We the Party (2012)
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 13
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 2,558
My Rating
Movie Info
A revealing look at contemporary youth culture, writer-director Mario Van Peebles' We the Party shows teenagers as they are, not as adults would like them to be. Set amidst the latest trends in music, dance and fashion, We the Party is a colorful, cutting-edge comedy set in an ethnically diverse Los Angeles high school during America's first black president. The film focuses on five friends as they deal with romance, money, prom, college, sex, bullies, facebook, fitting in, standing out, and
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (13)
Every time it dabbles in real-world teen issues like sex and drugs, it returns to a fanciful high school where kids quote Nietzsche and play acoustic guitar on lunch breaks.
Top CriticMario Van Peebles' self-produced project comes frustratingly close to his high-minded aims.
Heavy-handed teen drama mixes moralizing and partying to uneven effect.
A good-natured high school dramedy that borrows from many others...
With the raunch of "American Pie" and the heart of an after-school special, the comedy turns out to be a lot less than the sum of its parts.
Van Peebleses ... populate the movie, and all are serviceable enough as actors; it would be nice to see them in less earnest, more original material.
I have to admit there is something kind of disarming about its corny earnestness. Van Peebles clearly invested himself in the material, and damn it all if he wasn't going to wring that screenplay for all it was worth.
[VIDEO] There are a few moments during writer/director Mario Van Peebles's overly didactic high school drama when you can almost glimpse the good film buried beneath all the artifice.
Initially promising teen comedy-drama, featuring African-American kids not in the ghetto for once, soon undermines itself in a welter of clichés and empty gloss.
Joining two overweight characters in a relationship just to make a joke about them enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet hardly qualifies as progressive, intellectual comedy.
How to resist a film in which one kid taunts another by quoting Mo'Nique's monologue from Precious?
Unfolding like a 21st Century update of African-American coming-of-age classics House Party (1990) and Love Jones (1997), We the Party might very well come to serve as the seminal adventure capturing the angst and aspirations of the Millennial Generation.
While We the Party can be insensitive, or blind, to the misogyny and homophobia of the general culture (the token gay teen is a finger-snapping, head-bobbing fashionista), it takes the issues of race and class quite seriously.
Audience Reviews for We the Party
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for We the Party yet.
Latest News on We the Party
April 5, 2012:
Critics Consensus: American Reunion Is A Decent Get-TogetherThis weekend, the dream of the 1990s is alive at the multiplex: the lusty teenagers of "American...
What's Hot On RT
Every Star Trek movie listed
Star Trek is Certified Fresh
Forest Whitaker serves the White House
Trailer for Tom Hanks thriller
Featured on RT
- Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake? 22
- Critics Consensus: Star Trek Into Darkness is Certified Fresh 74
- Red Carpet Roundup: Star Trek Into Darkness Edition 0
- Video Interviews with Katie Aselton & Lake Bell of Black Rock 2
- VIP Access: Eli Roth talks Aftershock 1
- Total Recall: Star Trek Movies 85
- Parental Guidance: Star Trek Into Darkness 18
Top Headlines
-
J.J. Abrams Talks Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars, and More
0
-
Vin Diesel Says Fast & Furious 7 Will Begin a New Trilogy
3
-
Mickey Rourke Confirmed for Expendables 3
3
-
Brad Bird Still Mulling Incredibles 2
0
-
Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, and Martin Short Join Inherent Vice
0
-
Bruce Willis Makes an Expiration Date
1
-
Drew Pearce Hired for Mission: Impossible 5
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
