Tyler James Williams

(On Cable TV, July 2021) My motives in watching Dear White People were not noble or progressive: Like many, many (white?) people, I’ve had a crush on Tessa Thompson for years and here was one of her movies that I hadn’t seen. Arguably the movie that made a number of critics take notice of her, Dear White People features Thompson as a film student and provocative campus activist, notably through her radio show addressed at, well, “dear white people.”  Clearly taking on racism on American college campuses in the early 2010, the film hasn’t lost any of its provocativeness seven years later. Its fast pace, sardonic sense of humour, interesting characters and refusal to be righteous in its racial commentary still give it a distinctive edge over more recent and far more numerous works tackling race relations in America (including a successful spinoff episodic show on Netflix). There’s a welcome vivaciousness to the film’s editing, which flips between title cards, an ensemble of characters, and a framing device taking in the aftermath of a party leading to a race riot. It’s a film that pokes at racists and activists alike, but not in a hypocritical both-sides fashion — the racists are clearly to blame for the racism (even if, at times, the film clearly caricatures them), but even the loud activists take a moment late in the film to reconsider if they’re really making progress, or making themselves feel better for shouting back. It’s a significantly more textured and nuanced look at social activism than the self-satisfied progressiveness that often comes out of recent productions, and there’s something to be admired in the film’s refusal to claim to have all the answers. It also helps the film become a dramedy in its own right rather than a soapbox — the characters have complexities that define them more than stereotypes or roles, and the actors have quite a bit of material to use. Thompson is clearly the highlight, but she has the most flamboyant role even as Tyler James Williams, Brandon P. Bell and Teyonah Parris also have great material and know how to play it. Writer-director Justin Simien’s vision for Dear White People still feels fresh and relevant even after seven years of tumultuous events in American race relation discourse. Go in for Thompson, stay for the witty filmmaking.