Cooley High

This 1975 drama about two high school best friends in Chicago, circa 1964, has been called the black American Graffiti due to its similar era, rambling episodic nature, and hit-filled soundtrack (Motown classics). But for all of the antics of its central buddy characters—Preach (Glynn Turman), a smart kid with failing grades and a passion for poetry, and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), the school basketball star with a college scholarship all but sewn up—this is really about kids in the urban slum of the Cabrini Green projects. These guys spend their days cutting classes, picking up girls, cruising the streets with questionable pals, and talking trash with high school buddies, but all around them lies poverty, crime, and gang violence. Director Michael Schultz shot the film on location in Chicago with a largely local cast of non-professionals in supporting roles, lending it a vivid sense of place and culture, and while the film features both comic and romantic moments throughout, this is not a nostalgic look back at the era. A low-budget comic drama offering an authentic portrait of the African-American experience behind the high school shenanigans, Cooley High makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)