part with them? Bradley Whitford gets to sound generous while explaining why his own mother and father are pretending to be the help. Apparently the only reason these people can come up with for having two Black people live in their house is to employ them. My stars, how far we’ve come.
Back in 2017 we had a theory that the grandparents switch into Disney mode whenever company’s over, animatronics powering up for the guests. I like that reading more every time. The Black people trapped underneath are fighting to get out, while the white people occupying their bodies can’t stand having to serve anybody. Betty Gabriel can make both things seem to be happening in the same close-up. When Chris admits that too many white people make him nervous, she laughs and cries while assuring him that everything is wonderful. He tries to confide in the one other person in the room who might understand, and gets that face. It still gets me.
Daniel Kaluuya lets us see how much Chris is holding back without having to announce every insult. Somebody wants to talk about Tiger Woods or Obama’s third term, and he makes the adjustment that will get him through the conversation. He’s practiced at this sort of passing. Then Catherine Keener takes away even that much control.
Even knowing what Rose is, I still get caught up in the panic over those keys. Allison Williams makes it work every time. We’ve been calling it her turn, but she hasn’t changed her mind about Chris. She just doesn’t need his cooperation anymore. I spent all of M3GAN not trusting a word Williams said because of this movie. On this viewing, Andy pointed out that Rose’s stand against the cop is about keeping Chris’s name out of a police report. All those viewings, and I’d never caught that.
Chris sounds more like himself when he gets Rod on the phone. For once he doesn’t have to pretend he’s comfortable. Lil Rel Howery is hilarious, and I particularly like watching him try to work out how to be taken seriously by the detectives. Is he approaching them as a fellow Black person, a fellow law enforcement professional? Does TSA count? When Rod points out that the man in the photograph didn’t used to dress like that, Detective Latoya says she didn’t either. For a moment, they understand each other. Then he has to keep explaining the sex slaves. It’s the scene that most reminds me of Key & Peele, and I enjoy how much Peele gets into it before everybody starts laughing at Rod.
It took me until this viewing to watch the alternate ending, with Chris in prison and Rod visiting him. I’m glad Peele changed it. I think the ending we got is harsher about the police, even though they never get near Chris. The moment those red and blue lights appear, I’ve already imagined what happens to him. Peele doesn’t need to take me to the prison. He lets that expectation do the work, then has Rod open the door. Chris gets to go home, and Peele makes me laugh at the end without taking back anything he’s said.