We The Party Review

                     We The Party is the latest film from Mario Van Peebles. It is a comedy revolving around a group of friends trying to make it through high school in the present day of social media, peer pressure, and other dilemmas. The main character in the film is Hendrix (Mario's son Mandela Van Peebles.) His dad, Sutton (Mario Van Peebles) is a teacher at the school which both helps and hurts Hendrix's academic future. On one hand, his dad wants what's best for him and helps him get impressive grades in school. On the other hand, Sutton puts Hendrix on the mandatory tutoring list and hurts his social life by this.

                   The film then revolves around Hendrix and his friends, as well as Hendrix with his long time crush, Cheyenne (Simone Battle). What I loved most about We The Party is its sense of humor. It's a very funny film, but doesn't throw anyone under the bus by making them unlikable. For example, there is a creepy kid in the class named CC (rapper YG). However, even CC has good traits after him, and many good traits at that. In fact, the only really unlikable character is Big D (fellow rapper Snoop Dogg). Hendrix and his friends, while having their flaws, are very charming young men. In many movies these days, we either get 100% unlikable characters or 100% likable characters. Either someone has all flaws and no good or someone is a perfect angel. In We The Party, we get flawed characters, almost all of which have some good under them.

                   The film also features excellent chemistry. One of my tests of a comedy is whether or not the people involved looked like they were having a good time with each other or not. Every person in this film looked like they were having a great time. The film also features five Van Peebles, a touching thing to see in a film. As well, the film has excellent direction from Mario Van Peebles, whose previous works as a director include the magnificent films New Jack City and Baadasssss about his father, fellow director Melvin Van Peebles. Melvin almost entirely created the Blaxpotation film movement, and Mario is following in his father's footsteps as someone who is going to change film as we know it. We The Party is a great start to Mario's soon to be unforgettable career as a director.
(4 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for sexual content, language, and brief drug use-all involving teens)