Director: Justin Simien
Starring: Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner, Teyonah Parris, Brandon Bell
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 103 minutes
After taking Sundance Film Festival by storm, gaining director Justin Simien attention and praise, satirical drama Dear White People has finally landed on DVD, a breath of fresh air in the world of college comedies.
Samantha ‘Sam’ White (Thompson) is the epitome of the American university student: hard-working, a teacher’s pet, and now the head of Armstrong/Parker, the all-black house on the campus of the prestigious, snooty, predominantly white Winchester University. After confronting a group of rude white jocks, Sam’s name buzzes around campus, with introverted sci-fi geek Lionel Higgins (Williams) recruited by the university’s paper to go undercover and find out as much as he can about the tensions within Armstrong/Parker.
Meanwhile, Troy Fairbanks (Bell), the son of the school’s dean, struggles to discover where his loyalties lie – should he continue to please his father and study law, or is the temptation of the comedy circuit too strong to ignore? Another student looking to see her name up in lights is Colandrea ‘Coco’ Conners (Parris), desperate to become a reality TV star. When a TV exec arrives on campus Coco tries everything to grab his attention, but when he hears about Sam’s incredibly popular radio show Dear White People and intends to turn her into his muse, Coco sees the green-eyed monster.
Things come to a head when a group of white students decide to hold their annual party with a theme of ‘blackface’. Is there anything Sam, Lionel, Troy or Coco can do to stop it?
Bursting at the seams with characters, Dear White People certainly demands the audience’s attention. Skipping from one situation to the next, it isn’t until the final closing scenes that we see the main foursome interact with each other, tackling a theme and problem many Americans experience on a day-to-day basis: racism, or more specifically, racism that’s excused because it’s ‘funny’ (e.g. people asking to touch Lionel’s Afro and asking if it’s real). Sharp, witty and dark at times, Dear White People‘s satirical take on the lives of black, mixed race, Asian and Indian students highlights the difficulties experienced on a day-to-day basis, and how our group of characters try to take a stand and make an impact at a predominately white university (filled with ignorant secret racists).
While the message in the film is desperately needed, especially when you consider the current climate in the US, the characters and tongue-in-cheek style of the film aren’t always easy to enjoy. None of the main players are particularly likable, no matter their good intentions of changing the way other students think and behave, and the satirical flair isn’t always clear. Alongside this, everyone in the film talks incredibly quickly, sometimes on topics or themes that aren’t easy to understand, so a subtitle track would be greatly appreciated.
Aside from these minor points, Dear White People is an intelligent, thought-out comedy-drama that showcases the problems faced by many in a way everyone can like.
Dear White People is available on EST from Friday 30th October, and is released on VOD and DVD from Monday 2nd November 2015.
