#LilRel Howery

[byneddiedingo]

Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Allison Williams, Daniel Kaluuya, and Betty Gabriel in Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Root, LilRel Howery. Screenplay: Jordan Peele. Cinematography: Toby Oliver. Production design: Rusty Smith. Film editing: Gregory Plotkin. Music: Michael Abels.

Jordan Peele's witty, scary Get Out seemed to have hit just the right nerve in Trumpian America. Jordan Peele not only won the best original screenplay Oscar, his film was also a strong contender for picture, director, and actor (Daniel Kaluuya). It was one of the sharpest films about race in the United States in years. That's because, I think, it's a genre film: a horror comedy. It's not so hard to make a statement about race in a drama like last year's Oscar-winner Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) or an earlier best picture winner like 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013), which white audiences could watch and feel satisfied that they've learned a lesson. But the essence of comedy, especially one that blends horror into the mix, is to make audiences feel uncomfortable: We laugh almost in spite of ourselves because we see people doing things that we recognize and feel embarrassed about in our own lives. I sometimes think the words "racism" and "racial prejudice" are inadequate depictions of what really afflicts most Americans today, which is race-consciousness: the constant awareness of racial difference that we carry around with us. It works both ways, as Peele demonstrates in the opening of his film. Chris Washington (Kaluuya) is as aware of the cultural differences between him and his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), as she is. They're about to visit her family in the deep affluent suburbs, and she jokes about how race-consciousness will manifest itself during their visit: Her father will try to establish his liberal, non-racist bona fides by telling Chris that he would have voted for Obama for a third term if he could have. And we laugh when, sure enough, he does. (That Rose's father is played by Bradley Whitford, star of that liberal feel-good series The West Wing, adds a touch of irony.) If Peele had stayed on this note, Get Out would have been just an amusing social comedy, but he introduces real tension with his opening scene, which shows a then-unidentified black man walking down a suburban street at night, muttering to himself about how disoriented he is. Suddenly a car appears, passes him, then makes a U-turn and begins following him. The man panics, and before we know it, the car stops and a man gets out and attacks him and shoves him into the trunk of the car. Then we're introduced to Chris and Rose while retaining the awareness that their relationship is shadowed: Get Out is not going to be an update of Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Eventually, as tension builds and comedy shades into horror with sci-fi touches, Get Out moves from race-consciousness comedy into an actual statement about racism, in which black people are valued for the services they can provide for white people. As a director, Peele has Hitchcockian gifts, though he sometimes misses: There's no need for an orchestral sting in the scene in which Chris is walking through the Armitage house at night and a figure passes behind him -- it should have remained almost a subliminal moment for the viewer, leaving a "did I see that?" impression. But the real strength of the film is in its screenplay and its performances. Kaluuya is near-perfect as Chris, at first preternaturally calm and self-possessed even in the awkwardness of meeting his girlfriend's parents, then showing his gradual uneasiness with the anomalies that manifest themselves. The ending of the film was reportedly, and smartly, changed: Chris was to be arrested after the violence that takes place. But in the context of the wave of headlines about police mistreatment of black suspects Peele felt that ending was heavy-handed and substituted a "happy ending" that still feels unsettling: What will happen to Chris when the cataclysm at the Armitage house is discovered and investigated? Peele has said he has ideas for a sequel, but I hope he doesn't make it. 

[stuart-townsend]

Free Guy (2021) dir. Shawn Levy

[megaevolveddarkembreon]

(via GIPHY) When you trying explain the depths and degrees of blackness in this movie

[letterboxd-loggd]

Get Out (2017) Jordan Peele

October 26th 2019

[mrfahrenheit92]

[thegeeksideofthemoon]

[whatsnextmovies]

Uncle Drew

June 29, 2018

[cinephile-at-heart]

While it’s not my personal favorite of the year, I think it’s pretty indisputable that Get Out is The Movie of 2017™ and if there was any justice it would win Best Picture.

[bittersweetcinema]

Get Out (2017)

‘‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste.’’

[suimovies]

“Brittany Runs a Marathon”

directed by Paul Downs Colaizzo

[zamankaybolmaz]

Hayat çok acımasız şakalar yapabiliyor. Bir gün, karanlık odada fotoğrafları tab ederken ertesi gün gerçekten karanlıkla uyanıyorsun.

Kapan / Get Out

[knightlyss]

things watched in 2017 → get out (2017)

“I’m TS motherfucking A.”

[desayunoconpeliculas]

Get Out (2017).

Así da gusto ver películas de terror. 

Jordan Peele se las mandó con este documental, [spoilers] en donde una familia blanca atrae a personas negras hasta su casa para hipnotizarlos y convertirlos en una nueva especie de esclavos. Sounds familiar?

La nueva víctima es Chris, un cabro de bien que pololea con Rose; cuando pasan un fin de semana en la casa de la familia de Rose, Chris empieza a notar cosas bien raras y queda muy perseguido después de que su suegra lo hipnotiza. 

Me encantó cómo tomaron una parte horrible de la historia afroamericana y la pusieron en una película de terror moderna; sólo nos recuerda que no está nada de lejos de la realidad. El racismo siempre será una historia de terror. [Spoilers] Tenía cero esperanza para Chris, pero se salva usando algodón, ¡ALGODÓN!

Se supone que “Get Out” competirá en la categoría de Mejor Comedia o Musical en los Golden Globes... no sé ah, pero “white privilege is watching Get Out and thinking it was funny”. 

[nofatclips]

Moonlight by Jay-Z from the album 4:44 - Director: Alan Yang

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson Join Sandra Bullock in Netflix's BIRD BOX

New Post has been published on https://nofspodcast.com/trevante-rhodes-sarah-paulson-join-sandra-bullock-netflixs-bird-box/

Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson Join Sandra Bullock in Netflix's BIRD BOX

It’s no secret that streaming giant Netflix has been killing it on the original series front, with fans practically frothing at the mouth for Stranger Things Season 2’s debut next Friday. What they haven’t been as lucky with is their original films (read about Kim’s distaste for The Babysitter here). There’s hope on the horizon however, as we have some impressive talent joining Sandra Bullock in their upcoming adaptation of Josh Malerman’s 2014 novel Bird Box.

Already attached are Bullock and John Malkovich, and hopping aboard are Moonlight‘s Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story), two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook), and Get Out scene-stealer LilRel Howery.

LilRel Howery as TSA officer Rod in “Get Out“

Directing is Susanne Bier, fresh off her Emmy win for directing the AMC miniseries The Night Manager. The film follows

A mother (Bullock) and her two young children are among the survivors after an alien invasion drives a large swathe of the Earth’s population to bloody violence, sparked by simply looking at one of the creatures. Facing a perilous 20 mile journey on a small rowing boat while blindfolded, the family will have to rely on her wits and her children’s trained ears.

And if all that wasn’t enough, they also have Arrival‘s Eric Heisserer adapting the script from the novel of the same name.

It sounds like it has some potential to be emotionally investing, but given the mention of “bloody violence” I’m going to guess this wont be a Gravity-style emotional journey.

With that film and now this, Sandy seems keen on situations that find her character lacking a pretty vital sense (or force). So I’d like to take this opportunity to pitch her next film, where she’d play a chef – wait for it – BORN WITHOUT TASTEBUDS… Eh?? Sleep on it and get back to me, Sandy. Personally I smell another Oscar with this (don’t taste it though, amiright??).

Ahem. Anyway. You can catch Paulson and Bullock sharing the screen first in the hotly anticipated Ocean’s Eight next June. Bird Box doesn’t have a set release date of yet. And my Sandra Bullock-led chef project will likely never happen.

[filmista]

Get Out (2017)

“If I could, I would have voted for Obama for a third term.”

Meeting the parents of your significant other for the first time is often enough of a nerve wracking experience in itself.

You know your partner likes you, but you want his or her family to like you as well. So you want to cause a good impression obviously.

And now while some of us might have unconventional interests and hobbies, that we’re worried they might find well, unconventional and not in an endearing way.

But sometimes matters become even more complicated: your partner may not be from the same country and same culture as you. Or in the case of Chris and Rose, they may not have the same skin color.

Chris and Rose are the deeply in love new couple, all is going well so now it’s time to meet the parents, it’s a logical next step in any romantic relationship that is blossoming in a good direction.

But as I mentioned in the case of Chris and Rose matters are more complex, you see she is white, he is black.

And the situation that is making Chris so nervous, is not entirely that he’s going to be meeting her parents for the first time, but that they don’t know he is black.

Chris and Rose are packing together, Rose asks Chris “babe have you got your toothbrush?” A normal question, on Chris’s part, eventually followed by do they already know I’m black?

And apparently, they don’t, because Rose has neglected to mention it because it’s not something she’s nervous about it.

She quickly reassures him her dear parents are not at all racist, no certainly not, since they would have voted for Obama a third time if they could, certainly that says it all…

No, the Armitages are absolutely not racist, absolutely not, you’re crazy…

They love other cultures, can't you just tell from the souvenirs that they’ve got all over their, what shall I call it “modern imperialist/plantation chic mansion?”

The fact that they’ve got black servants makes them uncomfortable as well, and well Obama is thrown into the conversation a few times again as well, so you see absolutely nothing wrong here.

The Armitages mean well, but still, this somewhat excessively friendly welcome makes Chris uncomfortable, and while you’re watching it you feel some sort of displaced embarrassment, these people are simply trying much too hard to be nice!

The Armitages are trying so hard to be lovely people, likable people and they’re trying so hard to treat Chris as one of their own, and are trying so hard to impress and to create the image that they’re not racist, that one thing in their approach is clearly failing:

They are in this approach already treating Chris as someone who is different, someone who requires special treatment.

You see I believe if you truly were not racist, you would treat the person in question truly like you would anyone else, without even having to give it any moment’s thought.

But it’s not this somewhat excessive friendliness, that seems well placed enough. No, it’s something more sinister entirely, it’s the black servants that seem to do their work with an unnatural cheer.

And then there’s, of course, the fact that the basement can’t be opened because of fungus. Basements that can’t be opened and entered are of course a horror staple, and the viewer immediately feels an unease. And from there on it turns into a nightmare for Chris, but I won’t give that away, you have to see the nightmare for yourself.

The first thing that’s unsettling is their house really, the fact that it looks like a modern kind of plantation and that they’ve got black servants, it reminds of what? Slavery you say, well you would be correct.

My first impression of the house was the only thing that’s missing here is cotton plants and that they’d serve sweet tea, which they later on do, they’re all happily sitting on a great porch, delicately sipping sweet tea, an unsettling image in itself…

But the Armitages still claim they’re not racist and that they love black people and all that, even that they hate racism, there’s an interesting allegory to Nazism in there as well.

And well they’re not exactly lying, the Armitages do love black people, but not exactly in a way that’s healthy.

Like I said it’s initially not all that obvious that something is wrong, these people are being friendly so what is the matter then?

Well, their friendliness hides an inherent racism. Using so called positive discrimination, which is what the Armitages do, is entirely wrong.

Under all those nice words and good intentions is still the core of the most rampant and gross discrimination, which is refusing to understand once and for fucking all!!, that all of us are equal, no matter what our race, gender, birthplace, social rank or religion.

It shouldn’t be anything that we’ve literally had no say over that’s going to define us, it should be our words, our acts, our deeds, that’s going to make us into good persons, jerks, criminals or straight up into a monster.

And what’s perhaps most painful about Get Out, because the film truly is like an open wound sometimes, and sometimes it really does like to throw salt onto the wound to make it hurt more.

Is that all of us have perhaps been guilty of this, I am reviewing this as a white female, I’ve got absolutely no idea what it is like to be black, I have no idea what it is like to be differentiated, to be judged based on my skin colour and I entirely admit that. I will never know what’s it like to pass certain people and be afraid of them, just because of my skin color.

I’ve never considered myself to be racist and I would find myself entirely disgusting if someone did think I was.

And that’s where Get Out does something incredibly brave, it dares to directly confront its audience, in a way that will at times make you incredibly uncomfortable or that might even make you feel ashamed if you’re watching it as someone that’s not black.

Because it makes you realize that it’s giving a mere hint of an idea what it is like to be in their place, and it’s also quite casually saying: hey maybe you’ve been racist a few times without realizing it.

And now that’s something that quite frankly isn’t all that uplifting, maybe it’s happened when you met a black person and you kept ushering that they needn’t be worried about you because you are not racist.

There are two genres that work particularly well for criticizing society and it’s comedy and horror. In his debut director and scenario writer, Jordan Peele combines the two.

It’s not easy to notice, rampant racism that he criticizes rather it’s an inherent racism that he criticizes, a kind of unintentional racism that might be somewhat present in those of us that really don't consider ourselves racist and that would feel shame to be labeled with that term.

He shows us what it is like to be black in a predominantly white society: the result is a trip that’s astonishing, sharp, funny and especially confronting.

The Armitages are to make his point and explore the film’s many layers about racism (although I’d have to say it’s primarily about inherent racism), dream characters:

They are not hate mongering, bible crazed, pitchfork swinging hillbillies, nor are they stereotypical rednecks. No, they’re about as liberal as you could be, the kind of people that claim believe in openness and tolerance.

And that’s what makes it especially frightening when we discover that their front of tolerance and white smiles, hide cores that are rotten. They might be anyone, minus some scarier stuff that I’m not gonna give away.

Get Out is truly genuinely frightening, funny and at times even painful to watch, it’s as I’ve mentioned confronting, it might at times make you feel bad, but luckily it’s not gonna be an altogether unpleasant experience because you’re rewarded to great laughs as well.

The figuratively and literally speaking black and white of this script, could, of course, apply to any country, but in this case, it applies especially, to American society, American society post-Obama that is.

Maybe I as a European focused more on something less profound than harsh digs about racism and discrimination in American society, maybe I especially sought out to be entertained. And let me tell you that entertainment is what you get in its purest form.

There are truly brilliant dialogues! And the characters feel well developed and alive, and all the actors do a tremendous job! Every single one, Daniel Kaluuya is the embodiment of fear and paranoia.  

And especially Allison Williams from Girls had me entirely fooled. Her Rose has to be one of the scariest villains I’ve personally encountered in a film.

And it’s because I’m usually quite good at identifying the villain, but she had me completely fooled, I might have missed any indication that her intentions towards Chris were not good. I was utterly shocked when I learned her true nature.

I mean just look at her (I know, difficult to ignore that utterly cute dog) she looks completely harmless:

(Pardon my french but I’ve got to vent a bit: Rose you fucking fake bitch! I thought you were a good person. I was expecting you were going to walk away without blood on your hands… )

Catherine Keener and her cup of tea are one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a while! This is probably a good time to mention all the symbolism in the film:

As I’ve always quite liked to do after watching a film, I like to dig deep into the internet and see other’s people vision on it, and you know learn some stuff I didn’t know beforehand, get smarter.

And so I learned that the cup of tea, that Keener’s character a psychiatrist uses to hypnotize patients, represents something far more sinister, than just a means of therapy.

Back in the heydays of slavery in America, there was a technique with which to call a slave: it was ticking with a spoon again a cup of tea if the slave heard or saw this gesture, they were expected to go up to their master or mistress.

Get Out is simply chock full of these kinds of symbolism and allegories, about racism and about slavery, for instance at one point there is a bingo game that’s actually an auction, a slave auction to be more precise.

Get Out as well as being about internalized racism, is about “modern slavery” as well. The Armitages love black people you see, but not entirely in a way that’s encouraged and healthy.

They look up to certain qualities of black people and they have an unnatural interest in these qualities, you see they view black not entirely as human, but rather as animals, that you’d observe with a genuine, scientific interest at a zoo.

For them black people serve a purpose, they are something they exploit for their own benefit, so when they admire qualities that black people are said to have traditionally, it’s not so much as that they truly genuinely admire these qualities.

It’s more about wanting these qualities for themselves, anyone that has seen the film, will see what sinister thing I’m referring to here.

And to benefit and exploit, they create a front of impeccable manners and flashy smiles, and good, liberal, tolerant morals.

What’s even scarier, is that it’s never clear whether the Armitages actually see themselves as bad, no, no, they might be so brainwashed by their own bullshit  that they seem to actually believe they are doing a good thing as they put it “we treat them like family.”

Now, of course, it’s not entirely without its flaws, but ultimately they are entirely forgivable.

Peele knows how to mix his themes with the plot until the very last scene - when you watch the film several times you will discover more and more. Also, it's a creepy mirror for white and black, that sets to thinking about relevant issues still present in society.

But it's also because Get Out is just a well-made film, conceived by someone who seems to know the laws of cinema to perfection. Peele, comedian, and actor, cleverly uses music, gets the best of his actors, times the jokes and scares perfectly and makes the most effective use of the camera.

Even if you struggle a bit with how the plot progresses towards the very end - and after all that inventiveness it's a bit of a disappointment a tiny disappointment, however - it still keeps going strong because it’s been almost flawlessly worked out in all of its aspects.

Last thing I will say: Believe the hype for once! Watch it! When you can and want of course :) It will be like nothing you’ve seen before, even if it may use some familiar horror elements, it’s also entirely original and unique in how it ultimately works them out. 

“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'.”