Forty years after its theatrical release, Michael Schultz’s poignant early title Cooley High (1975) comes to Blu-ray. A prominent figure in film in the 70s and 80s thanks to iconic titles like the progressive Car Wash (1976), martial arts film The Last Dragon (1986), and the excellent 1977 Richard Pryor film Which Way is Up? (a remake of Wertmuller’s The Seduction of Mimi), Schultz tends to get left out of deserving discussions as concerns black filmmakers.
References to this 60s period piece concerning a group of friends growing up in the Chicago housing projects is often referred to as the black American Graffiti, a thankless distinction, to be sure. Operating outside of the Blaxploitation paradigm, Schultz and screenwriter Eric Monte (apparently portions of this are autobiographical) simply recreate a certain period wherein two friends learn hard lessons as they grow to realize the cruelty of the world around them. Less dramatic than...
References to this 60s period piece concerning a group of friends growing up in the Chicago housing projects is often referred to as the black American Graffiti, a thankless distinction, to be sure. Operating outside of the Blaxploitation paradigm, Schultz and screenwriter Eric Monte (apparently portions of this are autobiographical) simply recreate a certain period wherein two friends learn hard lessons as they grow to realize the cruelty of the world around them. Less dramatic than...
- 4/21/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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