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There’s no sense mincing words: Debut director Justin Simien’s “Dear White People” is one of the best films of 2014. Not since Spike Lee made a controversial splash with 1989’s “Do the Right Thing” has a film about race relations been so topical, articulate and skillfully orchestrated. Set on a fictional college campus, the hot-button satire, whose plot points and characterizations span virtually every facet of modern identity (race, class, gender, sexual orientation), is a model of how to hurl ideas at the screen and make them stick.
Though technically told from a black perspective (or a black queer perspective, to be more specific about Simien’s own identity), “Dear White People” is remarkable in that it lets every voice in its diverse ensemble be heard, and never decrees that there are any wrong answers. The militant black female DJ who runs the titular radio program; the closeted, undeclared freshman who’s afraid of his own race; the privileged white elitist who argues the woes of equal opportunity — all of them are given their moment to plead their case.
This is the sort of film we need in the landscape right now: A multicultural study whose only interest is asking questions, and a cultural commentary that’s malleable by design, seeing as it’s pouring from the mouths of students whose worldviews are still taking shape. This is Simien’s real masterstroke, and the touch that gets him off the hook for putting too much on his plate. Even if elements like reality TV seem to be bloating the narrative, it ultimately becomes one more layer in Simien’s strata of exploration.
“Dear White People” is being sold as a comedy, and it is indeed funny. (If anything, it’s rewarding to see a film by a black, gay director that doesn’t kowtow to the tragic trends of films about either community.) But the ideas are so bracing, the themes so unflinchingly resonant, that scenes like a blackface party play like they were stripped from recent headlines. Simien has his eyes wide open to the world, and he has much to say about it.
Dear White People
R
Four reels out of four
Opens tomorrow in limited release
Recommended Rental
Snowpiercer
R
Available Tuesday
Though highly overrated as the ultimate arty antidote to summer blockbusters, Joon-ho Bong ’s dystopian thriller “Snowpiercer” is still worth checking out for its technical wizardry, which involved the creation of a train (mankind’s last vessel after a new Ice Age) that spanned multiple city blocks. The segmented class commentary is on the nose, but actors like Tilda Swinton and John Hurt are on point.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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