I did a 48-minute chat earlier today with critic Jordan Ruimy (The Playlist, The Film Stage, We Got This Covered, The Young Folks, World of Reel). If you ask me the most interesting portion happens during the first eight or nine minutes, when we mainly discussed the “woke” support for Jordan Peele‘s Get Out. Again, the mp3. Here are selected transcriptions:

Wells: “This is a movie that traffics in social satire and horror, and basically says there’s a quietly malicious attitude that elite whites have toward people of color, and that they’re trying to turn them into zombies and make them into the kind of people they want…this is a weird metaphor because the same people who are loving Get Out are the people who are depicted in the film, the same malicious whites who are trying to manipulate people of color. The liberals with money and taste and who would’ve voted for Barack Obama a third time…these are the bad guys in the film and it’s this crowd…this liberal crowd is pushing Get Out the most.”

Critic Jordan Ruimy (The Playlist, The Film Stage, We Got This Covered, The Young Folks, World of Reel).

Ruimy: “We’re living in a very interesting time right now in film criticism. Back in the ’90s, even ten years ago it was such a different spectrum…and now political theory [has] snuck in, and any film you watch now you have to judge it politically, and that’s the way it’s going right now. And it’s very infuriating. Even though art should be political in a way. If Get Out had come out ten years ago, we would have totally forgotten it by the end of the year. We wouldn’t have even remembered it. That’s what’s really maddening about this whole thing.

“Do I think Get Out is a good movie? Yeah, I do. As I said I had one hell of a time watching it with a big crowd [at the AMC Boston Common plex]. But to go back to this criticstop10 site which has compiled over 388 critics list, and Get Out made 276 lists in the top ten. It’s also topped the most lists — 46 lists have it at #1. Most of the people who really rave about the movie are the Millenials. They always connect it to the woke movement and to the current political climate. If this were ’01 or ’02, and there was no woke movement, no critical theory…”

Wells: “No #OscarsSoWhite which started this whole thing two years ago…”

Ruimy: “The chances are that 15 or 10 years ago Call Me By Your Name and Dunkirk would be the critical favorites. Those two movies are as artfully conceived as you can get. And The Post would have more heat too. People were accustomed ten years ago, 15 years ago…even five years ago. But now things have changed. There’s been a changeover.”

Wells: “You know what I love about today’s climate? If you’re not in with the Get Out acolytes, if you don’t subscribe to their woke attitude thing, you’re somehow cast into the shadows of being a regressive, a conservative…it infuriates me that this system is now in place. Either you’re with that crowd, and if you’re not there’s something a little suspect about your sensibilities. Either you’re with the wokers, and if you’re not with them you’re in the way.”