Oscars 2018: Why Get Out deserves to win Best Picture
By Erin Qualey
Get Out is the best of what modern cinema has to offer, and it deserves the top prize at the 2018 Oscars. Here’s why.
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The 90th Academy Awards are upon us, and the Best Picture race is chock full of vibrant stories. This year we were graced with a lovely coming-of-age tale with a firebrand lead (Lady Bird), a fable about a woman falling in love with a sea creature (The Shape of Water), and a love story for the ages (Call Me By Your Name). But even though all of those films are beautiful and groundbreaking in their own unique ways, I feel strongly that Get Out – a topical story told in an innovative way – deserves the top prize.
Since we’re squarely in the Academy voting period (February 20th – February 27th), I called upon two of my favorite pop-culture mavens, Julie Linzer and Sandy Casanova, to discuss the topic and make our case for the film. Turns out that we all have some deep feels about the subject. If it just were just the three of us voting, Get Out would win all the awards, and here’s why.
Erin: I’m gonna kick this off by admitting that I haven’t seen all the pictures nominated this year. However, I have seen the three front runners – according to Entertainment Weekly, the films most likely to win are The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, and Dunkirk – and I just don’t feel that any of them deserve the top honor. Sure, all of those movies are well-crafted and engaging – and they may have won in another year – but, to me, none of them are particularly special. In comparison to almost every other nominated film (hell, any film) this year, Get Out is a revolutionary work of art. It effectively works on two completely separate levels, first as an edge-of-the-seat vehicle for pure entertainment, but, if the viewer chooses to look closer, it’s more importantly a delivery system for an important and crucial message about the devastating effects of racism on the self and society. It succeeds brilliantly on both levels, making the final product a film that viewers can watch over and over again and be dazzled by every time.
Julie: I also haven’t seen most of the nominees, but I fully agree. The three front runners aren’t shocking given the critical claim and Oscar buzz they generated when they first came out. And after last year’s historic (albeit botched) Moonlight win, it definitely feels like the Best Picture category should be bringing something extra to the table. Get Out accomplishes that. Furthermore it breaks a barrier that has been almost impossible for the horror/thriller genre. Considering the oft elitist attitude surrounding the Academy Awards I’m not sure the goal has been the re-watchability of the nominees, but because of Get Out’s position as high concept art as well as social relevance I think the Academy has a rare opportunity to appeal to more of the masses.
Get Out has already exceeded expectations, so anything that happens going forward is just icing on the cake. But the dialogue this movie opens is by far the most important part aspect of the film. And if the Academy wants to continue to inspire filmmakers (and moviegoers) they need to encourage that dialogue more than anything else.
Sandy: I couldn’t agree more. I’ve seen a few of the nominated films, and would like to watch them all before the big day arrives, but I really don’t see any of them blowing me away like Get Out did. Dunkirk, Three Billboards, and The Post are great, but none of them are very original. Get Out is unlike anything I’ve ever seen and it is still different from everything currently in theaters. And it’s re-watchable! There’s so much you miss the first time, even the second time. As great as, say, Dunkirk is, unlike Get Out, I don’t really care to watch it again, and that’s how you know it’s a brilliant movie.
Erin: Not only is Get Out so entertaining that it’s genuinely fun to watch again, but it’s also packed with subtle symbolism that illustrates the painstaking thought that Jordan Peele has so clearly put into his subject matter. Peele’s carefully curated commentary includes – but is certainly not limited to – a clever visual reference to the deep divides on racism in America, the use of cotton in a pivotal scene, and even the soundtrack has hidden meaning.
Aside from all the fun Easter eggs that the audience picked up on after Get Out’s release, the film itself is a daring experiment in subversion of viewer expectations. Historically, the horror genre has been relegated to popcorn fare that typically doesn’t have much to offer other than providing fans a good time full of jump scares. Get Out cleverly checks off the horror box by focusing the central fear on the idea of racism and cultural appropriation. As Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) meets the parents of his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), on a long weekend at an abandoned lake house, he’s operating within the trappings of a traditional horror film, but the subject matter is pointed and sharp. Unlike other popular horror movies like The Strangers that traffic in random acts of violence for the sake of violence, Get Out utilizes violence to make a point. Over the course of the film, Rose’s family makes it known that Chris has been specifically targeted because of his race. The ante is continuously upped on the micro aggressions that they comfortably commit until it all bursts in a 20 minute rage storm that satisfies the expected notions of horror, but also unleashes commentary on the pervasive racism in modern society that’s scarier than any chain-wielding murderer.
My fear is that many of the voters in the Academy won’t pick up on these cues and that they’ll end up missing what’s so special about this movie.
Sandy: It contains so much without being overbearing. You watch it the first time and then realize you missed all these Easter eggs that the second viewing is an entirely different experience. Every thread is purposely placed. I find symbolism in even their names. Rose, for example, is beautiful, but dangerous, as is a rose with thorns.
Get Out deserves the award for it’s symbolism alone, but, as clever as that is, the biggest takeaway is the message it delivers and harsh reality of modern day racism. It’s frightening. It’s real. It’s something most people ignore because it’s easier to look the other way, but Get Out forces audiences to face it without being aggressive about it. As Julie points out, Get Out is already a win, but taking home Best Picture will significantly strengthen the memo and motivate change. And that’s something we strongly need nowadays.
Julie: The nuances of the film are utterly fascinating. Even the filming was purposeful. Lighting in particular has a history of racism, i:e filming black actors often leads to a literal white washing. But the movie operates on this in-between level that I can’t get enough of! It has been a long time since I’ve felt that bottom-out feeling at the end of a movie, and I felt it when the sounds of the patrol car approach and Rose reached out for help. Because, much like the opening scene, it’s the street that Chris drives down that provides the anxiety – you just know that if that’s a police officer, they’re going to believe Rose. And that’s the true terror of Get Out. Not the violence that maintains the horror genre but the real nightmare of institutional racism that we continue to tolerate in today’s society. Moreover, that scene going from absolute horror to hilarity is what makes Jordan Peele’s directorial debut so incredible because it speaks to a talent you don’t often see.
There are two things that truly and consistently stand out to me that make Get Out far more worthy of the Best Picture award than any other film in the category. In this age of “call out culture”, the entire film makes its best statements in the silent moments, most notably in the auction scene (which turns so WTF so quickly that in any other movie it would easily have been criticized for being too on the nose), and when Rose is happily researching black men to be her next victim while her current victim, Chris, is trapped in the basement. Both scenes speak volumes to the fetishization and appropriation of African-American culture. They convey an anger that I cannot begin to understand, but I believe desperately needs to be depicted.
A movie’s impact on society is not a part of the voting process for the film that takes the best category. There are plenty of movies that do not resonate but are considered high art. Get Out pushes that boundary wide open. I’m reminded of Crash, the shocking Best Picture upset in 2006. That film dealt with themes of race, privilege, and gender at a point in time when these topics weren’t making the news the way they are now. But Crash falls short in its idea of justice: there is none.
Erin: Oh man, I remember when Crash won. That was the year Brokeback Mountain was favored to win, and I was furious when it didn’t. In many ways, both of those films did impact society – I’d argue that Brokeback had more to offer than Crash, but that’s a whole other bag of marbles – and their societal impact is what brought them into the conversation. Oscar voters just love stories about adversity, and Get Out ups the ante by portraying its protagonist as more than just an oppressed soul. Chris is a fully-fleshed human living in the world until he’s pulled into a horror setting in which his everyday experience with racism becomes relatable as a waking nightmare to all viewers.
Related Story: Get Out Proves That We Need More Female Villains
Julie: What Jordan Peele offers is a horror movie with a happy ending – he posits this notion that there is hope for a future that isn’t like the present. I’m reminded of Lenika Cruz’s article in The Atlantic and the significance of cameras in the film. She states, “Cameras, Get Out suggests somewhat plainly, have the power to reveal.” And, in a time when we should be holding our movies to the highest of standards, a win for Get Out would be indicative of the future that Peele wishes to reveal as well. Perhaps the meta-implications here are placing too much responsibility on the academy voters, but I cannot think of a movie whose legacy is as instantly classic and simultaneously historically significant in a way that sparks a conversation and actually elicits change.
‘Get Out’ is currently available for streaming on HBO NOW (with subscription) or to rent on Amazon Prime and various cable services.
The 90th Academy Awards will air March 4th on ABC.