15 Most Controversial Movies Of 2014

8. Dear White People Provokes Racists Everywhere

Dear White People has been marketed as being a movie about "being a black face in a white space" (following black students at a predominantly white university), and though the tone of the trailer was clearly satirical, that hasn't stopped closet racists from emerging from the woodwork and rather glibly declaring that if a movie were made called, "Dear Black People", it would be deemed racist and never granted release. That's to completely ignore the subtleties of race relations in the U.S. in particular, though, where the black man is marginalised, and where a movie like this is enormously relevant. The film has been labelled a "lightning rod for controversy", though it has been extremely well-reviewed for the most part, with many critics noting that most complainers would probably ease up if they actually watched the film: it's not an attack on whites in any way, but simply a send-up of the social institutions which essentially encourage the differences between races. In short, though daringly-premised, the film ultimately is a lot more pragmatic than its detractors will be expecting, if only they'd bother to actually sit down and watch it.