Challenging the conventions
historical biopic. The original title was Get Out: The Kanye West Story but I had to lop off the end.”
Most experts believe Get Out, which made US$253.4mil (RM1.04bil) worldwide on a US$4.5mil (RM18.5mil) budget, is a favourite for a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Universal has mailed for-your-consideration screeners, and an awards campaign has been mounted.
If Get Out were to be nominated, it would be unusual on many counts. Seldom are directorial debuts, February releases or horror films nominated for Best Picture. (Among the few horror films that have been are The Exorcist, TheSilenceOfTheLambs and The Sixth Sense.) And then there’s the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ poor record of nominating AfricanAmerican-led movies and the “OscarsSoWhite” protests that have accompanied several recent Academy Awards.
The hard-to-define Get Out is poised to be an Oscar contender unlike any seen before, but not just for those traits. Peele’s acclaimed film is an uncommonly sharp big-screen commentary on the real horrors of black existence and the hollowness of liberal progressiveness. It’s a monster movie where society, as seen through African-American eyes, is terrifying.
“It doesn’t fit into a genre,” Peele told Colbert. “It sort of subverts the idea of genre. It is the kind of movie that black people