Thursday, June 22, 2017

se isn't actually sticking up for Chris when she argues with the cop about showing ID. She's avoiding a paper trail.

Had the cop run both their licenses, there would be a record that Chris and Rose were together before his eventual disappearance.

2. After Rose and Chris hit the deer, Chris goes to see if it's OK. Two things are happening here: 1) It's the first introduction to the hit-and-run theme. 2) Chris shows empathy; Rose does not.

It lets on that Rose might not be as good of heart as we gleaned from the first few scenes.

3. Dean has a lot to say about how little he cares for deer and bucks. "Black buck" was a racist slur in post-Reconstruction America for black men who refused to bow to white authority.

And fittingly, he is killed with the symbol of his own racism when Chris impales Dean with the antler of a mounted buck.

4. Georgina spills the iced tea because Missy accidentally clinks a spoon against a glass, sending her into a brief hypnosis.

5. There are omega (Ω) symbols outside the Armitage's home. Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, which may represent "the end" for Chris.

6. On the tour, Dean remarks, "We hired Georgina and Walter to help care for my parents. When they died, I couldn't bear to let them go." There's a pronoun antecedent slip here, and it's on purpose. He couldn't bear to let "them" — as in his parents, not Georgina and Walter — go.

So — yada yada yada — he gave his parents new life by putting their brains in younger bodies. Totally normal stuff.

7. Walter, who we know is really Dean's father, is probably running because he never got over his loss to Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

8. Georgina was probably fixing her bangs in the reflection of the window so her lobotomy scars wouldn't be visible.

9. It's the same reason we never see Walter without a hat.

Ditto this dude, Logan.

10. "The sunken place" can be seen as a metaphor for the paralysis people of color feel in racial America.

11. Everyone at the party is wearing some form of red...

...but Chris is wearing blue.

Maybe it's a simple "us vs. them" motif or maybe it speaks to a caricature of American political parties.

12. Chris and Rose's shirts form a sad-looking American flag.

13. And Rose is also giving off some vague Freddy Krueger vibes.

14. Chris's cell phone camera gives him his first insight into the mystery of Logan's strange behavior. Cell phone footage has been instrumental in shedding light on police brutality cases in America in recent years.

And during the finale, when Chris sees police lights on the dark road, he immediately puts his hands up, despite being the one in danger. You can read more about that here.

15. The "bingo game" has some pretty overt shared imagery with slave auctions.

16. As do these leather binds.

17. When Chris rips the stuffing out of the leather chair, he's literally being forced to "pick cotton."

18. The image of Rose eating Froot Loops and milk separately can be seen as a metaphor for never mixing nonwhite and white things.

Also that entire scene where she's shopping around for new victims while Chris is about to undergo his lobotomy could serve as criticism for white women's passive indifference to racism in America.

19. Jeremy foreshadows his own death when he talks about jujitsu over dinner. Chris stays "moves ahead" when they're grappling and finally overpowers him.

Same with Dean when he talks about the "cleansing power" of fire.

20. While Chris is forced to watch the TV, the video keeps repeating "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," which was a slogan for the United Negro College Fund.

21. The knight's helmet we see in the white car has some overlapping language with the "White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan."

...who are known for being the most violent chapter of the KKK.

22. And finally, Dean is played by Bradley Whitford, who also played Eric in Billy Madison.

This is hilarious to me for some reason.

With the ambitious and challenging “Get Out,” which premiered in a secret screening at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Jordan Peele reveals that we may someday consider directing the greatest talent of this fascinating actor and writer. We knew from his days on “Key & Peele” and in feature comedies that he was a multiple threat, but his directorial debut is a complex, accomplished genre hybrid that should alter his business card. “Get Out” feels fresh and sharp in a way that studio horror movies almost never do. It is both unsettling and hysterical, often in the same moment, and it is totally unafraid to call people on their racist bullshit. When he introduced the film in Park City, he revealed that it started with an attempt to write a movie he hadn’t seen before. We need more directors willing to take risks with films like "Get Out."
To be fair, Peele is clearly riffing on some films he has seen before, including “The Stepford Wives” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” although with a charged, racial twist. His film is essentially about that unsettling feeling when you know you don’t belong somewhere; when you know you’re unwanted or perhaps even wanted too much. Peele infuses the age-old genre foundation of knowing something is wrong behind the closed doors around you with a racial, satirical edge. What if going home to meet your girlfriend’s white parents wasn’t just uncomfortable but downright life-threatening?
“Get Out” opens with a fantastic tone-setter. A young man (the great Keith Stanfield, in two other movies at this year’s Sundance and fantastic on FX’s “Atlanta”) is walking down a suburban street, joking with someone on the phone about how he always gets lost because all the streets sound the same. A car passes him, turns around, and slowly starts following him. It’s an otherwise empty street, so the guy knows something is wrong. Suddenly, and perfectly staged in terms of Peele’s direction, the intensity of the situation is amplified and we are thrust into a world in which the safe-looking suburbs are anything but.
Cut to our protagonists, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams of “Girls”), preparing to go home to meet her parents. Rose hasn’t told them he’s black, which she blows off as no big deal, but he’s wary. His TSA Agent buddy (a hysterical LilRel Howery) warns him against going too, but Chris is falling in love with Rose. He’ll have to meet them eventually. And Rose swears her dad would have voted for Obama a third time if he could have.
From the minute that Chris and Rose arrive at her parents’ house, something is unsettling. Sure, Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener) seem friendly enough, but almost too much so, like they’re looking to impress Chris. More unnerving is the demeanor of a groundskeeper named Walter (Marcus Henderson) and a housekeeper named Georgina (Betty Gabriel), who almost appear to be like the pod people from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” There’s just something wrong. But, as we so often do in social or racial situations, Chris keeps trying to excuse their behavior—maybe Walter is jealous and maybe Georgina has an issue with Chris being with a white woman. The lurking presence of Rose’s odd brother (Caleb Landry Jones), who often looks like he’s auditioning for a remake of “A Clockwork Orange,” doesn’t help. Chris goes out to have a smoke one night, and, well, things start to get even stranger in ways I won’t spoil—in fact, the preview gives away way too much. Avoid it if you can.
“Get Out” is a slow-burn of a film for its first half as Peele piles up the clues that something is wrong. Or could Chris just be overreacting to everyday racial tension? Peele’s greatest gift here is in the way he walks that fine line, staging exchanges that happen all the time but imbuing them with a greater degree of menace. As white partygoers comment on Chris’ genetically-blessed physical gifts, the mind is racing as to what exactly the greater purpose of this visit is for this young man, a minority in a sea of white people who seem to want to own him, which is itself a razor-sharp commentary on the way we often seek to possess cultural aspects other than our own.
Then Peele drops his hammer. The final act of “Get Out” is an unpredictable thrill ride. As a writer, Peele doesn’t quite bring all of his elements together in the climax in the way I wish he would, but he proves to be a strong visual artist as a director, finding unique ways to tell a story that goes increasingly off the rails. The insanity of the final act allows some of the satirical, racially-charged issues to drop away, which is slightly disappointing. He’s playing with so many interesting ideas when it comes to race that I wish the film felt a bit more satisfying in its payoff, even if that disappointment is amply offset by the pure intensity of the final scenes, during which Peele displays a skill with horror action that I didn’t know he had.
Peele works well with actors too, drawing a great leading man turn from Kaluuya, letting Williams essentially riff on her “Girls” persona, and knowing exactly what to do with Whitford & Keener, both of whom have always had that dangerous edge to their amiability. They’re excellent at working something sinister into their gracious host routines.
Most importantly, Peele knows how to keep his concept front and center. “Get Out” is not a film that takes breaks for comedy routines (even if Howery allows a little relief, it's often in the context of how he's convinced all white people want black sex slaves), keeping us on edge and uncertain from the opening scene to the final one. He understands that every time a black man goes home to visit his white girlfriend’s parents, there is uncertainty and unease. He’s merely turning that up, using an easily identifiable racial tension to make a horror movie. Many of our greatest genre filmmakers have done exactly the same thing—amplifying fears already embedded in the human condition for the purpose of movie horror. We just don’t often see something quite so ambitious from a February horror flick or a first-time director. Even if the second half doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of the first, Peele doesn’t just deserve credit for trying something so daring; he should have producers knocking down his door to see what else he’s never seen before.

Get out alternate ending

With a budget of just $5 million and a box office gross close to 40 times that, allegorical horror film Get Out has emerged as 2017’s biggest surprise hit.
But it’s not just entertainment value that made Get Out resonate so much with audiences — the film’s portrayal of racism in America struck a chord, particularly at a time when repeated cases of police brutality have put the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the spotlight.
Now with Get Out out on DVD in the US, fans have been given a look at a bunch of brand new special features — including a completely different, politically-charged alternate ending.
In the version of Get Out that made it to the big screen, Daniel Kaluuya’s character Chris is rescued in the final scene by his friend Rod — who arrives driving an airport police car, flashing blue and red lights. The alternate ending? The actual police show up, and things don’t pan out so well for Chris:
Film

Watch The ‘Get Out’ Alternate Ending Everyone’s Losing Their Mind Over

by Katie Cunningham 19 May 2017

The post discusses the ending of Get Out. Spoilers, obviously.
—
With a budget of just $5 million and a box office gross close to 40 times that, allegorical horror film Get Out has emerged as 2017’s biggest surprise hit.
But it’s not just entertainment value that made Get Out resonate so much with audiences — the film’s portrayal of racism in America struck a chord, particularly at a time when repeated cases of police brutality have put the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the spotlight.
Now with Get Out out on DVD in the US, fans have been given a look at a bunch of brand new special features — including a completely different, politically-charged alternate ending.
In the version of Get Out that made it to the big screen, Daniel Kaluuya’s character Chris is rescued in the final scene by his friend Rod — who arrives driving an airport police car, flashing blue and red lights. The alternate ending? The actual police show up, and things don’t pan out so well for Chris:
In the DVD commentary, director Jordan Peele hints that America’s political climate convinced him to end Get Out on a less depressing note.
“The idea here is… the house and all the evidence has burned down, and this is a system that values the rich white people and takes their side,” he says. “So my feeling is what would happen in this movie is Chris would end up in jail, just because of how it looks. [But] by the time I was shooting this, it was clear the world had shifted.”
In an interview with Buzzfeed podcast Another Round, Peele explained his vision further: “In the beginning, when I was first making this movie the idea was, ‘Okay, we’re in this post-racial world, apparently.’ That was the whole idea. People were saying, like, ‘We’ve got Obama so racism is over, let’s not talk about it.’ It’s a wrap. That’s what the movie was meant to address.
“These are all clues, if you don’t already know, that racism isn’t over. So the ending in that era was meant to say, ‘Look, you think race isn’t an issue?’ Well at the end, we all know this is how this movie would end right here.”

Get out movie plot summary

In the opening scene, a young black man named Dre (Keith Stanfield) is walking alone at night through a perfectly manicured suburban street. A little sports car pulls up and starts slowly tracking him. Andre gets spooked, says, "fuck this shit", and changes directions to briskly walk back the way he came. When he turns to see what the car did, he sees its parked where it was, but the door is open. From out of nowhere, a man in a medieval helmet attacks the black guy and drags his body to the car.

Rose (Allison Williams) shows up to her photographer boyfriend Chris's (Daniel Kaluuya) apartment with pastries and coffee. They're getting ready to go away for the weekend to visit her family and hes concerned that they don't know she's dating a black guy. She assures him that, while they will likely say some stupid things, they are incredibly progressive. Her dad would have even voted for Obama a third time if he could have. He makes sure hes the only black guy Rose has ever dated. She says he is, but is confident that her parents will be totally cool.

On the ride to her parents home, Chris goes for a cigarette, but Rose takes it and throws it out the window. She tells him that parents would really frown on her dating a smoker. Chris calls his buddy Rod (LilRel Howery), a TSA agent and reminds him to take care of his dog and not to feed him human food. Rod berates Chris about going to visit the white folk and says its a bad idea (Rod does not approve of his friend Chris dating a white woman). He also flirts with Rose a little bit. Chris gets a little jealous and Rose thinks its sweet. While they're deep in conversation and not entirely paying attention to the road, a deer darts out in front of the car and is hit.

They pull over to investigate and call the police. The police show up and ask what they're doing in the area. Rose tells them that they're visiting her family who live nearby. The officer asks to see Chris's ID, but Rose steps in and says that because he wasn't driving there's no need for that. The officer lets them go and Chris tells Rose that was hot the way she stood up for him to the racist policeman.

Chris and Rose arrive at her parents home. Her father, Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) is an affable neurosurgeon who, yes, tells Chris that he would have voted for Obama a third time if he could have. Her mother, Missy (Catherine Keener) is a strangely cold hypnotherapist. She offers to cure Chris of his nicotine addiction through hypnosis, but he doesn't feel cool with people tooling around in his head.

The Armitages also have two onsite black helpers. Walter (Marcus Henderson) the groundskeeper and Georgina (Betty Gabriel) the maid/housekeeper. Dean acknowledges that it looks bad, two wealthy white people having two helpers who are black, but they were hired to take care of his parents and Dean would have felt bad letting them go. There's definitely something off about both Walter and Georgina. They have a definite stiff Stepford artificial politeness about them. They also both speak using dated vernacular.

Dean gives Chris a tour of the house and shows him old family photos. Dean claims that his father was a track runner who was beat out by Jesse Owens to compete in the 1936 Olympics in front of Hitler. And while that was sad for his dad, it was still great to have Hitler's Aryan idealism proven wrong. There is also photos of Rose's brother who will be joining them later. He's a surgeon like his dad, but he went through a rough patch.

The family gets together for afternoon tea. Missy asks about Chris's parents. Chris claims that his father left when he was young and his mother died after she hit by a car when he was age 11. Georgina sort of short circuits while pouring tea and Missy tells her to go lay down and get some rest. The Armitages tell Rose that they're having their big party tomorrow. She's surprised and they remind her that it's the same day every year. Rose's brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) arrives. He's an aggressively spoiled rich kid.

That night the family has dinner and a drunk Jeremy starts talking to Chris about MMA fighting. He says that because Chris comes from a hearty stock he'd be a natural. He wants to spar, but Chris says that he has rules about play fighting with drunks. Dean and Missy tell Jeremy that maybe its time for him to go to bed.

Chris and Rose retire to their room where she apologizes for her family and they go to sleep. In the middle of the night, Chris gets up and decides to sneak out for a cigarette. While outside he sees something in the distance charging him. It's Walter! He heads straight for Chris, but makes a sharp turn at the last moment and runs off in another direction. Inside the house, Georgina is staring out a window. It turns out she's looking at her own reflection, not Chris. She adjusts her hair and Chris decides to head back inside.

Before Chris can make it back to his room, Missy turns on a light and startles him. She tells him that smoking is a bad habit and offers again to help him quit. He sits down and mocks the notion of hypnotism unaware of the fact that she's slowly hypnotizing him while using her tea spoon as a focus object. She takes him back to when he was 11 on the night his mom died. Chris tells Missy that his mother didn't come home from work and he was took scared to do anything about it. He was afraid that if he called the police it would make it real. So he just sat there watching television nervously digging his nails into his bedposts. Present day Chris is doing the same thing, digging his nails into the arms of the chair. She tells him to sink and 11 year old Chris sinks into his bed, while present day Chris sinks into blackness seeing himself and Missy far above. His consciousness has left his body, while his body is still paralyzed in his chair.

He wakes in the morning and checks his phone. Rod has sent Chris a picture of him pretending to give his dog beer. His battery is low, so he plugs it in. Chris tells Rose that he thinks maybe her mom hypnotized him last night. He has vague recollections of the evening.

The Armitages wealthy friends start to show up for the big party. Its mostly older white people who say a lot of inappropriate things to Chris like how he has a good build, because Tiger Woods golfs he must have a good swing too, are black guys better in bed, etc. Chris sneaks off and finds a blind man named Jim Hudson (Stephen Root) who says that all the people at the party are ignorant. He's an art dealer and Chris is well aware of who he is. Jim says that he's a fan of Chris's work. He recognizes the irony of a blind art dealer, but tells him that he has a really good assistant who is great at describing pieces. He envies Chris's eye. Jim says that he himself tried photography, but was never very good at it.

Chris goes back to mingling with the guests and discovers another black guy in attendance. It's a young guy about his age. Chris tries to bond with him, but he too is stiff and unnatural like Walter and Georgina. (Note: a sharp eye will notice that this man is Dre from the opening of the movie.) There's something about him that seems familiar to Chris though.

Chris decides to check in with Rod again. When he returns to his phone he finds it unplugged again. He plugs it in and calls Rod to tell him everything that's been going on. Rod tells him that white people love to have sex slaves and he needs to get out of there. Rose finds Chris and he tells her how weird everything is and that his phone was unplugged again. She tells him he's just being paranoid because he's in an uncomfortable situation. He agrees and she leaves. Rod tells Chris to take a picture of the black guy and he will see if he remembers him. As Chris is about to leave, hes blocked by Georgina who apologizes for unplugging his cellular phone. She was dusting the night stand and lifted it up. That's when it came unplugged and she didn't want to mess with it further. He says that its fine and hopes that he didn't mean to rat her out. She doesn't understand. So he clarifies that he didn't mean to get her in trouble. She gets super weird and lets out a single tear while telling him that the Armitages treat her like family.

Chris goes back outside and tries to discreetly take the familiar black man's picture with his cell phone, but has forgotten to turn off the flash. As soon as his phone flashes, the man changes. He goes from overly prim and proper to raving. His nose starts bleeding and he jumps at Chris telling him, "Get out! Get the fuck out while you still can!"

Rose is freaked out now too. She asks her dad what happened and he explains that the flash just caused the man to have a seizure. The man comes out and apologies for upsetting everyone and says he must return home. Chris and Rose go for a walk and Chris tells her that he's sure he recognizes the guy and that something strange is definitely going on. She agrees by saying that it did not seem like a seizure at all. Chris says that he'd really like to go home now. Rose reluctantly agrees. She says she will make up something to tell her parents.

Back at the house, Dean is holding an auction with his guests. Next to him is a picture of Chris. Jim Hudson has won the auction. The rest of the guests all go home.

Chris goes back to pack his belongings and gets a call from Rod who tells him that the guy in the picture is a guy named Dre whom they knew who used to work at a movie theater, but went missing some weeks ago. The phone battery dies. Chris notices the closet door is open. He looks inside and finds a box filled with photos of Rose posed romantically with many other black guys. Also there are photos of her with both Walter and Georgina who don't look at all like the robotic versions of themselves we've come to know so far. Apparently Chris isn't the first black guy Rose has been with after all!

Rose returns and Chris says that he needs the keys to put their bags in the car. She looks for them in her purse as they make their way out of the house. Suddenly, Jeremy appears blocking the front door. Dean and Missy are there too. Jeremy is ready to attack, but Missy and Dean tell him to calm down. Chris keeps telling Rose to get the keys. Missy and Dean tell Chris that they don't want him to leave. Chris asks for the keys again and Rose says, very calmly: "You know I can't give you the keys". Chris finally realizes that Rose too is in on whatever this is. Jeremy attacks Chris. Dean yells and Missy clinks he tea spoon on her glass causing Chris to sink back into the dark void again.

Meanwhile, Rod keeps trying to call Chris, but it keeps going straight to voicemail. He looks up the picture of the guy in the photo and sees that he went missing some time ago, so he goes to the police. He tells a female officer that his boy was kidnapped by white folk to be a sex slave just like the missing guy in the picture. She calls in two more officers to listen to Rod's story. When he finishes, they all burst out laughing. No one is going to take him seriously.

Chris wakes up to find himself tied to a chair in front of a mounted deer head and an old TV. He watches a video made by Dean's father that talks about immortality and stuff like that. Chris sees that his finger nails have clawed through the leather arm of the chair and exposed the padding. The teacup and spoon appear on the screen again. TING TING TING and he's out.

Rod tries Chris's phone again and Rose answers. She lies by saying that Chris left two days ago and is concerned about his whereabouts too. Rose says that Chris left in a taxi or an Uber maybe. Rod tells her that he went to the police and she seems concerned about this. He starts to realize that something is wrong, so he tries to record the call. When he goes back to talking to her, she tells him she knows that he has the hots for her. He tells her she's a crazy bitch and hangs up.

Chris wakes up and Jim Hudson is on the screen. He tells Chris that they're going to swap brains. The other people at the party were all about being black, but Jim couldn't give less of a shit about that. What he really wants is to be able to see the world through Chris's eyes. Dean has perfected the neurosurgery to make this all possible. And Missy hypnotizes the body donors to prep them for the procedure. He will continue existing in the dark void, but will be able to continue on as sort of a passenger. The flashing is an unfortunate side effect as they saw earlier at the party. TING TING TING of the teaspoon and Chris is out again.

Dean and Jeremy prep Jim Hudson for a brain transplant. Dean tells Jeremy to go get Chris. Jeremy goes down the hall, we see now were in the basement of the house, and finds Chris unconscious. He takes of his restraints and gets an I.V. ready. Chris wasn't unconscious after all. He stuffed the padding from the chair in his ears to block the sound of the tea spoon. He knocks out Jeremy.

Dean starts calling for Jeremy and goes out of the lab area to check on him. Chris rushes him and impales him with the deer antlers from the other room. He knocks over a candle that ignites the blanket covering Jim Hudson too.

Rose has earbuds in and isn't aware any of this is going on.

Chris goes upstairs and finds Missy. She goes for the tea cup and spoon, but Chris beats her to them and smashes them. Instead she attacks him with a knife, but he turns it on her and stabs her to death. Chris goes for the front door again, but Jeremy has returned and puts him in a choke hold. Chris breaks free and finally kills Jeremy. He runs outside and gets in Jeremy's car. On the passenger seat is the medieval helmet from earlier. He starts down the driveway, but hits Georgina. He can't just let her lay there like his mom did, so he gets her in the car and continues down the driveway. She wakes up and attacks him. In the process her wig falls off and we see she has a scar across her head from a brain transplant too. They crash into a tree and she dies.

Suddenly, the rear view mirror is blown away. Rose is coming after Chris with a gun. He begs her to stop, but she's more worried about the condition of her grandma. (Note: Georgina was the vessel in which Rose's grandmother's brain is now housed!) Rose shoots again and misses Chris. From out of nowhere, Walter runs in an tackles Chris. He takes the gun from Rose and she says, "kill him grandpa." Walter aims at Chris, but Chris takes his picture. Flash! Walter turns and shoots Rose instead. Then he takes the gun and shoots himself in the head.

Rose is on the ground bleeding out. Chris gets to his feet and then a police car pulls up. Rose smiles with her last breath. The door opens and it's Rod. Chris gets in the car. Rod looks at the chaos and says, "Man, I told you not to go in that house."

Synopsis Beauty and the Beast