Dear White People: It's not all about you.
I mean, I get it. The title of writer-director Justin Simien's feature debut, "Dear White People" might give you the idea it's all about you. The trailer — with its clips of a fictional radio show by the same name where the DJ calls out white people for their clueless condescension toward black people — might have given you that idea as well. And maybe with so much heated debate about Ferguson, the Trayvon Martin case and race relations in America lately, you're starting to feel a little persecuted.
Well, get over it, because "Dear White People" is a whip-smart comedy about racial politics that, like real life, is never as simple as black versus white. This film is much more interested in directly addressing black audiences about themselves than it is in exposing white audiences to the truth about race relations (although it does a pretty good job of that, too).
The film centers around four black students at fictional Winchester University, an Ivy League school and home to traditionally black residence hall Armstrong-Foster. Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) is a social justice warrior whose controversial radio gives the film its name. She gives her media studies professor a 15-page treatise on how "Gremlins" is about suburban white fear of black culture ("The Gremlins are loud, talk in slang, are addicted to fried chicken and freak out when you get their hair wet") and becomes the head of Armstrong-Foster in an election her allies in the Black Student Union help rig. She defeats Troy Fairbanks (Brandon P. Bell), an immaculate political science major being groomed by his father, Winchester University's Dean of Students (Dennis Haysbert), into a young Barack Obama type. Colandrea "Coco" Conners (Teyonah Parris) is an ambitious video blogger who rejects her South Side Chicago roots and claims to prefer dating white men. Finally, Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Higgins) is a new arrival at Armstrong-Foster, an awkward gay reporter who self-deprecatingly points out that the fact he likes Mumford & Sons and Robert Altman movies doesn't help him fit in with the other black students.
The interaction of these four (with each other as well as other students and faculty) helps illustrate the interpersonal politics that come with being black among supposedly "post-racial" Millennials. Simien's script is packed with wickedly sharp observational humor about how blacks are perceived by whites and, more importantly, by one another. The ensemble cast covers a lot of important ground and a wide range of viewpoints; these characters have opinions and motivations that not only put them at odds with one another but even with themselves at times. For example: Samantha, the seemingly militant protagonist, is secretly sleeping with a white classmate and, as the film progresses, grows increasingly weary of being everyone's "go-to angry black woman." Even when these characters clash over these issues, it is hard not to feel that each of them has a point based in truth, even when they are clumsy about how they express it.
These honest contradictions are what help set "Dear White People" apart from stereotypical "black movies." If the scene where a group of students from the Black Student Union hilariously skewers the sensibilities of one Tyler Perry was not enough, director Simien actively goes against the genre's grain with everything from the classical music soundtrack to the artful cinematography. With its quirky rapid-fire dialogue, austere color palette and symmetrical framing, "Dear White People" is more akin to the works of Wes Anderson than it is to Perry or even Spike Lee. Any resemblance to "School Daze" or "Do the Right Thing" is purely coincidental, and that is not a slam on either Lee or Simien.
"Dear White People" can be a little dense at times, with characters that could monologue with the best (worst?) of Kevin Smith's talkative bunch, but for the most part the soapbox pedestals are placed there so that the characters can later be knocked off them for good effect. The film's plot is overly constructed and somewhat forced, but overall this is an impressively ambitious debut for Justin Simien. "Dear White People" is a witty, quirky and sharply honest film about race that is much more than initially meets the eye.
“Dear White People” is available on Blu-ray + Digital HD download on Tuesday, February 3. Special features include:
* Deleted scenes & outtakes. * PSA Series: “The More You Know About Black People.” * “Racism Insurance” Parody. * “The Making of ‘Dear White People’” Featurette. * “Get Your Life” music video by Caught a Ghost. * DVRSE App: Black Friends When You Need Them * LEAKED: Banned Winchester U Diversity Video * Cast with Director Audio Commentary. * Director Audio Commentary.
Film: 4 Yaps Extras: 4.5 Yaps
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwJhmqLU0so&w=514&h=289]