Zebrahead

R

Released Oct 23, 1992

1 hr. 40 min.

Romance

List

75%

16 Reviews

Tomatometer

69%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A Jewish boy (Michael Rapaport) loves a black girl (N'Bushe Wright) from New York despite critics in their Detroit neighborhood.

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Audience Member

If you can find it, watch it. Rappaport is great. Music is good.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

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Audience Member

Overlong third act, horrible opening credits, but otherwise a good movie. I really like the color palette and how freewheeling the first act is.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

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Audience Member

good topic and it gets better as the story unfolds...and it possibly was somewhat more relevant a little while back...but the problems they face in the story def. still exists.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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Audience Member

It is best known for containing Nas' first single "Halftime". That's enough for me to call this a classic!!!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

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Audience Member

Caught this late one night on Encore and my low expectations were definitely exceeded. Never can pinpoint it, but for some reason I like just about anything with Michael Rapaport in it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Michael Rapaport's breakout film, which typecast him into similar roles throughout his movie career. He plays a Jewish high school student, Zach Glass, who attends a predominately African-American school in Detroit. He lives with his father, a lover of women and music, who owns a record store along with Zach's grandfather. Zach shares his father's passions. He sells hip-hop tapes out of his locker at school, and becomes infatuated with an attractive, intelligent African-American female, Nikki, whom he eventually has a sexual relationship with. Nikki is now Glass' girlfriend. Glass' best friend, Dee, is Nikki's cousin, and is OK with their interracial dalliance. However, Nikki's family and other black students at the high school are not, and make their disapproval of the relationship known. One of the most vocal opponents of the love match is a hoodlum, Nut, who is himself sexually attracted to Nikki, making his already-present contempt of Glass all the more palpable. Glass takes Nikki to a party thrown by his white ex-girlfriend (Nikki was invited), and everything is going fine, until Nikki overhears Zach making an inappropriate comment about her to his white friends in order to justify his interracial relationship to them. She immediately leaves the party, and tells Zach that she wants nothing to do with him. During this time, Nut attempts to romance Nikki, and they share a consensual kiss, but Nikki comes to her senses, and pushes him away, obviously still thinking about Zach. A few days later, Zach comes to Nikki's house and apologizes for his actions, which she finally accepts. She invites Zach to meet her at the local skating rink that night, and he agrees. Later at the rink, Nikki is approached by Nut, who is still trying to make advances towards her. Zach shows up and sees Nut and Nikki holding arms while skating together. Zach and Dee eventually approach Nut, and a confrontation ensues, with tragic results. Zebrahead is a good film that shows racial tensions in a realistic manner, and shows the harm that can result from such tensions, and gives a clear message that it is wrong. Three and one-half stars.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

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Anthony Drazan

Director

Michael Rapaport

Zack

N'Bushe Wright

Nikki

Paul Butler

Otis

DeShonn Castle

Dee

Candy Ann Brown

arlene

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David Ansen

Newsweek

Sometimes Zebrahead spells things out too neatly, and the talk at the end gets a little didactic. But Drazan's clear-eyed affection for his characters is contagious. His heartfelt, plain-spoken movie achieves real, unforced power.

Feb 8, 2018

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Janet Maslin

New York Times

In the absence of the usual teen-movie pyrotechnics, Zebrahead has a quiet, stagy style, more like a 1950's teleplay with a social conscience than a stormy present-day tale of racial strife.

Rated: 2.5/5

May 20, 2003

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Desson Thomson

Washington Post

In Anthony Drazan's enjoyably offbeat Zebrahead, racial definition is the least important thing about anybody.

Jan 1, 2000

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Malcolm Johnson

Hartford Courant

It is a remarkable first film, not only for what it says about friendship, love and antagonisms between young urban blacks and whites, but for how sharply it reveals a city making headlines even now with a new, true tragedy.

Apr 25, 2018

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Michael Dequina

TheMovieReport.com

Rated: 2/5

Jan 12, 2007

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

The movie takes us to the two places where bigotry are both nurtured and perpetuated, the home (here single parent) and the racially diverse school, where the youngsters prove more mature and open-minded than their parents.

Rated: B-

Sep 19, 2006

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Synopsis

A Jewish boy (Michael Rapaport) loves a black girl (N'Bushe Wright) from New York despite critics in their Detroit neighborhood.

Director: Anthony Drazan
Executive Producer: Oliver Stone, Janet Yang
Screenwriter: Anthony Drazan
Distributor: Triumph Releasing Corporation
Production Co: Ixtlan Corporation
Rating: R
Genre: Romance
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 23, 1992, Limited
Release Date (DVD): Jun 18, 2002
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.1M
Sound Mix: Surround

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