School Daze (1988)

Directed by Spike Lee. Starring Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Kyme, Tisha Campbell, Spike Lee, Art Evans, Bill Nunn, Joe Seneca, Ossie Davis, Kadeem Harrison, Ellen Holly, Branford Marsalis, Joie Lee, Darryl M. Bell. [R]

It’s homecoming weekend at an all-black university in Atlanta, and the divided student body (chiefly, the lighter-skinned “Wannabes” and the darker-skinned “Jigaboos”) is just about at each other’s throats. Writer/director/producer Lee uses the campus as a microcosm of Black America—and even outside the country’s borders in regards to anti-apartheid demonstrations—and makes numerous salient points about classism, color discrimination, activism, and more. However, as he sometimes does, his unfocused ambitions result in overspreading, with multiple ideas and storylines going from focal point to all-but-forgotten. Gets mired at length in the least-fascinating theme (hazing and groupthink within the Greek system), and because the more provocative and thoughtful elements are discarded for so long, the stylized, fourth wall-breaking ending feels unearned and anticlimactic. “Musical breaks” interrupt the flow and sometimes feel like excess baggage, even though they’re among the most creative segments of the film. The ensemble cast is spotty, but Fishburne does admirable work in one of his earliest leading roles (if anyone in this movie can actually be called a lead, that is). Samuel L. Jackson makes a brief appearance.

59/100