Dear White People
Lionsgate | Release Date: October 17, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Total FilmJamie GrahamJul 6, 2015
Dear everyone – stop whatever you’re doing and go see Dear White People. One of the freshest, funniest and most vital films of the year. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 23, 2014
Dear White People isn't perfect. And yet the flaws really don't matter. This is the best film about college life in a long time, satiric or straight, comedy or drama. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundJun 20, 2014
Like the movie itself, every character is a beautiful swirl of contradictions. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnOct 29, 2014
Simmien both mocks and provokes the nature of our seemingly progressive times by illuminating misguided assumptions and fears embedded in forward-thinking discourse. But Simien's relentless screenplay is never too self-serious or didactic, instead pairing culturally-savvy brains with a goofy grin. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 23, 2014
Simien's film is one of those rare works that teach by appearing not to — you laugh at some of the antics, cringe at others, but the film is so entertaining you may forget you're learning something. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 16, 2014
You want to see this movie, and you will want to talk about it afterward, even if the conversation feels a little awkward. If it doesn’t, you’re doing it wrong. There is great enjoyment to be found here, and very little comfort. Read full review
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekOct 14, 2014
The small miracle of the movie is that Simien finds so many laughs in what are genuinely bewildering issues. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 23, 2014
Although there are moments when the characters in Dear White People sound as if they’re reciting different sections of a thesis, overall Simien’s screenplay is tight, funny, smart and insightful, and his direction has just enough indie feel without becoming too self-conscious or preachy. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSteven BooneOct 17, 2014
It's fortunate that, like "The Social Network," Dear White People is so charismatic in form and style that we easily forgive its surfeit of priviliged narcissists. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 16, 2014
Dear White People marks an auspicious debut for writer-director Justin Simien, an African-American who laces his satire with delicious mirth and malice. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 16, 2014
Identity is the film’s true subject: As much as he pokes fun at the foibles of a privileged white America, Simien is more interested in the ways his protagonists conform, or refuse to conform, to society’s idea of them. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenJul 6, 2015
Do the right thing — take a break from summer spectacle to check out this assured and eloquent indie. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 24, 2014
The most impressive thing about Simien's film is his script, which he wrote. With multiple protagonists and multiple storylines to serve, he deftly manages to keep a number of balls in the air -- without losing sight of his film's purpose. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 18, 2014
The film is called Dear White People, but it might as well be called Dear Everybody. It’s hilarious, and just about everyone will wince with recognition at some point in the film. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesLorraine AliOct 16, 2014
The complicated narratives don't distract from what this film does best: make you laugh about the things that make you furious. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanOct 15, 2014
Comparisons to Spike Lee’s movies are unavoidable, particularly with a setting that recalls Lee’s “School Daze” and a conclusion that echoes “Do the Right Thing.” But Dear White People is a film of the moment, and an essential one at that. Read full review
80
Time OutTom HuddlestonOct 14, 2014
A title like that needs balls of brass to back it up. Luckily, this fiery college comedy from feature-debuting writer-director Justin Simien, loosely inspired by a series of scandalous black-face parties at all-white fraternities, is full of punchy intelligence and barely concealed anger. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 22, 2014
The cast is game and Siemen’s trenchant observations are the mark of a filmmaker with something to say – an increasing rarity in this day and age. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 6, 2014
The pitch on Dear White People is that it’s “Do the Right Thing for the Obama generation,” which is both an oversell and a disservice to Justin Simien’s witty satire about race relations on a fictional Ivy League campus. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 23, 2014
This is an important movie, but it’s not a perfect one. It has one enormous flaw, and it’s a testament to the smartness of the writing and the inherent fascination of its viewpoint that it doesn’t wreck the experience: Director Justin Simien doesn’t know how to shape scenes or pull performances from his actors. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 16, 2014
It’s true that satire is the perfect weapon of reason, and Justin Simien deploys it with resourcefulness, cool assurance and eagle-eyed aim. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 15, 2014
The movie finds real power in its climax, a party that turns into a nightmarish orgy of leering white kids in blackface. And the end-credit photos of real parties just like it at schools across the country are a stark reminder of the ugliness that Dear White People, flawed as it is, wants to confront. Read full review
75
TheWrapInkoo KangOct 15, 2014
The four main actors, all uniformly excellent, can wrap their tongues around Simien's verbose dialogue, but some of the minor actors have a harder time, resulting in several jokes falling flat. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 14, 2014
Simien focuses too much on the character played by his star, Williams, which seems a mistake. Scenes are underscored with classical music chestnuts, a trite way of suggesting “academia.” And the ending is an eye-roller. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJames RocchiJun 20, 2014
It’s an American film that talks about race with strong feeling, common sense and good humor; it’s an indie screenwriting-directing debut as polished as it is provocative; it’s a satire that also lets its characters be people; it’s a showcase of clever craft and direction as well as whip-smart comedic writing brought to life by a dedicated, charismatic cast that also conveys real ideas and emotion. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweJun 20, 2014
Simien intensifies the impact of both action and dialogue with a self-reflexive directorial style that creates a marginally heightened sense of reality, revealing more about characters' motivations than would conventionally be expected. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerOct 23, 2014
The dose of reality is bracing and welcome after all the hothouse talk that preceeded it. Dear White People is a first feature, lively and intelligent and thought-provoking, by a writer-director whose best movies are yet to come. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 23, 2014
Although the characters don’t lapse into stereotypes, neither are they sufficiently funny or fierce to engage us in the issues they raise. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartOct 15, 2014
“It’s a little self-congratulatory and light on story,” says one student of another’s film project in Dear White People, which feels like director Justin Simien getting out ahead of inevitable (and accurate) criticism. Read full review
60
SlateAisha HarrisDec 15, 2014
Unfortunately, Simien’s many smart, relevant thoughts on race are more often wrapped up in an impassioned, didactic bow that rarely feels fresh—or, more damagingly, funny. Read full review
60
The DissolveNoel MurrayOct 15, 2014
Simien is clearly a talented, witty writer, with a fantastic sense of character development and dialogue, but he makes a lot of rookie mistakes as a filmmaker, from trying to cover too much ground in one movie to making stylistic choices that render Dear White People visually incomprehensible. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangJun 20, 2014
Bristling with arguments about the complexities of black identity in a supposedly post-racial America, this lively and articulate campus-set comedy proves better at rattling off ideas and presenting opposing viewpoints than it does squeezing them into a coherent narrative frame. Read full review
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