Monday, October 27, 2014

Movie Review: Dear White People


AMC Storyline: The unexpected election of activist Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) as head of a traditionally black residence hall sets up a college campus culture war that challenges conventional notions of what it means to be black. While Sam leverages her notoriety as host of the provocative and polarizing radio show 'Dear White People' to try to prevent the college from diversifying Armstrong Parker House, outgoing head-of-house Troy Fairbanks (Brandon P. Bell), son of the university's dean (Dennis Haysbert), defies his father's lofty expectations by applying to join the staff of Pastiche, the college's influential humor magazine. Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams), an Afro-sporting sci-fi geek, is recruited by the otherwise all-white student newspaper to go undercover and write about black culture--a subject he knows little about--while the aggressively assimilated Coco Conners (Teyonah Parris) tries to use the controversy on campus to carve out a career in reality TV. But no one at Winchester University is prepared for Pastiche's outrageous, ill-conceived annual Halloween party, with its 'unleash your inner Negro' theme throwing oil on an already smoldering fire of resentment and misunderstanding. When the party descends into riotous mayhem, everyone must choose a side.


My Thoughts: Just wow. This movie touched on a lot of topics that many Blacks are faced with. One line that really brought it home for me is when the character Reggie (Marque Richardson) says to Sam that she is so redbone that at first he thought she was Puerto Rican. As a redbone that is often mistaken as someone of Latin descent, I could identify with that. Williams's character Lionel has a halo of hair that he refers to as a black hole for White people's fingers. This is something that anyone with natural hair can identify with. This movie has all the characters interconnected so well. You find yourself saying whoa at certain moments when you learn about people's background and how they are connected. Overall the movie makes you think. If that is not your type of movie then this is not the game for you. 


The movie was so well done. The laughs were evenly spaced and the real issues dealing with race were not overshadowed by the laughs. Director and writer Justin Simien did a wonderful job with pointing out the stereotypes that plague society in a well thought out movie that did not leave you offended. I would highly recommend this movie. It is nice to see a movie that does not have Madea in it or Denzel. I hope to see more movies like this hopefully. If you checked it out what did you think?

Post by Vikki
Twitter: ProfessorWhite

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