REVIEWS: GET OUT and US

TWO REVIEWS: “GET OUT” and “US”
In the last week, I saw two Hollywood productions: GET OUT and US. GET OUT was made in 2017 and US was released in March this year. GET OUT was director Jordan Peele’s debut film; US is his second film. Before that, he was associated with a TV comedy series; but let me get this straight: GET OUT and US have no element of comedy whatsoever!
But according to me, these shouldn’t be categorised as movies in the horror genre either, as has been done by many reviewers in the US. I would rather categorise them as edge-of-the-seat thrillers, which thrill viewers not by shock-and-awe scenes of gore and horrifying faces and creatures, but merely by the idea that forms the basis of the storyline.
The last time, I was impressed by a movie of that genre was last year’s Emily Blunt starrer A QUIET PLACE.
GET OUT and US have been in the news for other reasons as well. They have been resounding box office hits in terms of return on investment ( movies scoring more than $200 million world wide); GET OUT made on a budget of $ 5 million reaped $255 million and US with a budget of about $20 million has already crossed $250 million worldwide. Just goes to prove the point that well made original idea thrillers without celebrated box-office stars can still click and click very well.
In terms of critical reception, GET OUT was nominated for the Oscars for best movie, best director, best actor and best original screenplay, and won the award in the last category. I felt that this was rather unfair, considering that THE SHAPE OF WATER got the awards in the first two categories. And after seeing US, I will be surprised if this doesn’t get featured in the nominations for best movie, best director, best actress and best original screenplay.
Jordan Peele is an African American and both his movies feature African Americans as important members of the star cast. Since I don’t reveal the plots or spoilers in any of my reviews, I won’t go beyond saying that GET OUT takes a peek at the ugly face of racism in the US and US takes a deep probe on what it means to be amongst the less fortunate.
I am not sure as to how folks with fear dominated fertile imagination capabilities will react to these movies, but for the rest, these are not worth a miss!

RATINGS
GET OUT: 4 out of 5
US: 4 out of 5

July 8, 2019