Tyler James Williams
Tessa Thompson
Kyle Gallner
Teyonah Parris
Brandon Bell
Malcolm Barrett
Dennis Haysbert

Justin Simien

108 mins.
Satire
October 17, 2014

Rated R for language, sexual content and drug use. (MPAA)

“Dear White People” has a style that fits in with many of the other campus films that preceded it: from “Clueless” to “School Daze” to “PCU.” But it’s not derivative. Ah hah! It fits without copying.

Chapters provide its structure: There are frames that tell you which part of the story you’re witnessing and which groups of people are in play. In addition, many of the shots look like they’re pictures in a frame. So it’s nice to look at.

Its themes aren’t necessarily new, though. We’ve seen and heard this stuff before: Afrocentrism packaged in the language of higher learning, white entitlement, racism versus prejudice, a varied assortment of sell-outs (e.g. the “oofta” modulates his or her blackness depending on the company he or she is in and what he or she wants from them), the outsider (in this case, “the gay black guy who doesn’t fit anywhere”), the marginalization of blacks in the media (Tyler Perry gets skewered), weed, skin color, and so on. However, those themes and types are updated just enough to avoid being stale. (The reference to “Gremlins” as a metaphor for white people’s fear of blacks invading their neighborhoods is priceless.) It’s a film for its time.

Despite the familiar types, there are a few contradictions thrown in to keep all of the characters from seeming like cardboard cutouts. While they aren’t fully fleshed out, that’s not necessary for this kind of film.

One of the two main characters, Samantha White (played effortlessly by Tessa Thompson), identifies fully with her blackness, but she’s mixed. She walks a tightrope between her philosophical beliefs and her occasionally conflicting personal desires. As half of this film’s center, she keeps things from being too black and white – no pun intended. Plus, Thompson delivers her lines in a way that doesn’t sound forced.

The other main character, Lionel Higgins (played by Tyler James Williams), isn’t as well-developed. He’s the “gay black guy who doesn’t fit anywhere” that I mentioned before. His journey just isn’t as interesting.

So, overall, the writing’s good, but it’s not as incisive as it could be. This isn’t “Bamboozled,” though; it doesn’t want to be. Furthermore, the acting’s just right. That’s a credit to not only the actors but also the director. The characters are clear, and the tonal shifts work, especially early on.

While the pace lags during the second half of “Dear White People,” there’s a fluidity throughout. This is satire with a bit of a heart. It’s imperfect; it runs out of steam; but I like it.

Verdict: Good

About: (Source: dearwhitepeople)

Winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent, Dear White People is a sly,  provocative satire of race relations in the age of Obama. Writer/director Justin Simien follows a group of African American students as they navigate campus life and racial politics at a predominantly white college in a sharp and funny feature film debut that earned him a spot on Variety’s annual “10 Directors to Watch.”

The unexpected election of activist Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) as head of a traditionally black university residence hall sets up a campus culture war that challenges conventional notions of what it means to be black. While Sam leverages her notoriety as host of the provocative radio show ‘Dear White People’, 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 newspaper. Meanwhile, Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams), an Afro-sporting sci-fi geek, is recruited by the otherwise all-white student paper 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 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 fanning an already smouldering fire of resentment and misunderstanding. When the party descends into riotous mayhem, everyone must choose a side…