I can’t say that I’m a particularly big fan of Mario Van Peebles as a filmmaker to date. That’s not to say that he’s bad at what he does, but he’s yet to really do anything that’s made me sit up and take notice. That’s changed somewhat with his teen comedy ‘We the Party’, a disposable yet entertaining little flick. This is essentially a West Coast and urbanized version of ‘American Pie’, but Van Peebles is having such a blast making this coming of age film (and co-starring in it) that some of that fun rubs off on you (it’s also a family affair for him, as what seems like his entire family is in the film, from the leads all the way down to bit parts). He’s also given the film a strong pro education message, and it’s handled well enough that he never comes off as preaching to the audience. Van Peebles direction is very sure-handed (though the subplot featuring a character always in a dark hoodie obviously has a different connotation currently than he intended it to have and turns out to be a more lasting image than it should have been) outshines his writing here. Still, it’s all things that we’ve seen before, and mostly done better. I did like the film, but it just never got over the hump to be something worth getting particularly excited about. It’s getting a very mild thumbs up from me, even though the 2 and a half star rating doesn’t always mean that for me. It’s a flawed film, but the good slightly outweighs the bad here, and that lets me recommend it, even if it’s only a halfhearted recommendation in the end.
Read more on We the Party (**½)…
Mario Van Peebles is not a synonymous name that goes with awards, Oscars, or even groundbreaking acting and/or directing. Believe it or not, Peebles has been in the game for some time. He’s been acting for over forty years and directing for almost twenty-five. Coming from a strong acting family including his father, Melvin Van Peebles, he has featured his way through Hollywood as “hey, that guy looks familiar.” Maybe not a household name, per se.
