- Also Known As:
- Unknown
- Version
- needed to precede following dl
- Review Format:
- DVD
- Countries:
- Predominant Genre:
- Comedy
- Directors:
Directors Andrew Fleming - Outstanding Performances:
Outstanding Performances Elisabeth SHUE 
- Premiss:
- A failed actor‑turned‑drama‑teacher rallies his students in conceiving and staging a musical sequel.
- Themes:
- Aggression | Alienation | Art | Coming‑of‑age | Compassion | Courage | Curative | Curiosity | Destiny | Emotional repression | Empathy | Equality | Erotophobia | Ethnicity | Family | Free Speech | Friendship | Humanity | Identity | Individualism | Justice | Loneliness | Love | Loyalty | Narcissism | Parasitism | Passivity | Personal | Personal change | Preventive | Sadomasochism | Schizophrenia | Self‑Expression | Sexual Repression | Solipsism | Stereotyping | White culture | White people | White supremacy
- Similar to:
Enter me with the Holy Spirit, Jesus – and then rape me in the face!
Clever and rather knowing parody of the inherent White supremacy of inspiring‑teacher movies like Dangerous Minds: If only you Negroes would listen to us Whites, you would almost be as good as we are.
However, this film is also, itself, an example of the genre being parodied; the difference here is that this teacher is unable to actually do what he actually inspires others to do. Instead, in a neat reversal of the usual White‑savior narrative in film, he learns from his students how to grow up.
This movie also neatly skewers the White tendency toward emotional‑repression, which Whites try to exploit as a means of appearing superior to others in pretending to be superior to their own humanity and, thus, the comparative (& invidious) self‑expressivity of others. (To Whites, being civilized means reason triumphing over emotion, despite the fact that such a victory is neither necessary nor reasonable; merely proving deep‑seated fear of innate feelings.)
Here, Whites are shown as possessing no substantive ethnicity – unlike the Latino characters; who are clearly overflowing with the kinds of specific ethnic characteristics which Caucasians regularly eschew concerning their own ethnicity. This difference is particularly evident in the fact that Whites rarely enjoy sex with those of their choice, since they are required by their culture to remain sexually‑closeted in relation to not expressing any sexual feelings for People of Color. This also negatively affects White sexual‑relations with each other, since being human is a take‑it‑or‑leave‑it issue: Either one accepts the whole package or one remains doomed‑to‑failure in believing that one can freely pick‑and‑choose those aspects of human nature that one likes; while rejecting those parts one does not like.
This underlying self‑hatred explains both the overtly‑expressed cultural anger and social fears of the White characters on show here. And is, ultimately, where the film really scores high because talent and aptitude are not worshiped as indicators of genetic superiority. What is more important is enthusiasm, motivation & passion – misdirected or otherwise. This creative tension between having the temperament of an artist as opposed to the actual ability, all serve to make the High School musical put on at the end of the movie as enjoyably‑naff as the audience‑in‑the‑film finds it to be. Hilarious.
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