I don' t know that anyone loves Get Out because they identify with the patronizing whites - they love it because they identify with Kaluuya's character. It might not be incisive satire by your standards, but it's a very effective film at empathizing with minorities (and not necessarily just racial minorities - I imagine just about any cultural transplant would find it relatable.) The situations in the film are exaggerated and predicated on caricature, but draw on a vast pool of shared experiences that aren't represented in cinema that often.
i appreciate it's more than just satire, but regarding that satire my suggestion was the opposite, that so many white people love
get out because they
don't identify with the unrealistic whites, and therefore rather than feeling targeted they're patting themselves on the back for not being like
those other types of white people. that's a fairly typical criticism of award-winning films about race and this is hardly one of the more egregious examples, but still. the purpose of satire as i see it is to make the targets of that satire feel uncomfortable and question their own worldviews, it fails if it just leaves you feeling superior to those targets.
in terms of how the movie plays with black audiences, i'm not really qualified to say but i'd assume you're right that it's refreshing to be represented in this way in the mainstream, and that's fair enough. i recognise that my subjective experience wouldn't necessarily factor that in so much, for obvious reasons. i do think it's probably impossible to get black experiences into the mainstream w
ithout pandering to whites to a certain extent--those are thoughts i've had while watching
12 years a slave or certain spike lee movies as well. i haven't seen that many films that seem truly representative of black culture, but the ones i have seen (i.e. some charles burnett stuff) would not move the box office needle that's for sure.
i still don't think it's a very authentic depiction of
any experience, personally, and i wish i believed in the interactions enough to empathise with kaluuya to the extent other people did. i was just too aware of the writer behind it at all times, seeing the strings was a constant obstacle for me. i think the best versions of this kinda thing would just feel rooted in those experiences rather than being so aggressively
about that experience at all times.
Sounds like Peele's Get Out is guilty of many of the things some have said Phillips' Joker is guilty of. Probably worth considering that both come from comedy and not necessarily artistic or highbrow comedy either, and they're both trying their best to express ideas and create projects in the tradition of more skilled directors and writers they look up to. They gave us Keanu and The Hangover films, be realistic here.
i see where you're coming from but i think
joker is the opposite for me, in that i like the execution, more or less, but i don't think it's invested in its own subtext beyond how it serves the mood of whatever scene he's currently shooting. it's more of an exercise in style and atmosphere than actual content, the more political stuff seems incidental to the character study and kinda confused if you try to take it as a whole.
get out on the other hand has plenty to say, and is much more ambitious and more promising for future projects, but i just didn't feel much of it.