YMMV / Soul Man

• Critical Dissonance: The film was savaged critically, from its controversial premise to being described as a generally mediocre comedy movie. It still made its budget back hand over fist, opening at #3 in the country behind "Crocodile" Dundee and The Color of Money.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "It's the Cosby decade!" Funny then, yikes-inducing now.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: C. Thomas Howell and Rae Dawn Chong started dating in real life at the time, and got married a few years after.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This movie was a controversy magnet for having blackface as a story point, and basically killed C. Thomas Howell's career. 22 years later, another movie would spark controversy for blackface, but instead it reignited the actor's career and got him an Oscar nomination.
• Moment of Awesome: Mark punching out the two racist bullies in the end.
• Retroactive Recognition: A post-SNL, pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears briefly as a friend of Gordon and Mark.
• Values Dissonance: The protagonist is a white teen who dons blackface to get into Harvard through affirmative action.
• Values Resonance: While there are many aspects about this film that wouldn't fly today, one redeeming aspect about the film is that when C. Thomas Howell's character becomes subject to disciplinary action, he actually acknowledges the fact that he's affected by white privilege as an individual, and says that he will never know what it truly feels like to be a person of a different race through experience. And on top of that, he reimburses Sarah with the money that he fraudulently used to get into law school, plus a little extra.

---