JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE INVITED, DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE WELCOME.
Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend (Allison Williams) go to see her parents (Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener) who live in a secluded mansion; this is a very liberal family, but something is definitely off…
Comedian Jordan Peele’s directing debut is a horror-comedy with a fresh twist. Using among other things The Stepford Wives (1975) as an inspiration, Peele tackles race relations and has a lot of fun with white guilt and affluent liberals; it is particularly amusing to see Whitford as an Obama voter with dark secrets. Kaluuya is a perfect protagonist, one we identify with easily, and his rapport with Lil Rel Howery provides laughs.
Fun and creepy, even if the plot isn’t airtight.
2017-U.S. 104 min. Color. Widescreen. Written and directed by Jordan Peele. Cast: Daniel Kaluuya (Chris Washington), Allison Williams (Rose Armitage), Bradley Whitford (Dean Armitage), Catherine Keener (Missy Armitage), Caleb Landry Jones, LaKeith Stanfield, Lil Rel Howery.
Trivia: Co-produced by Peele. His comedy partner Keegan-Michael Key is briefly seen in a photo. Tiffany Haddish was considered for a role.
Oscar: Best Original Screenplay.
Last word: “As we got into the initial years of the Obama administration, it became more clear than ever to me that race was a conversation people were increasingly uncomfortable having. There was this ‘post-racial’ lie going on. So this movie, the purpose of it became to represent the black experience, but also just [represent] race in the horror-movie genre and in the public conversation, in a way that I felt was taboo.” (Peele, The Verge)
