REVIEW: Dear White People

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Dear White People
Directed by: Justin Simien
Written by: Justin Simien
Starring: Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris and Brandon P. Bell

In one of the many scenes of humiliation in Justin Simien’s Dear White People, the newly-elected head of the unofficial black student dorm tips over the white university president’s son’s plate in a dining hall and demands that he get out.  She says it’s because he doesn’t live there, and he isn’t used to not getting his way.  There’s obviously very intense racial tensions in the scene, but the ways in which the different groups within the school’s black community react to it make it, and the movie, more complex.

That dorm head, Sam (Tessa Thompson), is also the host of a campus radio show that gives the movie its title.   She uses “Dear White People” to speak a series of agitated open letters to the white students at the fictional Ivy League school Winchester University and the black students currently in power.  Although Simien’s movie climaxes at a racist “hip hop” themed party where a bunch of white students dress in blackface, before that it’s more interested in the divides within the black community on Winchester’s campus.

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SPOTLIGHT: George Clooney

George Clooney is the essential American. The essential white American upper class male to be politically correct, because being politically correct is something Clooney takes quite seriously. His nature is calm, collected and suave, being as cool and crisp as a Labor Day afternoon. He delivers his lines with poetic insistence and looks at the other actors with sharpening charm. His onscreen talents are limited to a character that can match up with his own personality, but he plays them so damn well it doesn’t matter. Though his range is limited, he smartly remains diverse in his characters, avoiding becoming a one note pretty face actor like a similar storied Jenifer Aniston. After making his break for being a hunk on the hit show ER in the late 90’s, Clooney slowly evolved his career by working with Steven Soderbergh in the Ocean’s series and the Coen brothers along with other notable directors, turning his off-screen GQ cover aura into living characters with the same wowing affect. A handful of philanthropy efforts and notable directing, writing and producing jobs which won him awards.  But lately, Clooney has brought back the kind of class movie stars used to carry and embody in the 40’s and 50’s. Though it may not appear so, Clooney’s talent is making it look so easy with the utmost esteem and adoration, making him the original class act of the new Hollywood. Continue reading

Inception’s Early Reviews: It’s Just the Beginning

Among the endless and plaguing remakes, reboots and sequels which Hollywood has been chastised for earlier in our State of the Box Office, comes a willing, bold beacon of hope to rise up against the order of Hollywood and save the summer from a single state of mind, a breath of fresh air, a sneaking guardian, a… dark knight perhaps?

Maybe. At least that is the word so far.

Early reviews for Christopher Nolan’s latest mind-bender are calling the Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight creator’s newest film “easily the most original movie idea in ages.” Peter Travers from Rolling Stone rated the film three and a half out of four stars, complimenting Nolan’s audacity in storytelling, visuals and ambitions. The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and a handful of other notable publications have all joined the bandwagon, commending the film for skipping CGI for in-camera photo-realistic imagery, its grand multi-reality setting and complex narrative. Continue reading

‘Dark Knight’ Sequel Gets Director and Date

Finally! The time has come for Warner Bros. to set an official release date for the third installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series.

It was announced that July 20, 2012 will hold the third installment, which should put it on track to follow the success of The Dark Knight‘s July 16th and Inception‘s July 18th release dates. This means there will be a total of four years between the previous and next installment, where a three year gap existed before films one and two. However, it is reasonable to assume Nolan will need 2 years to write, direct and produce Batman 3, which for now has no official title attached.

The best part of the news is that Nolan himself is returning to helm the project. It is said that Nolan, his brother Jonathon and David S. Goyer who all co-wrote the first two will be back to script the third. No other official casting, production or plot announcements were made. Continue reading