{"id":7508,"date":"2009-06-18T13:20:49","date_gmt":"2009-06-18T20:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=7508"},"modified":"2021-01-29T23:00:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T06:00:33","slug":"cooley-high-1975","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=7508","title":{"rendered":"Cooley High (1975)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;As soon as I get out, I&#8217;m off like a big black bird &#8212; to Hollywood!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Cooley-High-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Cooley-High-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66998\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Cooley-High-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Cooley-High-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Cooley-High-Poster-180x270.jpg 180w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Cooley-High-Poster.jpg 333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn aspiring teenage writer (Glyn Turman) in 1960s Chicago spends his time hanging out with friends (including Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), ditching school, and hitting on a pretty new girl (Cynthia Davis).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>African-Americans<\/li>\n<li>High School<\/li>\n<li>Teenagers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nBased on an autobiographical screenplay by Eric Monte (co-creator of the television series <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0070991\/\">&#8220;Good Times&#8221;<\/a>), <em>Cooley High<\/em> is often referred to as &#8220;the black <em>American Graffiti<\/em>,&#8221; given its similarly episodic treatment of life and love among high school seniors. The primary difference, of course, is that the central characters in <em>Cooley High<\/em> live in the projects of Chicago &#8212; a vastly different world than that of the privileged white teens in <em>Graffiti<\/em>. Monte&#8217;s ear for authentic dialogue brings this world richly alive, and the boys&#8217; banter is one of its strengths, as is much of the rich location footage around the city. Unfortunately, however, the screenplay itself is too fragmented to hold much interest; strangely enough, we never feel much investment in the characters themselves. <em>Cooley High<\/em> should be seen once by all film fanatics for its historical relevance, but likely won&#8217;t be repeat viewing for most. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An authentic look at African-American teenagehood in 1960s Chicago<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/cooley-high-4-teens.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/cooley-high-4-teens.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"464\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7510\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply for its historical popularity. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0072820\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1089soul.html\">DVD Savant Review (scroll down to fourth review)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/24346\/cooley-high#articles-reviews?articleId=192012\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;As soon as I get out, I&#8217;m off like a big black bird &#8212; to Hollywood!&#8221; Synopsis: An aspiring teenage writer (Glyn Turman) in 1960s Chicago spends his time hanging out with friends (including Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), ditching school, and hitting on a pretty new girl (Cynthia Davis). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: African-Americans High School Teenagers Review: Based on an autobiographical screenplay by Eric Monte (co-creator of the television series &#8220;Good Times&#8221;), Cooley High is often referred to as &#8220;the&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=7508\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67000,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508\/revisions\/67000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}