The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CINEMACON HONORS ‘GET OUT’ DIRECTOR
Jordan Peele, writer and director of the brilliant socially conscious horror film “Get Out,” was honored as director of the year at CinemaCon, the influential gathering of the National Association of Theatre Owners, held last week in Las Vegas.
“With the phenomenon known as ‘Get Out,’ Jordan Peele has instantaneously become a force to reckon with as a gifted and enormously talented director and filmmaker,” CinemaCon Managing Director Mitch Neuhauser said. “He has audiences and critics around the globe enamored and spellbound — dare I say hypnotized — with his wildly inventive directorial debut, and we are ecstatic to be honoring him as this year’s director of the year.”
Peele’s directorial debut is quite a departure from his past work, such as last year’s “gangster-kitten” comedy “Keanu” or the Emmy-winning “Key and Peele” Comedy Central series, with both projects created with co-star and collaborator KeeganMichael Key. “Get Out” begins with cute couple Chris and Rose headed to a weekend at her parents’ country home, but things get creepy in a hurry.
(Spoiler alert! Quit reading if you haven’t seen it yet. But seriously, why haven’t you seen it yet?)
Turns out Rose, played by Allison Williams, is simply continuing her insidious role of luring strong, handsome African American men out to the sticks where her freaky hypnotist mom, played by Catherine Keener, incapacitates them with her magic cup and teaspoon so her evil doctor dad, played by Bradley Whitford, can transplant the brains of his ailing, old white friends into their young, healthy black bodies.
“I wrote this movie in the Obama presidency. It felt like race was not being discussed in a way I felt like it deserved to be,” Peele said during an interview with us in Atlanta right before the movie came out. “For the past couple of years, and especially now, racial tension and racial conversation is front and center in this country.”
The movie has captivated audiences and made history when Peele became the first African American writer-director to debut a film that grossed $100 million. It’s zoomed past “The Blair Witch Project” to become the highest-grossing debut for a writer-director, based on an original screenplay, and has logged a near-perfect score of 99 on RottenTomatoes.com, a clearinghouse of critical reviews.
Despite his growing mountain of accolades, Peele feels all too well the persistent sting of racism.
“I’ve been asked to hang up coats” while attending black-tie events, having been confused for a member of the service staff, he said.
During our talk he said he hoped the movie would spark conversations among viewers — a mission he’s easily accomplished.
“We have to look within ourselves constantly,” Peele said. “Racism is always going to be present in this country, and racism is not a one-sided dynamic. This isn’t just a black horror movie. This is a movie everyone is meant to enjoy. It’s a way to promote that conversation in a way that’s fun.”