The Get Out Review: Not The Movie Everyone Thought They Were Making

3 hours ago 8

Russell Crowe as Manco frowning skeptically in The Get Out

Published Jun 26, 2026, 2:17 PM EDT

Alex is the Senior Editor of Reviews & Prestige Content, overseeing ScreenRant's film reviews as one of its Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics. After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in English, he spent a locked-down year in Scotland completing a Master's in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, which he hears is a nice, lively city. He now lives in and works from Milan, Italy, conveniently a short train ride from the Venice Film Festival, which he first covered for SR in 2024.

When movies like The Get Out are done right, they can be really wonderful. Crime thrillers that flirt with comedy (or outright embrace it) simply by virtue of how messy they get, usually because there are multiple involved parties who are some level of incompetent. Think of Elmore Leonard adaptations like Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown or Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight, or more overtly funny films like the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading and Shane Black's The Nice Guys. They take winding, sometimes convoluted journeys, right up until the different strands start colliding in unexpected ways.

I have no doubt this is what The Get Out co-writer and director Derrick Borte thought he was making – considering he references Tarantino at one point, I'd guess Jackie Brown was more specifically the guiding light. But even with leading man Russell Crowe, who is the only member of this solid cast who strikes the right tone, this film just can't get there. In addition to dialogue that isn't nearly strong enough to conjure the quirky specificity that powers the best examples of this kind of movie, the rhythm of its delivery is off in a way that just isn't possible to fully recover from.

Despite A Dialed-In Russell Crowe, The Get Out Can't Find Its Rhythm

The beginning is promising. Manco Kapak (Crowe), an Albanian immigrant and longtime resident of Los Angeles, loves his life as a successful club owner, but the lifestyle is beginning to take its toll. When he has a cardiac event during sex after popping one too many viagra, his girlfriend and club manager Sunny (Teresa Palmer) suggests they actually consider giving it all up. Sell the club, move somewhere exotic, and live the good life in sunny retirement. For the first time, Manco is ready to consider it.

Finding a buyer is no problem: Joe Carver (Luke Evans), a recent transplant from New Jersey, has already shown interest. But Manco will have to explain this to Rodriguez (Danny Zovatto), the local cartel boss, whose money he's been quietly laundering for years. He doesn't expect that to be a pleasant conversation. When he unexpectedly gets robbed at gunpoint one night while making his usual cartel deposit, it gets even harder to have. Though he's certain it was a random crime, Rodriguez's people are concerned he's been targeted. Either way, the message is take care of it.

...the film is content to give them one-note gimmicks and leave it at that.

Unsurprisingly, Manco is the character that works best. Crowe's performance sits somewhere between Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski and Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast, and it's enjoyable to see him respond to sinking deeper into this world he's ready to step out of with a growing irritability. His scenes with Teresa Palmer, in which Manco doesn't ever feel the need to play the tough guy, are some of the movie's most effective. Borte makes the decision never to have Sunny be one of our wildcards, and having that relationship we can ground ourselves in pays off nicely.

Manco and Sunny looking at each other lovingly in The Get Out

The other story threads aren't quite as strong. Jeff (Aaron Paul), an adjunct professor and Manco's reluctant robber, was extorted into the crime by LAPD Detective Slosser (Josh McConville), who realized Manco would be an easy target after surveilling him for an ongoing federal investigation. Jeff soon also finds himself involved with Carrie (Nina Dobrev), a bank teller who has been waiting all her life for an opportunity to stage Point Break-style heists. All of these characters need to be distinct and interesting for The Get Out to work as intended, but the film is content to give them one-note gimmicks and leave it at that.

As problematic as this lack of characterization is, the rhythm of each scene may be more so. It's not as easy as blaming the editing: the writing, line delivery, and direction all work with it to give a film its flow, perceptible only as a feeling, or in the way the dialogue hits your ear. In a movie like this, the goal is not just to create and sustain some tension, but to create a rhythm that we enjoy sinking into. Jackie Brown has a laid back quality to the way it moves through its narrative, which serves it well when something surprising happens while also keeping it riveting the rest of the time. Perhaps trying to strike a similar tone, The Get Out only comes off stilted and loses momentum.

The film isn't without its moments – I really do enjoy what Crowe is doing here, and there are scenes of both tension and release where everything is in tune with his performance. But the big crescendo, when everything is meant to overlap and collide, leaves a lot to be desired. It's not an unenjoyable experience, but it won't be a particularly memorable one, either.

The Get Out releases in limited theaters June 26 and will be available on digital from June 30.