Get Out

Earning USD 150 million at the US box office with a budget of less than five million dollars? Jason Blum is the man. And it seems that a new age of black directing talent is at hand. The atmosphere of Get Out is reminiscent of the works of Stephen King, and had it been based on one of his books, it would have been one of the best King adaptations ever. The psychological horror formula, intensely and courageously built on the sensitive issue of racism, will send chills down your spine. Flawlessly directed with intelligent social insight, the movie is effective thanks both to the tension between the characters and purely genre elements (jump scares, raising of the tension using visual tricks). If it had a cleverer ending, it would be a work with precision reaching the level of Shyamalan’s famous trilogy. [ArcLight Santa Monica] (03/30/2017)

The atmosphere of the film Get Out is its strong point, where some scenes are truly shot so hauntingly uncomfortably that you'll be stunned. The scene with the runner, for example, literally gives me chills. But the real strong element of the film is the performances, especially Daniel Kaluuya and the actors portraying the Armitage household, who deliver incredible performances primarily through facial expressions and emotions. A great experience seen in the movie theater! (04/28/2017)

A feature-length episode of Black Mirror, which the wave of last year's Moonlight and related racial themes nonsensically elevated to the level of a battle for Oscars. Daniel Kaluuya authentically experiences all the sensitive and menacing moments in the role of the main protagonist, and I am very glad to see the underappreciated Allison Williams in a leading role, but it's not enough. An interesting concept is not sufficient for an entire film, and after all the reviews, I inevitably expected a foundation of a new direction or at least a surprisingly well-guided genre film. However, nothing lies beneath this slightly superficial portrayal with its one-sided point. (02/21/2018)

Good, but I think that it’s been way overhyped in America as a result of the racial tone, which resonates more across the pond than in here. What’s interesting, though, is that in the film itself, the racial lines are not that broad and the “raciscm” of the villains is rather superficial. What I find thought-provoking is the controversy about whether the villains make instruments out of the blacks simply because of racism, or because. in many aspects (at least in some cases), they consider them better. But I’m not sure whether that controversy is intentional or whether the script is not entirely clear on what it wants to say. The basic concept is pretty cheesy, certainly more than I had expected. There’s also less horror than I had expected, and more comedy. The comedic moments, in particular, were pretty irritating. I have nothing a priori against comedy elements in horror, but here they clearly disrupted the paranoid atmosphere (laughter doesn’t go very well with it) and, to my taste, the humour was very simple, though effective. Instead of that, I would have welcomed a broader explanation of the mechanism of what is actually happening to those black people, because the film addresses it only very roughly, to the point that it gave me a messy impression. And I was also slightly disappointed that it was missing a surprising moment. Yeah, the premise overall is original, but the plot moves within relatively predictable lines – I figured out the one relatively big twist ten minutes in advance. Things should have got moving after that, but instead, they were over pretty quickly. The comment may sound too critical, but that’s because I was really convinced I was going to see the best horror film in recent years. Not even by chance, but it is certainly a good film. Edit: After the second viewing my quibbles have disappeared. It’s awesome! The explanations of the events turned out to be enough and the second time you can really enjoy those little nuances in the performances that show that the whole thing is excellently thought-out. (04/28/2017)

There's a bit of a nervous director's claw in the horror scenes, and as a result the finale doesn't destroy you as much as it should, but up until that point it's such an apt and poignant escalation of the "black mask" issue that it's just impossible not to enjoy it. I'm rooting for commercial success to the hilt. As the cliché goes: it makes it real. Tarantino must have snorted with delight at this one. (04/29/2017)