Well-loved comedian Jordan Peele gained even more fans with this stunningly layered debut, carving out his own "racial horror" sub-genre.
The brilliant and horrific directorial debut from comedian
Jordan Peele, who’s earned himself a cult-like following as a filmmaker over the past couple years. Peele penned one of the greatest horror screenplays of all time with
Get Out - it’s perceptive, penetrating, deeply layered, and full of symbolism - and it’s one of only a handful of horror films to ever
win an Academy Award, a victory made even more notable by the fact that Jordan Peele also became the first black filmmaker to ever win Best Original Screenplay.
As I noted,
Get Out is rife with symbolism. Whether it’s the affluent white mother in the film literally weaponizing the silver spoon, or it’s the black protagonist appropriating the reprehensible history of slaves being forced to pick cotton and transforming that act, owning it for himself, and turning oppression into power:
Get Out is a masterclass in layered storytelling. Peele’s metaphorical writing is consciously packaged into a film that’s as enlightening and sublimely intelligent as it is accessible.
It’s a groundbreaking film through and through, and as a filmmaker, Jordan Peele is nothing if not inspiring. His work, among that of other African Americans, is indisputable proof that Hollywood needs more black filmmakers telling black stories, and it’s a shame to think all we’ve lost culturally by waiting so long to provide these storytellers a platform from which to speak and spread their art on a mass scale (and many would argue that platform still isn’t even fully built).
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