Guest: Walter Gainer II (Boss Locks Media, bosslocksmedia.com)
Cast:
Jordan Peele, Writer/Director
Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington
Zailand Adams as 11-year-old Chris
Allison Williams as Rose Armitage
Bradley Whitford as Dean Armitage
Caleb Landry Jones as Jeremy Armitage
Stephen Root as Jim Hudson
LaKeith Stanfield as Andre Hayworth / Logan King
Catherine Keener as Missy Armitage
Lil Rel Howery as Rod Williams
Keegan-Michael Key as NCAA Prospect
Erika Alexander as Detective Latoya
Betty Gabriel as Georgina
Marcus Henderson as Walter
Richard Herd as Roman Armitage
Jeronimo Spinx as Detective Drake
Ian Casselberry as Detective Garcia
Trey Burvant as Officer Ryan
*Recognition:
Get Out was wide released on February 24, 2017.
In March 2017, three weeks after its release, Get Out crossed the $100 million mark domestically, making Peele the first black writer-director to do so with his debut movie. On April 8, 2017, the film became the highest-grossing film domestically directed by a black filmmaker, beating out F. Gary Gray's Straight Outta Compton, which grossed $162.8 million domestically in 2015. Gray reclaimed the record two weeks later when The Fate of the Furious grossed $173.3 million on its fourteenth day of release on April 27. Domestically, Get Out is also the highest-grossing debut film based on an original screenplay in Hollywood history, beating the two-decade-long record of 1999's The Blair Witch Project ($140.5 million).
Get Out would received almost unanimous critical praise, and was included on most renowned critics' end of the year top 10 lists for 2017.
The film earned four nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya. Peele became the third person (after Warren Beatty and James L. Brooks) to earn Best Picture, Director and Screenplay nominations for a debut film, and the first African-American winner for Best Original Screenplay (and fourth overall nominated, after John Singleton, Spike Lee, and Suzanne de Passe).
In 2021, the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay the greatest of the 21st century so far.
Get Out also recently appeared on the latest version of the Sight and Sound critics' poll's Greatest Movie of All-Time at #95.
Get Out currently holds a 98% on RT among critics, an 85 score on Metacritic, and a 4.2/5 on Letterboxd.
What is this movie is about?/Elevator Pitch: The complexity of racism in the modern age when it doesn't come overtly from stereotypical people but often those who pride themselves as not being racist.
Plot Summary: Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is a black photographer traveling with his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams) to upstate New York, to meet her family for the first time. Upon meeting them, Chris senses the two, Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford), to be overly accommodating and nervous about dealing with their daughter's interracial relationship. However, as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries leads him to discover something that he could never have imagined.
Did You Know:
Writer, co-producer, and director Jordan Peele was inspired to write this movie by Eddie Murphy's stand-up film Eddie Murphy: Delirious (1983). Murphy joked about horror films, including Poltergeist (1982) and The Amityville Horror (1979), and asked why white people do not leave when there is a ghost in the house. Murphy joked that if a Black man being shown around a beautiful house heard a ghost whisper "get out," he would immediately tell his wife "too bad we can't stay, baby!" Peele repeated Murphy's joke on the DVD commentary of this film.
The main theme, "Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga", was sung in Swahili with the exception of the English word "brother", a word which composer Michael Abels felt had a special, universal meaning among black people that did not need translation. According to Abels, the voices in the song represent the souls of black slaves and lynching victims trying to warn Chris to get away. The translation of the lyrics is, "Brother, run! Listen to the elders. Listen to the truth. Run away! Save yourself."
Daniel Kaluuya was given the lead role on the spot after nailing his audition. Writer, co-producer, and director Jordan Peele said Kaluuya did about five takes of a key scene, in which his character needs to cry, and each was so perfect that the single tear came down at the exact same time for each take.
Jordan Peele said in an interview that Allison Williams reminded him of "someone you knew and had a crush on when you met her at summer camp", and he thought this was a great quality for the kind of character Rose Armitage really is.
In an interview with Bradley Whitford on National Public Radio's show "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!", Whitford explained that Jordan Peele wanted him for the role of Dean Armitage because of his prior role as Josh Lyman from The West Wing (1999). Whitford said that Peele wanted all of the Armitage family members to have a distinct "white liberal feel" to them.
Lil Rel Howery stated that real-life TSA agents constantly recognize him since the film's release.
The opening of the film is partially inspired by the opening of Halloween (1978), which Jordan Peele described as a subversion of "the perfect white neighborhood."
Director Jordan Peele asserted that the scene where Walter (Marcus Henderson) is running at Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and the audience at full speed is a nod toward the power of depth in films. He cited North by Northwest (1959) as an example of this technique, stating, "Somebody running at you or towards you just creates a visceral and physical reaction for the audience."
Daniel Kaluuya has said that he can relate to the party scene. He states, "That party scene was just like, 'Oh, I've been in that party. I'm going to that party. Like, that kind of racism that isn't seen as racism, that isn't seen as, kind of like, mainstream racism. It's just life, and to explore that is quite an uncomfortable conversation, and Jordan just spoke his truth. He cinematically articulated an experience that millions of people go through and they are made to feel crazy for going through that. But he just said, 'No, actually, you're not crazy.'"
When Jordan Peele was writing the scene where Chris is under hypnosis the first time, he ended up crying. He states, "There was a point in the process where I got to something that was very vulnerable. The fun evolved into tears. I mean, when I was writing about Chris in the hypnosis and The Sunken Place, I ended that day crying, and it was a cathartic thing. I wouldn't describe it as fun."
When writer, co-producer, and director Jordan Peele was asked if Universal Pictures wanted him to do a sequel to this film, he stated, "Of course they have. It was the first thing they said, 'Let's do a sequel.'" He goes on to say, "Honestly, I'm open to it. I love the project, but I won't do a sequel just for some kind of cash grab. If it's right, if it feels good, and I feel like I can beat the original, I'll do it."
Around Christmas 2017, on Twitter, a user asked director Jordan Peele if the film was a Christmas movie to which Peele jokingly tweeted back, "Let's see...there's a man with a white beard, multiple deer, a fireplace, a bunch of snowflakes, and a guy named Chris goes down a dark hole! I'd say go for it!"
Best Performance: Allison Williams (Rose)/Jordan Peele (Writer/Director)
Best Secondary Performance: Daniel Kaluuya (Chris)
Most Charismatic Award: Allison Williams (Rose)/Lil Rel Howery (Rod)
Best Scene:
Cold Open
Meeting the Parents
Dinner with Jeremy
The Sunken Place
The Auction
The Photos
The Game Room
The Escape
Favorite Scene: The Sunken Place/The Escape/Walter Sprints at Chris/Georgina Apologizes/Rod Tells the Police
Most Indelible Moment: The Sunken Place/The Game Room
In Memorium:
Donn Cambern, 93, American film editor (Easy Rider, Romancing the Stone, Ghostbusters II). Was a former President of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.
David Crosby, 81, American Hall of Fame singer (The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) and songwriter ("Guinnevere").
Best Lines/Funniest Lines:
Rod Williams: I'm TS-motherfuckin'-A. We handle shit. That's what we do. Consider this situation fuckin' handled.
Jim Hudson: ...Life can be a sick joke. One day you're developing prints in the dark room and the next day you wake up - in the dark. Genetic disease.
Jim Hudson: I want your eye, man. I want those things you see through.
Missy Armitage: Now, you're in the sunken place.
Dean Armitage: You're gonna love this. My Dad's claim to fame. He was beat by Jesse Owens in the qualifying round for the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Those were the ones where...
Chris Washington: Where Owens won in front of Hitler.
Dean Armitage: Yeah, what a moment. What a moment. I mean, Hitler was up there with all those perfect Aryan race bullshit. This black dude comes along and proves him wrong in front of the entire world. Amazing!
Chris Washington: Tough break for your Dad, though.
Dean Armitage: Yeah, he almost got over it.
Dean Armitage: You know what I say? I say one down, a couple hundred thousand to go. I don't mean to get on my high horse, but I'm telling you, I do not like the deer. I'm sick of it; they're taking over. They're like rats. They're destroying the ecosystem. I see a dead deer on the side of the road and I think, "That's a start."
Andre Logan King: Get out.
Georgina: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...
Rose Armitage: You were one of my favorites.
Chris Washington: Do they know I'm - Do they know I'm black?
Rose Armitage: No. Should they?
Dean Armitage: By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term, if I could. Best President in my lifetime, hands down.
Dean Armitage: Fire. It's a reflection of our own mortality. We're born, we breathe, and we die.
Parker Dray: Fair skin has been in favor for, what, the past hundreds of years. But, now the pendulum has swung back. Black is in fashion!
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 8.5
Impact/Significance: 9.33
Novelty: 10
Classic-ness: 8.5
Rewatchability: 6.33
Audience Score: 8.55 (85% Google, 86% RT)
Total: 50.21
Remaining Questions:
Why would you keep an easily accessible photo box of all your past relationships?
What chair has cotton stuffing? And would cotton work as ear plugs?
Why didn't Chris run out of the house instead of stopping to fight the mother?
Did Rose die?
What happens the next day?
What happens to Andre Logan King?