Something New (Widescreen Edition)
by Sanaa Hamri
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Donald Faison, K.C. Clyde, Mike Epps, Sanaa Lathan, Simon BakerDirector: Sanaa Hamri
Brand: NBC Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language)
Format: NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-16
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Focus Features
Movie Reviews of Something New (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: A+ flim
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not sure that I got the same thing out of the film that everyone else did. I am mulatto. So my opinion is the opinion of a mulatto observer.
I really liked this film, and I do believe that it is, in some aspects, very realistic. The thing that I found the most interesting in the film is that it not only depicts racism, but the movie bravely portrays the problems with reverse racism. The main character in this film is extremely racist (Kenya) and she does not know it. She treats Brain, her white boyfriend, with contempt in many scenes within the movie. She is unfair to him and blames him for the bad experiences that she has had with other white people in her life. The development in this movie comes when Kenya comes to terms with her own racism and stops projecting outward the feelings that she has herself. Everyone has to behave the way that they would like people to behave.
Brain is an educated man in a lower social class than the girl he is trying to date. His low status is displayed realistically. He is treated in an inferior manner because of his job--despite his his good character. He displays the most mature behavior of any character in the movie. He is completely untouched by racism even though he does not always understand the social implications. As a character, he is not a saint. He is ignorant of the damaging experience that black women experience on a daily basis, but he tries to understand. This character is probably the most beautiful that I have ever watched in any film; he tries. He is also extremely patient in the face of mistreatment, refuses to complain if he thinks it is nonconstructive, and looks constantly for the positive in the situation. He is an enlightened person and he does not have the status of a professional class job.
Kenya is anxious, very serious, and needs help handling stress. She is very competent and hard working. This is the first movie that I have ever seen in which the heroine is stressed for legitimate reasons. She is an over-achiever with an under developed personal life. She lacks interpersonal skills and suffers from unrealistic fears. She also does not know how to express her feelings so she attempts to hide her emotions behind a facade of social propriety. She appears as a boring person, but is very intriguing underneath the flat way that she projects herself because of her own feelings of inferiority. She suppresses herself because of the way that her self-esteem has been damaged by her white co-workers and the way that she believes other people perceive her. She does not see the positive in her life because she is over sensitive. This is an extremely realistic portrayal of an intelligent woman that faces adversity; the character displays common errors in thinking. I have also never come across a film in which the female had a serious relationship with her family. We usually get the orphaned heroine, but in this film all family members are alive and talking. That is unusual.
What I found to be less realistic is the cruel manner in which the blacks in this film treat a white man. I grew up in an interracial neighborhood. On the block that I lived most of my life on, four families had marriages that were interracial, and all those families had children. All their children also grew up to have children with either black or white spouses. Black people are often racist, but they are not so racist that they will insult a white partner at social events. That is extremely rude, and the cruel manner that Brain is treated by blacks, in my experience, is not realistic. It is a little extreme. I do not think that this detracts greatly from the film because the movie is pointing out a genuine difficulty-- even if it is an over dramatized one.
The board has a very interesting discussion on it. I just wonder if some of this controversy is not generational. I am a twenty-five year old mulatto female, and I have had problems with racism in relationships before, but the circumstances are different from in this movie (different religions or political beliefs). I have two kids from white fathers, and I was married to a white man. Interracial marriages are not that taboo anymore. My generation barely bats an idea at this type of thing so I am not sure why this heroine is agonizing over a relationship with a very kind and attractive man. I cannot understand the scandal here. People have issues around race, but it seems not to be so much of a factor in regard to who they are going to date. If anything, this is an old controversy.
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