The lives of four black students at an Ivy League college.The lives of four black students at an Ivy League college.The lives of four black students at an Ivy League college.
- Awards
- 13 wins & 28 nominations
Brandon P Bell
- Troy Fairbanks
- (as Brandon Bell)
Kate Gaulke
- Annie
- (as Katie Gaulke)
Bryan Daniel Porter
- Gordon
- (as Bryan Porter)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSam makes a student film that is critical of what she sees as white people's widespread fear of Barack Obama and titles it "Rebirth of a Nation." This is a reference not only to D.W. Griffith's notoriously racist 1915 Civil War movie The Birth of a Nation (1915) but also to something that filmmaker Spike Lee experienced while he was a first-year student at NYU's graduate film school. After being required to watch Griffith's film and objecting to the fact that his professors taught it only as a milestone in the technical development of cinema with no attention paid to its racism and its legacy of helping to relaunch the KKK, Lee made a student short film titled The Answer (1980) that responded to The Birth of a Nation himself. "The Answer" so offended many of his NYU professors that Lee was nearly expelled from NYU, but was ultimately saved by a faculty vote.
- GoofsWhen Sam is in the dining hall and chastises Kurt for eating in their dining hall - just before she stands up; she closes her Macbook twice.
- Quotes
Professor Bodkin: ...Might I also remind you that I read your entire fifteen-page unsolicited treatise on why the Gremlins is actually about suburban white fear of black culture.
Sam White: The Gremlins are loud, talk in slang, are addicted to fried chicken and freak out when you get their hair wet.
- Crazy creditsThe end credits include photographs of the real-life blackface (and brownface) college parties that inspired the film's climax.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner: Los Angeles (2019)
- Soundtracks45 Drum Break
Performed by The Co-Stars
Written by Neely Dinkins Jr. (as Neely Dinkins)
Vito Colapietro Courtesy of Atom Factory Music Licensing
Featured review
The satire that does not quite live up to expectation
I was first exposed to Dear White People by its trailer. The trailer was so promising it put the movie to a much higher level of expectation than it actually is so it could have only been a slight disappoint. The film is smart, punchy, and funny, for a film about racism and racial tensions.
The preppy college setting screams for an amazing story about racial tensions and racism. The black characters that the film follows - Coco the girl who wants to be white, Lionel the awkward gay guy that doesn't quite fit in, Troy who fits in but isn't quite himself, and the infamous Sam who is basically a modern day activist with a secret boyfriend - are actually good archetypes of nowadays college educated black people because they are all unique if not for the color of their skin.
With this basis Simien delivered an interesting film about racial tensions between blacks and whites without shaming or blaming one of the two parties involved. But the film sort of feels like a fluff piece that didn't really dive deep into the subject. The white characters are mostly stereotypical, they are the same to be honest, arrogant, and entitled. The film quickly becomes more about about finding one's identity and western society in general than racial tensions. Maybe, that's the point, one of the message behind it is that racial tensions stems from the way our society is, with whites liking the black cultures but not its people? I don't really know but at least Dear White People is a good conversation starter.
As for the actors, I mean the ones with layers to their characters, they gave a stellar performance. Tessa Thompson portrayed a riveting Sam with talent, wit and insolence. And Tyler James Williams was probably the easiest character to relate to, he likes what he likes and doesn't try to change who he is.
For a first film Dear White People is interesting and if the trailer hadn't been so good I probably would have been in awe after watching it. @wornoutspines
The preppy college setting screams for an amazing story about racial tensions and racism. The black characters that the film follows - Coco the girl who wants to be white, Lionel the awkward gay guy that doesn't quite fit in, Troy who fits in but isn't quite himself, and the infamous Sam who is basically a modern day activist with a secret boyfriend - are actually good archetypes of nowadays college educated black people because they are all unique if not for the color of their skin.
With this basis Simien delivered an interesting film about racial tensions between blacks and whites without shaming or blaming one of the two parties involved. But the film sort of feels like a fluff piece that didn't really dive deep into the subject. The white characters are mostly stereotypical, they are the same to be honest, arrogant, and entitled. The film quickly becomes more about about finding one's identity and western society in general than racial tensions. Maybe, that's the point, one of the message behind it is that racial tensions stems from the way our society is, with whites liking the black cultures but not its people? I don't really know but at least Dear White People is a good conversation starter.
As for the actors, I mean the ones with layers to their characters, they gave a stellar performance. Tessa Thompson portrayed a riveting Sam with talent, wit and insolence. And Tyler James Williams was probably the easiest character to relate to, he likes what he likes and doesn't try to change who he is.
For a first film Dear White People is interesting and if the trailer hadn't been so good I probably would have been in awe after watching it. @wornoutspines
helpful•139
- Garcwrites
- May 17, 2015
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,404,154
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $347,959
- Oct 19, 2014
- Gross worldwide
- $4,633,961
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