Dear White People

I was first exposed to Dear White People by its trailer. The trailer was so promising it put the movie to a much higher level of expectation than it actually is so it could have only been a slight disappoint. The film is smart, punchy, and funny, for a film about racism and racial tensions.

The preppy college setting screams for an amazing story about racial tensions and racism. The black characters that the film follows - Coco the girl who wants to be white, Lionel the awkward gay guy that doesn't quite fit in, Troy who fits in but isn't quite himself, and the infamous Sam who is basically a modern day activist with a secret boyfriend - are actually good archetypes of nowadays college educated black people because they are all unique if not for the color of their skin.

With this basis Simien delivered an interesting film about racial tensions between blacks and whites without shaming or blaming one of the two parties involved. But the film sort of feels like a fluff piece that didn't really dive deep into the subject. The white characters are mostly stereotypical, they are the same to be honest, arrogant, and entitled. The film quickly becomes more about about finding one's identity and western society in general than racial tensions. Maybe, that's the point, one of the message behind it is that racial tensions stems from the way our society is, with whites liking the black cultures but not its people? I don't really know but at least Dear White People is a good conversation starter.

As for the actors, I mean the ones with layers to their characters, they gave a stellar performance. Tessa Thompson portrayed a riveting Sam with talent, wit and insolence. And Tyler James Williams was probably the easiest character to relate to, he likes what he likes and doesn't try to change who he is.

For a first film Dear White People is interesting and if the trailer hadn't been so good I probably would have been in awe after watching it. @wornoutspines

Actually, I don't understand this film, I mean the story, what it intended to tell us. Maybe it's for Americans only. I thought it could be some underrated cool comedy, but what I just saw was definitely not expected. I kind of felt it was a student politics and if it stayed like that way I would have had no problem. But they said it is a comedy and I did not get any, in between it became a racism thing. I never understood this American racism, why they're making it so complicated. Especially the condition of the US is not looking good right now and this film pours a more oil to it. I'm neither white nor black or an American, and sorry I did not find it a good film. Even more, I don't get, how a television series is getting ready to follow-up it. So no offense for those who liked it, seems I'm in a wrong place. I just rated and reviewed what I felt it deserves, other than that I'm not against the film. I'm out of here!

3/10

There are plenty of other black films out there that really entertain and sometimes make a point about race perceptions and relations. (see last paragraph)

The filmmakers scripted a real life situation, A racial Halloween Party in Texas...how boring can you get. Whites in black face... zzzzz..huh, oh I fell asleep. Why make a movie about one incidence of jerky white guys.

Then the movie turns into a black Dinner with White People where people chat on and on.

If you are into b/w dialogue just listen to the audio. Nothing to see here except a few very hot sorority girls. The filmmakers must have said, 'let's bring in comments on 'the weave'. Sorry Chris Rock did an entire documentary and it was great.

Was Dear White People a class project? What was the point. "Hey some fraternity dudes can be assholes." Big surprise.

Rent Hollywood Shuffle by Robert Townsend and then check out the reset of his film. He is good.

The first 20min was OK... I thought it was going to be funny. Then it gets laughably silly, campy and pretentious. The actors are caricatures of real people. At first you think in the next scene you'll suddenly find more depth and things will come into focus, but no... In the end it's got this sad "Stick to your own people, stop trying to pretend to be white/black if you're not" message which really makes me feel sad for whomever wrote this. What a dark little world they live in. The bits about colleges throwing black-face parties all the time are even a bit ridiculous. The movies based in some fictional ivy league school, but the examples they give are all of tiny colleges no-ones ever heard of. I'm not saying there isn't a race problem in this country, there is for sure. But what this movie is portraying is wildly exaggerated. This is the kind of movie the real racists watch and say "That doesn't happen! It's all made up!" and they're right.