It's become that rare smash that has achieved both critical and commercial consensus about its greatness, and its historically low week-to-week decline at the box office has proven that it has staying power.
Here is a mini-budgeted movie that has real timeliness in terms of its subject matter and an irresistible twisty plot that I believe lends itself to repeat viewing.
And, to my pleasant surprise, it's already generating conversation about whether it can reasonably be considered an Oscars contender.
Now, ironically, before Moonlight's upset victory in the Best Picture race at this year's Oscars, I had been busy making the argument that the awards show no longer matters. Besides dwindling viewership and uncertainly about whether a win there necessarily translates to more financial success, it just also seemed like the process and show itself had become too antiquated for our modern age of media consumption.
That being said, if a genre movie like Get Out were welcomed into the Oscar fray, I would start to reconsider some of my well-earned prejudice about the Academy Awards. Moonlight's victory did show that the academy's efforts for diversify paid off. Sure, there were a historic number of African-American nominees -- but the representation of La La Land suggested a lot of strength and appeal. So for a small, starless movie like Moonlight to win the biggest prize was impressive.
And the inclusion of a blockbuster action movie (and a sequel to boot) like Mad Max: Fury Road the year prior is no small feat either.
Horror, however, has been the red-headed stepchild of the industry for decades. That genre, along with comedies, almost never get prestige adoration. Perhaps in part because they are usually cheap to produce and so many of their kind permeate the marketplace that when a truly great comedy (like last year's Hunt for the Wilderpeople) or this year's Get Out, crossover and find success with the critics, the Oscars still ignore them.
Every once and a while a comedic performance (think Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids) ekes into a category and occasionally even wins (Kevin Kline for A Fish Called Wanda, Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny), but it's an uphill battle.
There have been some critically lauded horror films to get on the Oscar stage. The Exorcist was competing in a host of categories back in 1974, but didn't take home any of the big prizes. Kathy Bates did win an Oscar for her iconic leading role in Misery, but that looks more like an outlier with each passing year (although I was thrilled to see Rosamund Pike make the cut for her terrific work in Gone Girl).There are several factors working against Get Out, unfortunately, although I am rooting for it to stick around in voters' minds by the end of the year.
It has no likely Oscar-nominated performance - Don't get me wrong, the cast of Get Out is uniformly excellent, especially star Daniel Kaluuya, his sidekick Lil Rel Howery and the scene-stealing Betty Gabriel. But the real star of the film is writer-director Jordan Peele. Usually Oscar movies boast award worthy performances as part of its selling point and because this is such an ensemble film that may be difficult.
It's just so early - No film has triumphed at the Oscars that was released in February since Silence of the Lambs, ironically the last "scary" movie to get real love from the academy. That was 26 years ago, and the calendar has gotten even less friendly to quality films, which I have lamented repeatedly. And so it will likely have to compete with a host of holiday season releases which will be more traditional, and more importantly, fresh in voters minds.
Oscar voters are snobby - As we saw in 2016, when the academy couldn't bring itself to reward Sylvester Stallone's award-worthy work in Creed, or their inability to even recognize edgier genre movies like A History of Violence or Green Room, the Oscars are still stuffy and often out of touch. Are they as bad at the Grammys? Nothing is. But the Academy voters are still stubbornly drawn to films which either make them feel warm and fuzzy about the past or fit into a neat and tidy drama box. Get Out is anything but conventional, which will probably hurt it in the long run.
Still, I'm thrilled that people are even making the case that it should be an Oscar contender, which sometimes is half the battle. Mad Max: Fury Road hung around after a summer release in part because its fans kept championing it and singing its praises throughout the rest of the year.
And, in many ways, Get Out is already a winner because it has become a bonafide blockbuster and turned Peele into a real auteur seemingly overnight. If you saw it in a movie you wouldn't believe it.
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