breakfastcowl

School Daze

Unrelenting powerhouse of institutional critique and musical-but-also-not-quite-?-a-musical. (Lots of the dialogue feels like a recitation, sing-song and almost formalized-- other times like a pastiche of 50's/60's genre exchanges.) From an indie-filmmaking background the exponentially increased production budget must have felt outright lavish, so I can better understand his everything-and-the-fraternity-sink approach. It's all stacked together, tonally or otherwise, but in a way that helps in condensing an entire collegiate experience into one homecoming weekend. A specific Black experience, of course; one where absolutely nothing could matter less than my Letterboxd review. A film luxuriating in itself, its own conversation and complexity, problems and joys, I am only along for the ride.