Search - I'm Through With White Girls on DVD

Amazing how much I enjoyed this little indie film

Jeannette Belliveau | Baltimore, MD United States | 01/31/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a French-Canadian woman married to a mixed-race man -- a graphic artist no less who likes some nerdie pursuits such as comic books, writing his own graphic novels, coin collecting, Japanese war movies -- I was astonished to see a movie that would make as its central character someone like Jay Brooks, with his glasses, sketchbooks and line of creative patter to the world around him.

"I'm Through With White Girls" might sound like something along the lines of Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" (who knows with such a title)? Actually on first impression, it doesn't make much of a deal out of interracial dating per se, showing how common it is in modern-day Los Angeles.

The texture of the film at first is a bit like a student film project, with some of the audio muffled and a lovely simplicity. However, as Jay moved from his white girl phase to the hilarious "Operation Brown Sugar" and ultimately to the girl of his dreams, a biracial Canadian writer named Catherine with Valley Girl elocution, the film grew on me more and more.

Jay's mind is so nimble, and his friends including a white hip-hop fan so appealing, that there is much to like here.

There is fabulous dialogue throughout -- who knew an Arrested Development writer was involved?

I don't want to spoil the fun by quoting many specifics of the dialogue, but you just have to love it when Catherine asks Jay to name the prime minister of Canada before she will accept a date, and when Jay can't and says "Are you going to make me beg?" and he adds, "Beg like Mars Blackman or James Brown?" This retort eventually sets up a lovely denouement.

Can't think of any film that I watched on a whim that was more of a sleeper than this. I can tell by the other reviews here that this is a hit with others who are not graphic artists, writers or in an interracial relationship, because there are some universal observations in "I'm Through With White Girls" about family, friends, attraction and commitment worth spending time on."