One of the biggest goals of a filmmaker with relation to the audience is to create a character in the story, that each and everyone of us can relate to. Whether that's the hero we wish we were; or the romantic lead that we just want to get the girl; or the flawed detective trying to redeem a life of bad decisions and mediocrity by exposing the corruption of the man. Each one of these characters should have SOMETHING that the general audience member can see in themselves.

Even I'm surprised that I have a tanngential thought this early in the rant, but it does bring up an interesting counterpoint, which is lesbian porn. I've always, myself preferred watching two lovely ladies get it on together than see some huge cocked porn star give it to the attractive female, and never understood why my friends were the opposite. I'd ask, "Why would you want to see a dick in there, when you don't have to?" And every single time, the answer was the same. They'd say, "Because in my head, I AM that big cock (or rather the gentlemen wielding it.)" They could see their self in the lead.

Editor note, the writer has recently been able to enjoy a much wider array of pornography since accepting this argument... TMI?

So, that is why I found GET OUT to be such a fascinating film. Obviously, it's gotten INCREDIBLE reviews. That a comedy sketch guy like Jordan Peele, could put out such a can I say, tour de force, like GET OUT is incredible, but the reason I loved it so much surprised me as much as the superb execution of the material did.

Because from the very start, it says, "YOU CAN'T RELATE TO THE MAIN CHARACTER."

It's a movie set in the "post-racial" world in which we lived for 8 years under a black president, where white liberals all over got to lean back on their vote for Obama as a veritable "mission accomplished" when it came to racism. And yet we don't get it. A world in which Kanye once gave the entire audience, filled with white people, a one time pass at the n word, so they could rap along to all the lyrics they knew and loved so well. And yet this movie states, "You don't get it."

The lead character, played brilliantly by Daniel Kaluuya, is charming, attractive and intelligent. He's patient, when the cop pulls them over and asks to see his ID. He's sensitive about whether or not the white female lead's parents know he's black. He knows who he is.

But wish as we may, this is not the character, that the audience gets to see themselves as. Instead we get to be Allison Williams. She is the, "I'm dating a black guy, and it's normal, don't you think it's normal, what... are you a racist?" white liberal that so many of us have become. She's woke. She's cool. She's post-racial.

But then the movie progresses, and you start to sense, that her family is down with some fucked up shit. And you think, no, not her. She's cool (read: I'm cool.) And the whole movie, you're just hoping and praying that either she doesn't know what's going on, or she's been hypnotized and is above it. You yearn for it so hard (and this is obviously a nod to incredible writing and direction) all the way until she finally breaks in the final act, and doesn't give him the keys to escape. Because unfortunately, SHE is who WE have been the whole time. And god dammit, but she's been the bait the whole fucking time. Truly, it's not even technically a big reveal. The director has made it SCREAMINGLY obvious the brother is in on it. The parents have already shown themselves as the hypnotist and the auctioneer / surgeon, and yet there is still this very profound part of us that is rooting for her to be a victim of all this mess as well. We NEED it to be true.

The other VERY interesting layer of this to me was that the movie is not actually about a "racist" family that is kidnapping killing black people because they hate them. The trailer did a decent job of making you think that maybe this was something that we've seen before. Something we could get behind, and cheer, "fuck you racists!" as the evil ignorant whites mistreat this victim. But that's NOT what you've got here. What we've got is just some fucked up BEING JOHN MALKOVICH'esque life extension cult that captures what any given individual in their group has deemed a desirable physical specimen, so they can enter them and become them, and continue on living. It just so happens that in this day and age, black people are "fit and strong" or "in fashion" or, in the case of the winning bidder "just a great eye for photography." That's what makes the dinner party scene so much more cutting in it's commentary. These are actually left wing, east coast elites that are just trying their best to relate to the black guest by saying nails on a chalkboard inducing things like, "I would have voted for Obama a third time, given the chance," or "I love Tiger, he's the best."

If you get the chance, track down the director's commentary on the original ending. As it stands in the theatrical release, the character Chris is about to strangle Rose, when is TSA buddy roles up, and rescues him. It's a wonderful moment for him to not give in to his baser revenge, and to walk away clean. The hero we need. But in the original script (which was filmed), at a time before the election, when black men all over the country were being shot without recourse, and wrongly imprisoned, he chokes her to death, just as the police roll up. Since the house burned down, and he's caught red handed, he is carted off to jail. An all too familiar scene of a black man getting wrongly arrested and convicted by a system stacked against him.

This film got to me in such an awesome way. It reminded me that I DON'T know shit about the struggle. That there are still horribly wrong things going on. And that it's not even the overt racism that's the problem, but the latent inequality prevalent in our speech and relation to each other that is allowing the atrocities of the day.

Thanks for reading.

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