Jason Bailey

People need to judge The Toy by a different standard, because it works for suburban white kids and teaches them many things worth teaching them. And Ned Beatty is good in it.

There are a couple of other pointlessly snotty parts, driven in part by a desire to take Pryor's self-loathing at face value.

But on the whole, this is a solid piece of criticism, fueled by close readings and some good contextualizing connections. I mean, it's a bit of a stretch to shoehorn D.H Lawrence in there show more (especially if you're going ignore the message of your chosen quotation), but that's OK. show less