A black teenager with a promising future gets caught
up in gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. DRAMA
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Boyz n the Hood (1991)Written and Directed by John Singleton
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Morris Chestnut, Angela Bassett, Tyra Ferrell, Nia Long, Regina King Oscar Nominations - Best Director, Best Original Screenplay |
There are few films that can truly identify and showcase the African American experience (or at least a portion of it) in America. As we've seen in the past with films like Grand Canyon and the backlash surrounding Green Book, it takes a black filmmaker to tell stories in this vein. John Singleton was the first black director to ever be nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, and he was one of the first directors ever to bring the plight of South Central L.A. to the big screen, creating an entire subgenre in the process that films like Menace II Society, South Central, and Juice would later build on. But it started with Boyz n the Hood, the film that also brought Ice Cube onto the big screen and showed the world that the greatest gangster rapper of all time was also a hell of an actor.
In this film, we follow several young black men on the cusp of adulthood as they navigate their way through crime, sex, and college prospects. We've got Tre (Gooding Jr.), a kid with a promising future who has been raised by his single dad (Fishburne) to be a strong, respectful person. But his morals are outweighed by vengeance after a tragic incident, and his future starts to look uncertain. Then there's Rick (Chestnut), who's got a football scholarship on the horizon, but also a baby. Finally, there's Doughboy (Cube), a tough-as-nails gangster who deals drugs, flashes a piece, and still stands up for his family, namely his brother Rick. This film shows that right and wrong aren't always what you think they should be, especially in neighborhoods where people have to do what they need to do to survive. Boyz n the Hood sports a killer soundtrack of 90's rap, and an all-black cast of character actors who all knock it out of the park, including a young Regina King. This is one of those American films that should be seen by everyone, especially cinephiles. It encapsulates a point of view that a lot of us will simply never fully understand, but films like this help us try to. |