September 'Nick's Pix:' SCHOOL DAZE

Aug 26
5 min read

Join me for School Daze, a very Special Nick's Pix Screening on Wednesday, September 10th, at 7 p.m. in Oak Park! Tickets are only $9 ($7 for seniors!) Get your tix HERE!

WAKE UP: A Look Back at Spike Lee’s Wild, Loud, Vital Masterpiece School Daze

I absolutely love School Daze. I loved it when it first hit screens back in 1988, and I love it even more today. It’s a film that bursts with energy, ideas, and emotion.

It's one of my favorite Spike Lee joints, wild, flawed, and vibrant in the best ways possible, and I’m thrilled to be hosting a special screening of it on Wednesday, September 10th at 7:00 p.m. at the Classic Cinemas Lake Theater in Oak Park.

This is a rare chance to see a criminally underappreciated Spike Lee film the way it was meant to be seen: on the big screen, with an audience, followed by a lively discussion, trivia, and giveaways. More on that in a bit...

But first, let’s talk about the movie itself.

THE PLOT, THE VIBE, THE MESS (in the Best Way)

School Daze is Spike Lee’s second feature after She’s Gotta Have It, and it is overflowing with ambition. It’s part musical, part college comedy, part socially conscious drama, part satire, part Greek tragedy.

It’s set during Homecoming weekend at a fictional historically Black college, Mission College, and centers on a political activist student named Dap (played by a young, fierce, incredibly compelling Larry Fishburne, pre-Laurence days).

Dap’s trying to wake up his apathetic peers and get the school to divest from South Africa during the apartheid era.

Meanwhile, his younger cousin “Half-Pint” (played by Spike Lee himself) is pledging a fraternity run by Julian (Giancarlo Esposito), Dap’s old friend turned elitist foe. That tension between old friends, one trying to fight for social justice, the other swimming in toxic status games, is a major emotional thread.

What happens over the course of the weekend is chaotic, funny, tragic, uncomfortable, raucous, and ultimately eye-opening.

There are blowout dance numbers, pajama parties, brutal hazing rituals, tearful breakups, powerful confrontations, and one of the most startling, fourth-wall-breaking endings in film history. (“Please... wake up.”)

A YOUNG SPIKE LEE ON FIRE

This movie feels like a filmmaker throwing everything he’s got on screen, like he wasn’t sure he’d get to make another movie.

There’s no desperation in that, just urgency. Lee crams this film full of ideas, some contradictory, some half-formed, many powerful, and blends them into a singular movie experience that shouldn’t work, but does.

We’re talking satire, raunchy comedy, heartbreaking drama, and straight-up musical numbers that come out of nowhere and crush it.

The "Straight or Nappy" musical number? That’s not just one of the most potent scenes in the film, it’s one of the best musical numbers of the 1980s. Period.

THE MUSIC IS FIRE

Let’s talk soundtrack. You’ve got Keith John singing “I Can Only Be Me” (written by Stevie Wonder). You’ve got Tisha Campbell belting “Be Alone Tonight,” which is one of my favorite soul jams of the ‘80s.

There's also the gorgeous song played over the closing credits: "We've Already Said Goodbye (Before We Said Hello)" by Pieces of a Dream with Portia Griffin, which is one of the most beautiful songs of that era.

And then, of course, there’s “Da Butt” by E.U., a cultural anthem that still slaps hard. The music in School Daze isn’t just great, it defines the movie's pulse. It’s joyful, rebellious, sexy, angry, and proud.

A MOVIE OF MESSAGES (AND MESSINESS)

What’s so powerful about School Daze is that it dares to talk about the things within the Black community that often go unspoken: colorism, hair politics, elitism, self-hate, generational divide.

Dap’s protests for divestment from South Africa feel just as urgent today. The school board and donors trying to shut him down? Still happening.

The way light-skinned students and dark-skinned students clash over beauty standards and sorority acceptance? It’s raw, uncomfortable, and deeply real.

As a white guy growing up loving Black cinema, from Blaxploitation films to Richard Pryor and Pam Grier to Uptown Saturday Night and Cooley High, I had never seen these intra-community conversations explored so openly on screen.

It opened my eyes. It was like Spike Lee cracked open a world that had always existed but rarely been shown with such style, honesty, and heat.

FAVORITE SCENES THAT STILL BLOW ME AWAY

The KFC parking lot scene. What starts as a hilarious fast food run turns into an explosive confrontation led by Samuel L. Jackson, of all people. It’s about class, identity, education, and self-hatred, and it’s one of the best scenes Spike Lee has ever written or directed.
The Pajama Party/Dance-Off. Pure joy and attitude. Feels like a precursor to what Beyoncé would later do with Homecoming.
The Hazing Rituals. Brutal. Real. Heartbreaking. Watching Half-Pint get chewed up and spit out by frat culture is devastating.
The Wake-Up Call Ending. When Larry Fishburne and Giancarlo Esposito look into the lens and say, “Please... wake up,” it’s a gut punch. And it directly connects to the opening of Do The Right Thing with Samuel L. Jackson screaming the same call. That’s no coincidence. That’s Spike building a cinematic bridge between his early works.

COME SEE IT ON THE BIG SCREEN WITH ME

I could go on and on, and I will if you come see the movie with me on Wednesday, September 10th at 7:00 p.m. at the Lake Theater in Oak Park.

I’ll be hosting a post-show discussion where we’ll dive deep into the film’s legacy, tell behind-the-scenes stories, talk trivia (did you know that step show fight was real and not in the script?), and give away prizes.

Seeing School Daze with an audience is a must. You’ll laugh. You’ll squirm. You’ll think. You’ll feel. It’s hilarious. It’s painful. It’s provocative.

And it’s one of the most original, ambitious, overstuffed, loud, beautiful, messy masterpieces to ever come out of the 1980s.

Spike Lee is a genius. He always has been. And School Daze is one of the key early films that shows exactly why.

Let’s celebrate one of the boldest and most personal films Spike Lee ever made. Let’s laugh, learn, and listen together. And let’s wake up.