Dear White People2014
Dear White People (2014)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Dear White People adds a welcome new voice to cinema's oft-neglected discussion of race, tackling its timely themes with intelligence, honesty, and gratifyingly sharp wit.
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Lionel Higgins
as Sam White
as Troy Fairbanks
as Dean Fairbanks
as Colandrea "Coco" Conners
as Kurt Fletcher
as Helmut West
as Sofia Fletcher
as George
as President Fletcher
as Annie
as Martin
as Mitch
as Gordon
as Professor Bodkin
as Sungmi
as Curls
as Smoothe
as Wild
as Box Office Attendant
as Sophomore
as Newscaster #1
as Newscaster #2
as Newscaster #3
as Coco's Friend
News & Interviews for Dear White People
Critic Reviews for Dear White People
All Critics (135) | Top Critics (57) | Fresh (123) | Rotten (12) | DVD (1)
Despite the chances not taken in terms of storytelling and filmmaking, there are also plenty of reasons to be excited about Dear White People. Simien took what started out as a crowd-funded film and turned it into a pop culture phenomenon.
...the film explores how two members of the same race can have vastly different experiences depending on how dark their skin is, as well as why certain people can say and act one way, but not others.
... an incisive look at not only how smart, ambitious people of all different skin tones and experiences talk about race in America, but also what's behind those words.
But as great as the message is, and as hilarious as it is at times, Dear White People struggles as a full-length film.
A brilliant piece of writing from a very thoughtful and humorous director.
A dagger-sharp satire, a film filled end-to-end with tiny sticks of dynamite, each lit carefully with a gleeful smirk.
Audience Reviews for Dear White People
There will be haters, for sure, and the haters will be outraged whites complaining about "reverse racism" and other imaginary things like how "there is no racism in America anymore" - which is a pity, really, since this excellent satire should be dedicated to you, dear white racist.
Super Reviewer
On an elite campus racial tensions cause a black student to infiltrate a white frat house. Energetic, politically significant, and delightfully witty, is Higher Learning and Do the Right Thing with a smirk. It's satire whereas the others were grittier dramas with satirical edges. The character-driven plot suffers a second act lull, and one plot point comes from nowhere, but the rest is fresh and interesting. In a Hollywood landscape where almost all the films about race are simplistic or insulting (2004 Best Picture winner Crash was both), this film is such a welcomed breath of fresh air that it's easy to forgive any of its flaws. Overall, director Justin Simien is a fresh new voice, and I can't wait for his follow-up.
Super Reviewer
"Dear White People" is a film full of divisive issues on race, presented with hysterical point of view by writer/director Justin Simien. The main takeaway of this film is the issue of identity when you are classified as the "Other" in a white dominated society. Many different perspectives emerge from the various black cast members: that of the upper middle class rich kid who don't see disparity, though their actions contribute to it, the voice of an angry faction fed up with white privilege, and whom places race in every conversation, and the voice of someone who doesn't know their racial identity because of their various interests. Every issue that this film brings up makes you, as an audience member, angry and enlivened. The fact that racism's biases are so entrenched in our lives, and yet we treat it as a dead, age old form of degradation is unfathomable. The characters sometimes rely on clichés, and aren't always as fully developed as I would like, but their problems and motivations are fleshed out. Writer/Director Justin Simien has a unique, personal voice that rings true, and even if you don't enjoy the film, I wouldn't doubt you will be thinking about it a long time afterwards.
Super Reviewer
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