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Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris Washington in the new horror comedy "Get Out."
Contributed photo
"Get Out" twists horror into racial commentary
▶ GUS HUNNINGHAKE @gushunninghake
before coming into the spotlight as a director, Jordan Peele made a name for himself as a man with Comedy Central's sketch comedy show "Key and Peele." The show featured sketches with mixes of deep social commentary and hard-to-ignore, gut-busting jokes.
Since the show's end, Peele has turned away from sketches with partner Keegan Michael Key and toward writing and directing films. His debut film "Get Out," a horror-comedy, aims to kick-start Peele's career in an entirely new direction.
"Get Out" stars Daniel
Kaluuya as Chris Washington, a run-of-the-mill man who's been dating Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) long enough for her to invite him to meet her parents. Chris is hesitant at first, wondering if the fact that he's black will change how Rose's parents see him.
This movie is deserving of a watch with little to no knowledge. The film is easily one of the smartest, most cerebral horror-comedy films of recent memory. Peele surprises with his
Upon arrival, everything seems normal. But, as the weekend progresses, Chris begins to uncover sinister secrets about the family that he never could've seen coming.
unique directing quality and amazingly thoughtful story. By the end of the film, it is clear every shot is important. Whether it's to develop Chris' character or the overarching narrative, Peele's direction — that incorporates tensing long takes and close-ups — meshes the skill from behind the camera and in front from the acting.
Speaking of acting, Kaluuya delivers in his role as Chris. It's difficult to say one can put another actor in his role, and they wouldn't have done well — because that's how good this film's script is — but Kaluuya does bring something in his performance that anyone else couldn't have done better.
emotion into his body with little verbalization, often leaving his emotions for the viewer to interpret. The small changes in his facial expression and body language are the only ways to read what's really happening. This performance is a great calling card for the Kaluuya, and it's something to hopefully see from him again in years to come.
Kaluuya puts so much
The supporting cast also brings a lot to the table. Rose's parents, played by Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener, offer up doses of humor and awkwardness in their roles, and they get just enough screen time for their characters to really get underneath the viewer's skin.
The most surprising performance from the supporting cast comes from Lil Rel Howery as Chris' friend Rod. Almost every line of his is comedic gold, and he fits in so well with the narrative that it makes his character all the more likable.
Perhaps the best aspect of this film is how smart and socially aware it is. Instead of Chris being the idiotic character that dies right away, this film twists the horror stereotype on its head, making Chris one of the smartest people in the room.
The film also has a lot to say about casual racism. The kind that's hard to detect, but still ever prevalent in our society. And top of all that,
the film is smart. Every narrative choice makes sense by the time credits roll, and they had me discussing their merits well after the movie was over.
In all the right ways, "Get Out" lives up to the hype, currently with a 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from critics with 149 reviews. It's full of relevant racial and social commentary, has equal doses of eerie and humor, is a great feature debut for writer-director Peele and is one of the smartest horror-comedy films ever made.
Edited by Sean Collins
PIANIST FROM PAGE5
interests, Ono has had to dedicate six or more hours a day to practicing at the piano, improvising and composing. Ono has over 490 soundtracks on his Sound-Cloud account from his everyday personal improvisation project. Writing and refining a song every day requires tremendous discipline, he said.
"There's a balance between inspiration and discipline that's very difficult," Ono said. "Because discipline is not something that comes from just spontaneous emotional outbursts. It's just something that you train yourself and force yourself to do. When you're training yourself and forcing yourself, it's very difficult to feel all of that spontaneity."
With the amount of times that Ono practices a piece as a performer, he said it's at times difficult to remain inspired by the song itself. But when he goes out on stage to perform, he has the intention of inspiring an audience.
"When I play, I want to have some kind of deep connection with the audience," Ono said. "And when it happens, it's great. I do a lot of house concerts back home in California, and these are audiences of 70 or 80 people in a really big living room basically. The audience is probably like 10 feet away or something, maybe even less. So if I stand up and I want to talk to people, they're right there, it's not like I'm separated with an invisible curtain or anything like that, so I like the companionship."
Professor Scott Smith.
Ono's piano instructor at the University, agrees that other than Ono's award winning abilities to compose music and perform at a high level, his emotional connection with the audience is one his most unique talents.
Last summer, Ono lived in New York for two months as a trial run for what he will be doing after he graduates.
"He has kind of an emotional connection to music that's kind of hard to put exactly into words," Smith said. "But you can tell that when he plays or when he composes that he just really has a love of sounds and feelings that the music expresses. And that comes across real clearly to the listener."
In the future, Ono will play for ballet classes, and consistently think on his
feet playing for other singers. While doing steady gigs like these to earn a living, Ono also wants to build up an actual performing career while in New York.
"[New York] is the musical center of the world, so every other good musician wants to be there too," Smith said. "So that's going to be tough and competitive, but I think he's going to have a lot of success. He's been there for one summer already and made some contacts and had some good experiences. So I think he's going to have his ups and downs just like anybody would, but I think he's going to be great."
- Edited by Ashley Hocking
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