{"id":17846,"date":"2015-02-03T07:58:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T15:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=17846"},"modified":"2015-02-03T08:43:54","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T16:43:54","slug":"videophiled-dear-white-people-john-wick-three-studio-ghibli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/videophiled-dear-white-people-john-wick-three-studio-ghibli\/","title":{"rendered":"Videophiled: ‘Dear White People,’ ‘John Wick,’ and three from Studio Ghibli"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DearWhite\"Dear White People<\/i><\/b> (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD), the feature debut of director \/ writer Justin Simien, is a sharp, smart, ambitious satire of race, racism, privilege, prejudice, and power at an Ivy League college that has drawn comparisons to Spike Lee. Which is fitting; Simien uses humor and provocation to explore issues of race and race relationships in the so-called post-racial era, he spreads ideas and perspectives around a large array of characters and creates debate through criss-crossing stories, and uses the crucible of college (as Spike did in School Daze<\/i>) as both microcosm and as a specific culture where young people develop their identities as adults. Simien is his own filmmaker, however, with his own style and sensibility.<\/p>\n

The title comes from the sarcastic punctuations of a radio program from campus activist Samantha “Sam” White (Tessa Thompson), who punctures the hypocrisies of political correctness with bull’s-eye stingers that are the buzz of the campus. She’s the rabble rouser who finds herself, against her own expectations, elected as head of her house, but she’s just one of a number of characters in the lumpy melting pot of a busy ensemble piece. Tyler James Williams, once the cute kid of the TV show Everybody Hates Chris<\/i>, is Lionel, the subject of savage harassment as a gay black nerd trying to find his voice as a journalist in a fringe paper. He’s promised a feature in the award-winning campus paper if he wades into the controversies getting fanned by Sam. Or at least that’s how the all-white staff of the officially-sanctioned paper sees it, and if this film is about anything it is how the meaning of issues and events shift according to perspective, experience, and expectations. I can only guess that black audiences will nod in agreement at some of these observations. As one of the white people addressed by the film, I appreciate the change in perspective. That’s one of the things movies can (and American movies all too rarely) do with such immediacy and vitality.<\/p>\n

Justin Simien suffers no lack of ambition. Most of the criticisms you can lob at the film are due to overreach. There are hypocrites on both sides of the battle lines and everyone projects a persona that they carefully cultivate. Their real selves are protected behind the social mask and contradictions abound between aspiration and reality. The white characters, however, have far less dimension and less interesting contradictions than the black characters. It’s a weakness in the debate Simien stirs up but it is also a matter of perspective. This experience is seen almost completely from the black student community, a diverse collection of individuals who both evoke and defy stereotypes. They’re a campus minority that occupies a majority of the film (the film tagline is “A satire about being a black face in a white place”).<\/p>\n

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Simien is a smart storyteller who delivers both a well-articulated sense of outrage and a resigned frustration at a system that is more concerned with maintaining appearances than acknowledging and addressing problems. And he has an unexpectedly sharp satirical wit and uses humor to pare away the familiar understanding of its issues and offer a different perspective. His ambition is ultimately more Do the Right Thing<\/i> than School Daze<\/i>, complete with a climax inspired by a real-life event that brings the issues to a flashpoint and a denouement that denies easy solutions.<\/p>\n

Blu-ray and DVD with two commentary tracks (one with director \/ writer Justin Simien alone, the other with Simien joined by cast members Tessa Thompson, Tyler James Williams, Teyonah Parris, and Brandon Bell), the featurette “The Making of Dear White People<\/i>,” skits and satirical “The More You Know About Black People” PSAs, and deleted scenes and outtakes, plus a bonus Ultraviolet Digital HD copy of the film. Also available as a Digital HD purchase (with featurettes but no commentary).<\/p>\n

\"Retreival\"The Retrieval<\/i><\/b> (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD) is a moving, heartfelt drama centered on a thirteen-year-old black boy, Will (Ashton Sanders), who serves as a kind of Judas Goat to a band of bounty hunters tracking escaped slaves in the midst of the American Civil. Will’s mercenary uncle Marcus (Keston John) tries to sell him to the head bounty hunter and bullies him when they set out to lure one last target into the arms of the gang. Nate (Tishuan Scott), a free man with a bounty on his head, is suspicious of Marcus but slowly warms to Will. As he becomes something of a father figure to the scared, brow-beaten boy, Will struggles with his conscience while leading Nate from freedom back to the slave states of the South. The high stakes of this situation\u2014Will is an African-American boy in the south during the Civil War and an orphan under the control of an outlaw who threatens to kill him if he tries to escape\u2014frame an intimate coming of age story on a vast canvas.<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Chris Eska shoots the film against the alternately lovely and desolate landscapes of state parks and national forests in Eastern Texas, standing in for blurred lines of battle around Virginia. He hints at the broader war with a single battle scene, which is more of a chaotic skirmish in the brush that sends Will fleeing in panic. Sanders, whose open face and wide, nervous eyes communicate his vulnerability, gives Will a yearning for connection and a sincerity in conflict with his fear, and Scott brings a dignity and a sureness to Nate, a man who had to abandon everyone he loved to live free in the North. It’s quite powerful and very rewarding.<\/p>\n

Blu-ray and DVD, with filmmaker commentary, a 48-minute cast and filmmaker Q&A, featurettes, and deleted scenes among the supplements.<\/p>\n

\"JohnWick\"John Wick<\/i><\/b> (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD) is the kind of action movie that Hollywood rarely makes anymore: simple, streamlined, with action scenes that rely on physical rather than computer generated elements. Keanu Reeves plays the titular character, a former assassin for the Russian mob (led by Michael Nyqvist) who is roused from retirement when a group of thugs (led by his old boss’s sadistic son) go after him while he’s mourning the death of his wife. It’s a revenge film, pure and simple, built on elements right out of pulp fiction and crime soap operas and an elaborate criminal underworld that could have been thought up in a comic book. And it is non-stop action of the old-fashioned kind. Digital effects are used to stylize the imagery and frame the set pieces, but the action scenes themselves are all about human bodies in motion, creative choreography, and impressive stunts, punctuated by bullets and explosions.<\/p>\n

Chad Stahelski gets sole screen credit as director but it’s understood that David Leitch (credited as a producer) co-directed. Both are veteran stuntmen and stunt coordinators and they build the film with minimal dialogue, basic motivations, and elaborately designed action scenes, often in close quarters, the better to show off the fighters. Reeves is an accomplished martial artist in his own right and he looks great in action. Not to make too much of this, it’s an updated version of a 70s drive-in revenge movie with the look of a graphic novel. You go with the anger of a wronged man with killer skills and enjoy the ride. Adrian Palicki (currently playing action hero on Agents of SHIELD<\/i>) is a rival assassin and Ian McShane and Willem Dafoe carve out their defining presence in small roles.<\/p>\n