5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A satire that follows the stories of four black students at an Ivy League college where a riot breaks out over a popular 'African American' themed party thrown by white students.
Starring: Tyler James Williams, Kyle Gallner, Dennis Haysbert, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah ParrisDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Dear White People is a decidedly odd combination of incendiary material offered with a curiously tamped down if often long winded presentation style. The film makes a lot of piquant observations about race relations, both internecine (i.e., largely between blacks) and intramural (i.e., between blacks and whites) on the campus of a hoity toity Ivy League college named Winchester University. Seemingly meant to intentionally evoke memories of entries like Spike Lee’s School Daze, Dear White People is undeniably smart, but like a lot of nerds, tends to outstay its welcome while at the same time repeatedly drawing attention to just how intelligent it really is. The film follows a handful of students going through various crises at the school, most of which combine serious subject matter delivered in a wryly comedic fashion. Sam White (Tessa Thompson) hosts a local radio program called “Dear White People” where she upbraids the Caucasian student body with reprimands about their behavior, especially as it relates to blacks. When Sam almost inadvertently wins the presidency at her local dorm, the housing unit traditionally inhabited by black students, a domino effect is put into motion where several other students’ lives are affected. Sam’s militancy is both despised and appreciated, by both whites and blacks, but ultimately pits student against student in what amounts to a low level “race war.”
Dear White People is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shot digitally with the Red Epic, Dead White People has an appealingly sharp and clear picture, but it's pretty much devoid of any significant "wow" factor. The tony climes of Winchester University mean a lot of burnished browns as in the ubiquitous paneling inside the school, and even the interior of Sam's broadcast studio is kind of drab looking, something that's only exacerbated by typically very dim lighting in those sequences. When the film ventures out of doors on bright sunlit days, the palette does perk up considerably (see screenshot 14), but never overwhelmingly so. Contrast is consistent though some may be somewhat underwhelmed by the digital capture of the more dimly lit scenes, elements that can oftentimes look murky. There are no issues with image instability or artifacts on this pleasing presentation.
Dear White People's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 perks up measurably through the use of source cues and in crowded scenes like the dining hall in Armstrong Parker or, later, the raucous party. The bulk of the film, though, features dialogue and quite a bit of voice over by Sam that doesn't really exploit the surround channels in any meaningful way. Fidelity remains excellent and dynamic range is rather wide for an ostensible comedy.
- Writer-Director Justin Simien, with Actors Tessa Thompson, Tyler James Williams, Teyonah Parris and Brandon Bell is more of a gabfest reunion, with some fun anecdotes.
- Writer-Director Justin Simien is the more analytical and ruminative of the two commentaries, though Simien states up front that he'd rather let the viewer establish his or her own relationship with the film rather than having it dictated by Simien, and so there's quite a bit of dead space on this one.
Some of the supplements included on this Blu-ray suggest that there was almost a sketch like approach considered at one time (that is, if one assumes these supplements were initially planned to be part of the finished film in some form). That approach may in fact have ultimately worked better than Simien's attempt to weave the more whimsical and outrageously satirical elements into a more anchored story about race relations on a modern college campus. There's a lot of good material here, but better shaping and integration (no pun intended) could have helped the sometimes unwieldy structure. Technical merits are strong, the supplemental package is fun, and Dear White People comes Recommended.
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