TIFF 2020: Get the Hell Out
tiff 2020The creative chaos in I.-Fan Wang's Get the Hell Out is so impassioned and unafraid of its vibrancy and imagination; it exudes an intoxicating level of engagement and fun.
There are two sides to Wang's film: the horror and the political undertone, much in the same vein as George A. Romero's style and sensibility. Granted, while Romero's instances and political/social gravity of his films remain subtle but undeniably effective, I.-Fan Wang's sensibility is so incredibly wild and on-the-nose that it will come off for many as too tasteless and high pitched to be poignant or reflective.
Regardless, it works. So much so, in fact, that to either degree of what the viewer wants in Get the Hell Out, the results are both effective in their respective aims. The horror alone is relentlessly ferocious and enjoyable to see on screen. Blood, guts and gore do not quite cut it here as a description but I.-Fan Wang, again, finds a vigorous balance between excessiveness and giving enough horror on screen to do justice with its genre.
The political element is equally as fascinating and compelling. As aforementioned, the politics in Wang's film are unequivocally apparent and unavoidable. Not only through its setting but also the plot. That being said, both elements are not flat and hollow degrees of exploitation – quite the contrary. Wang employs these two elements with a degree of poignancy and expression. Yet, it is never anything groundbreaking or conscious in its influential nature.
Regardless, it feeds to the overall subtext of the feature, that not only fits astonishingly well but reinforces the farcical nature of politics to the comical level it fully deserves. Ironically enough, however, it is the balance between the genre itself and political message that works hand in hand spectacularly. They are in referential unison throughout the feature, not only highlighting the sheer amount of hypocrisy that is bound but the cycle of change that is promised but never delivered.
Get the Hell Out is consistently having fun through the prism of comedy. Everything and anything is a hyper-reality to a degree of utter farce, and Wang's film eats it up brilliantly. Not only through its performances, in the likes of scene-stealer He Xuan Lin, but in the film's production design and construction. The camera work, while looking cheap, is not only inventive and engaging from cinematographer Seven Tsai, it has a magical sense of fluidity and flow. The use of dutch angles and handheld footage is constantly engulfing to behold and is inescapable for the audience not to be pulled in.
The intertextuality present – while, again, is not only prominent but largely woven – works tremendously to reinforce the farcical nature of the political sphere. Street Fighter inspired fights, comic book-inspired introductions to characters, Kung-fu dictation of political debate – so on and so forth. The colour palette is vivid and inviting, with editor Po-Han Shih and I.-Fan Wang never allowing the camera to stay static.
Creativity does not quite do the film justice, but for starters, the production design from Shih-Hui Wang here is utterly crazy. At every turn, the film has an oxymoronic balance of inventiveness partnering with disorganisation. It is unbelievable that I.-Fan Wang’s Get the Hell Out works, but it does, and that is not only bizarre but a testament to the creative team behind this epic but the talents of Wang behind the camera.
