Get Out (2017)

Horror movies are low on Jack's and my priorities so we were pleasantly surprised by how much we liked this story of an African-American meeting his white girlfriend's rich parents and realizing his problems only start with racism. Jordan Peele (co-wrote Keanu) is the first African-American director to make over $100 million with his feature debut ($110m and counting in week three with a budget of about $4.5m). Peele also wrote the tight script--plenty of laughs--and does not appear on the screen, though his former comedy partner Keegan-Michael Key is on a laptop screen in a Bing search near the end (I blinked, I missed it).

Daniel Kaluuya (apparently he was in Sicario, but I don't remember) is terrific as the lead, Chris. I never would have guessed he's British and thus not African-American. This is the first movie for Allison Williams (best known for 56 episodes of Girls and the title role in the highly disappointing Peter Pan Live! TV movie) who is the sweet girlfriend Rose. Peele couldn't have cast better parents than Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener (last blogged for Other People and Begin Again, respectively).

Plenty of support is evident from Lakeith Stanfield (most recently in these pages for Snowden) who appears as a victim in the very first scene (I don't want to give anything away), Betty Gabriel (eight episodes of Good Girls Revolt, among other things) as Georgina, Stephen Root (last in Hello, My Name Is Doris) as the art dealer, and comedian LilRel Howery AKA Lil Rel (new to me) as Chris' best friend Rod.

Another feature debut is made by composer Michael Abels and you can stream his appropriately creepy soundtrack here. The wonderful opening track, which also plays over the end credits, is called Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga, a Swahili phrase that translates to “listen to (your) ancestors” and the song’s lyrics loosely mean “something bad is coming. Run.” Listen to it here. Childish Gambino, the band headed up by Donald Glover, also supplies some of the songs. Stanfield is one of the stars of Glover's series Atlanta.

Critics are falling over themselves in praise of this, averaging 99% on Rotten Tomatoes to audiences' 89. It's still raking in box office receipts but is estimated to have a DVD release in May. We think it's terrific and will be fine on big screen or small.