Boyz n the Hood (1991)

Premise: After getting into a fight at school, Tré is sent to live with his father, Furious (Laurence Fishburne). Tré makes friends with neighbours Doughboy and Ricky. Fast forward seven years later when Doughboy (Ice Cube) is released from juvie, Ricky (Morris Chestnut) has a child and a chance for a football scholarship, and Tré's (Cuba Gooding. Jr.) still trying to sort out the man is father wants him to be.

It's hard to review this movie because of the difficulty I have in piecing it all together. I was stunned speechless last night, then I had a headache. I was also momentarily distracted by the quality of movies that certain people used to make and how skinny everyone used to be.

There are words for writer-director John Singleton's debut, but I'm not sure what they are. Like the novelist of the last post, pretty much everything here was lifted from Singleton's life in South Central. He was writing about things we were happily pretending weren't happening long before the names "Florence and Normandy" had any non-European existence in our collective minds.

Aside from the fact that I spend most of my time recognizing names and faces, I wasn't watching a movie. Singleton played it so close to the bone that I might as well have been watching cameras move through real lives. That's where my headache came in - it can be painful to watch something you know is true.

One thing I did note was Fishburne. His understated and charismatic performance was reminiscent of Denzel on his best day. Fishburne was intense and magnetic, and I am now wondering why I rarely get to see this side of him.

As much as this next statement is the result of paying too much attention in my English class, the unique draw of this movie is that it can be read on so many different levels. It is too easy to say that Singleton is commenting on the current state of race relations in America. There's so much more going on in these lives that I am doing you a disservice by trying to boil it down. It will take many more viewings before I have the whole picture. A

Bonus points for the Stand By Me homage.