In a critique of lingering racism in today's culture, a new film "Dear White People" offers a satirical and comedic look at American racial stereotypes. Filmmaker Justin Simien premiered his crowd-funded project to mainstream cinemas Friday, after showing the picture to multiple film festival audiences.

The plot of the movie follows Sam White, a black student activist played by "Veronica Mars" actress Tessa Thompson, who attends the fictional and prominently white Ivy League school, Winchester University. When White mocks the racial stereotypes she sees on campus via her radio show, tensions begin to clash among groups of students and staff.

"Dear White People" also stars "Everybody Hates Chris'" Tyler James Williams, Teyonah Parris "Mad Men," and from "Switched at Birth," Brandon P. Bell. Fellow "Veronica Mars" alum Kyle Gallner plays the white fraternity president who opposes Thompson's character in the film.

Reviews of the film at festivals were stellar, with Simien, who wrote and directed the picture, receiving the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival for "Dear White People."

"It's called 'Dear White People,' but the movie itself is not actually a rant to white people," Simien said while on "The Colbert Report." "The movie actually focuses on identity. It focuses on these kids in a world where micro-aggressions and covert racism occur and talks about kind of the difficulty of finding yourself in a place that doesn't necessarily reflect you."

Other reviewers had great things to say about the film as well.

"[The movie is] a comic riff on race relations in the Obama era that hits its targets far more than it misses," Rolling Stone prolific writer Peter Travers explained. He rated the film three-and-a-half stars out of four.

The New York Times reviewer A. O. Scott called "Dear White People" a film that is "knowing but not snarky, self-aware but not solipsistic, open to influence and confident in its own originality."

"It's a clever campus comedy that juggles a handful of hot potatoes -- race, sex, privilege, power -- with elegant agility and only an occasional fumble," he said. "You want to see this movie, and you will want to talk about it afterward, even if the conversation feels a little awkward. If it doesn't, you're doing it wrong. There is great enjoyment to be found here and very little comfort."