For those of you that perhaps live under a figurative movie rock, Get Out was a movie that came out in 2017, directed and written by Jordan Peele. Best described as horror meets Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (a movie starring Sidney Poitier about a white woman who brings her black fiance home to meet her parents for the first time), Get Out did amazingly at the box office, generated a high amount of buzz and was nominated for several Oscars including Best Picture.
-This post will contain some spoilers for Get Out-
Several performances jump out as outstanding- Allison Williams as the main character's girlfriend, Catherine Keener as her hypnotist mother, Lil Rel Howery as the protagonist's hilarious best friend. However, Daniel Kaluuya's performance as Chris Washington is particularly impressive and rightfully earned him an Oscar nomination.
British in real life, Kaluuya delivers a flawless American accent that has duped many into thinking he really is a US citizen. But this is just the tip of the iceberg in a performance that really allows the audience to put themselves into the protagonist's shoes, as all good horror movies do. See below a scene that I think perfectly demonstrates his talent, as well as Keener's intimidating performance and Jordan Peele's incredible directing:
The scene has a perfect build up, from the first few awkward exchanges between a guy who doesn't know his girlfriend's mother all that well to...her banishing him to the 'sunken place', a metaphor for the oppression of black people. Be grateful for the in-laws that you have, people.
The character uses humour to deflect the discomfort he feels about the ridiculousness of hypnosis and her disapproval about smoking in front of her daughter. Then, as soon as she mentions his late mother (with the bloody teacup going in the background), his expression becomes more guarded. After Mrs Armitage's persistance, Chris is shown as resistant- yet feeling strangely compelled to answer each question. The talent of both actors, the sound design with the teacup, the close up camera shots and the subtle musical score all come together here to really increase the intensity of the scene.
As reality becomes blurred with memory (we can hear the rain in the background), Kaluuya transitions from an uncomfortable laugh to a traumatised expression expertly, and we know at this point that Chris is well and truly under Armitage's spell. A second burst of laughter, and immediately after this a single tear falls down as he relives his guilt at doing nothing. As the scene progresses, tears begin to stream down his face uncontrollably, but he doesn't seem to be moving all that much- the beginnings of hypnosis induced paralysis.
It's here that I want to mention that Catherine Keener's calm, eerie and intense performance is very effective in contrast to Kaluuya's increasingly traumatised yet catatonic behaviour. Just like a detached therapist, there is sympathy laced in her voice but you don't for a second think it is genuine. The contrast between her light, breezy reading of "sink into the floor" with the subsequent "sink"- delivered deadpan with no empathy- is terrifying.
"Sink into the floor"- now frozen in limbo, Kaluuya is completely frozen, save for the tears streaming down his face. You can see in his eyes that he is still conscious and aware, but almost as if from a distance- highlighted as well through the wider camera shot of Keener in contrast to the close ups a few seconds earlier.
The range that Kaluuya displays here is incredible- we can see micro-expressions as Chris struggles between resisting her questions, feeling compelled to answer, guilt about his mother's death and relieving a painful childhood memory. The scene goes from a slightly awkward conversation with a 'mother-in-law', to reliving the memory of his mothers death to falling into the sunken place; all whilst gradually increasing the paralysis and claustrophobia that the character feels. And to think this is just one moment from a consistently layered, detailed and subtle film that Peele has so expertly crafted.
Thanks for reading this post- I cannot wait to see what Kaluuya does next. If you haven't already, I would highly recommend the episode of Black Mirror that he starred in- Fifteen Million Merits. His performance there similarly ranges from a down-to-earth, charming guy to scarily intense after a turn of events in the plot. Plus he retains his natural British accent, so there's that bonus too. Also check him out as W'kabi in Black Panther.
I do not own any of the images or footage used in this post.