Given the time (and monetary) constraints of graduate school life, I’m always been pretty selective with the movies I go out and spend my re-allocated gas and grocery funds on, and it seems the first movies I cross off my must-see list tend to be major studio comedies. I can’t say for sure why this is, but I think a lot of it is because the majority of them (Neighbors being my primary exception this year) seem so phony and half-baked, while independent comedies (and comedy-dramas) like The Grand Budapest Hotel, Chef, and Obvious Child feel much more sincere and well-crafted.
So with that, while I’m not entirely sold on the majority of the big studio comedies hitting theaters between now and the end of the year, I’m actively anticipating Justin Simien‘s Dear White People, which played well on the small-festival circuit following its debut at Sundance in January. I’ve only seen the first teaser for the film, and it looks like it strikes an interesting comedic tone to go along with its satirical and dramatic elements. Today, Roadside Attractions released a new red band trailer for the film, which I’ve embedded below.
Billed as a satire about identity and the cultural perceptions of race and stereotypes, Dear White People follows a group of African American students on an Ivy League campus where a controversy breaks out due to the theme of a popular party thrown by the school’s white students.
The cast includes Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris, Brandon P. Bell, Kyle Gallner, Malcolm Barrett, Brittany Curran, Marque Richardson and Dennis Haysbert.
Justin Simien won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at Sundance for writing and directing the project, which hits theaters October 17.
