The Golden Globe voters have announced that they will be considering Jordan Peele’s Get Out in the Best Musical or Comedy category, rather than Best Drama.
Since the announcement, there’s been a great deal of internet backlash, including from Jordan Peele himself who tweeted out that the film is a documentary:
Get Out, for those who haven’t seen it, is far from anything that would classify it as humorous or a musical. Peele’s film takes the form of a horror movie that takes an unflinching look at modern-day racism. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), an African American, is brought to meet his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents, all of whom are white. While the family may appear welcoming and friendly at first, the veil is eventually listed to reveal something far more sinister.
While the film is scary, exciting and, at times, even funny, the problem with classifying the film as a comedy is that it undermines the relevant themes Peele worked so hard to craft in Get Out.
“I submitted it as a documentary,” Peele said when talking to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show via Variety. “The movie is truth. The thing that resonated to people is truth. For me, it’s more of a historical biopic.”
Peele later elaborated on his reservations on the classification. “The problem is, it’s not a movie that can really be put into a genre box,” he said via Indiewire. “Originally, I set out to make a horror movie. I ended up showing it to people and hearing, you know, it doesn’t even feel like horror. It’s in this thriller world. So it was a social thriller.”
Universal submitted the film to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association without a request or decision as to which category the film should classify as.
“What the movie is about is not funny,” Peele said via Indiewire. “I’ve had many black people come up to me and say, ‘man, this is the movie we’ve been talking about for awhile and you did it.’ That’s a very powerful thing. For that to be put in a smaller box than it deserves is where the controversy comes from.”
Get Out was released back in February of this year, raking in over $175 million at the domestic box office and launching Peele’s career as a serious Hollywood director. Despite what category it falls into, the film is been getting awards buzz ever since its release.
Watch the trailer for Get Out here, let us know what you think about the Golden Globes labeling it as a comedy in the comments below.