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.

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.

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

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.