not as obnoxious as "Dear White People" for sure.
The movie does do this gay ass pandering to every dweeb black kid that thinks they got picked on for being smart. They're in a punk band because Pharell wanted a way to squeeze his compositions in the movie, all those "punk" songs they performed were composed and written by Pharell.
It's like a 5/10 to me and I went in excited for this movie. I never bought into the whole "new blacks" thing nikkas on the internet complain about, but this really felt like a "new black" movie. A movie about black people but for a global audience, breaks everything down in a way that doesn't bother white and non-black folk too much. Hell, outside of Shameik aka Malcolm, most of the main characters are high yellow racially ambigious people and all the "dumb hood nikkas" that antagonize the main characters are actual darker black people.
A black movie for the tumblr generation that doesn't "see race", but it still had a lot the same tropes I would expect a white person that didn't know shyt about blacks in the hood to use. Like imagine a white person making a movie that opens with a main character complaining about living with blacks in the hood because they rob and pick on him for being smart, then having to sit in a theater with cacs thinking that is a accurate representation of the hood. Malcolm is sold to the audience as being a "good black" because he's "different" from the rest of the "not good blacks" in the hood; the thing is most blacks don't share shyt in common with Malcolm, hell Malcolm is kinda a c00n.
The movie still sells the black default as being bad, and unless you step out that default to like things like skateboarding, punk rock, and Game of Thrones (which I like a lot) while achieving academic greatness you're just a background "bad negro"
I sold itself on breaking down stereotypes but it didn't breakdown shyt.
EDIT: barely mentioned the technical parts of the film; it was well shot, but outside of the school security guard none of characters gave believable performances as kids that live in the hood in LA, Rocky was hood but he was a fukking Harlem nikka in the middle of South Central, NY accent and everything. The plot was very very convoluted and unbelievable plus the "insightful" parts felt like Damon Wayans was gonna pop out and yell "MESSAGEEEEEEEEEE!". Soundtrack was nice though.
she was lookin so good wit that dyke swag
