Get Out

This has got a lot of hype as the big social-issues horror movie of the year. Which possibly reflects why this didn't quite grab me as much as it has other people - I'm not necessarily backlashing, but it may be a combination of over-exposure to the trailer and a lot of enthusiasm out there (plus never underestimate the power of seeing a horror movie in a full theatre rather than an almost-empty one), but this didn't quite grab me the way it seems to have grabbed a lot of people.

The basic setup is sound - young black man goes to meet his white girlfriend's parents in their cut-off-from-the-outside-world country home, only to become increasingly disturbed by their attentions and their strange treatment of their two black employees. As the weekend goes on, will he be able to escape before it's too late?

I am, of course, a white guy, so it's very possible I'm not getting the subtlety of how this film captures the icky nature of cross-racial interaction, but for me this felt a little flat and obvious - and the late-film reveal as to what's really going on seemed to muddy the underlying symbolism rather than improve it (no, it's not quite what it seems in the trailers, but this is a case where going with what was in the trailers may have been the better option). Performances are mostly pretty solid - Daniel Kaluuya is a sympethitic hero, Bradley Whitford has moved his old yuppie skeeviness into a more academic-style skeeviness, Catherine Keener uses her calm no-bullshit persona and weaponises it, and Stephen Root has a crucial role to play that's both intriguing and ultimately part of why I'm not entirely convinced the film utterly works. But this didn't quite click with me - it's interesting but not best-of-the-year material for me.