User Reviews

I really enjoyed this move. It's a coming of age movie that that deals with race and class in America in the late 60s. All the acting was great, my negatives are you can tell there wasn't a big budget, and way it's shot is boring.

Through Eli we see the true purpose of HBCUs when he attends Meharry Medical School. To shape and instill values into their students so they can use their education to serve the their community. Which is at odds with Eli, who doesn't feel like he has any true calling in life and just wants a good job to escape his poor background. This is emphasized through his relationship with Dr. Johnson. He wants Eli to use his medical skills to help black people in the future. Which is important and potentially life saving since black people are routinely denied service in white institutions, e.g., his date with Melanie. It ties to an earlier the incident between Eli and Michael where he is angry that Eli is taking a black person's spot who would serve the black community. Eli earns Dr. Johnson's praise not from a performative protest he did just to impress a girl he likes, but when he helps a black teenager deliver her baby.

Michael is part of the black bourgeoisie which sometimes put him at odds with his peers. Meharry is the Alma mater of his father and he is expected best which puts a lot of pressure on him. His scenes with Dr. Johnson were interesting, Dr. Johnson routinely humbles him. And they never had a heart to heart moment like he has with Eli. I don't know if it was commentary on black fathers having to give their sons tough love. Also I got the feeling he didn't like Michael's father but is never explored more. His real arc comes with being able to connect and gain friends. He becomes number 2 in the class which ties back to his conversation with Melanie where she says she like no.2s because they have to work harder. He no longer strives to be the best but works to be better.

The film also explores how white power structures pit minorities against each other. While also recognizing that because Eli is adjacent to whiteness he has some privilege emphasized by Dr. Feldman when he says he can get served faster at a restaurant. Both he and Michael get stop by a corrupt cop. Eli is accused of trying to register black voters and subjected to antisemitic tropes about Jewish secretly controlling things behind the scenes. The cops levels a powerful statement to no get comfortable because "darkies" don't like the Jews as much as the whites. When Eli is jailed along with the students he protested with he is separated while the black students are subjected to beatings. Campus security at Vanderbilt asks if he is alright because he is hanging out with Garrison and Franklin.

Dr. Feldman and Zack I think represent Eli's two paths. If Dr. Johnson is the angel on Eli's shoulder then Dr. Feldman is the devil. I think he represents the cynical doctor that ELi can become. Through his conversations with Eli it is revealed he holds racists belief. He thinks white people are better then black people. But his actions demonstrate how the system gets rigged for white people. He gives Eli and inadvertently Zack the test to ace his class. Later he uses the cheating scandal to get all three spots at Vanderbilt the "better" white medical school. Because the powers that be can't stomach white students being failed out of an all black school. Zack is Eli who never tries to integrate into the school who hold the belief that white is better/the standard. I was left wondering if Zack really would be happy at Vanderbilt. He was barely getting by at Meharry who had more invested in him. And he is Jewish he can't be anonymous and as officer says Jewish people are not like either.

Keith David is brilliant as Dean Holmes. He provides es some of the best comedic scenes. He keeps Eli and Michael the schools best students on their toes through his make shift exams.

Another thing I like was juxtaposition between Eli and Michael to Dr. Feldman and Dr. Johnson. Dr. Feldman and Dr. Johnson clearly don't like each other with Dr. Feldman eventually leaving. White Eli and Michael forge a friendship, which shows progress and a better future.