Boyz n the Hood looks like Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), but transplanted in L.A. Cuba Gooding Jr. stars as the son of divorced parents, a pickle in the middle of a upwardly-mobile mother who worked her way out of the ghetto, and a moralistic but blue collar father who raises him in south central Los Angeles. It's a socially aware flick that laments the loss of young blacks to drugs, guns and gangs—worlds away from the aforementioned Lee whose films are a public display of outrage meant to incite awareness and change. In comparison, Lee is uncomfortable with a romanticized ghetto culture, but here, director John Singleton presents it as a simple fact of life. In no way does Singleton advocate gang violence and other like ailments of this youth demographic, though a sense of nostalgia about it exists nonetheless. Perhaps it was the bright color of the costume and props among the drab yellowing neighborhood that tipped me off to its melodramatic mode, and between a sexually frustrated relationship between Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his girlfriend, and a final shooting scene with one of the film's most sympathetic characters, the film truly is equal parts social picture and melodrama.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Boyz n the Hood - 1991 - OnDemand broadcast
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Boyz n the Hood looks like Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), but transplanted in L.A. Cuba Gooding Jr. stars as the son of divorced parents, a pickle in the middle of a upwardly-mobile mother who worked her way out of the ghetto, and a moralistic but blue collar father who raises him in south central Los Angeles. It's a socially aware flick that laments the loss of young blacks to drugs, guns and gangs—worlds away from the aforementioned Lee whose films are a public display of outrage meant to incite awareness and change. In comparison, Lee is uncomfortable with a romanticized ghetto culture, but here, director John Singleton presents it as a simple fact of life. In no way does Singleton advocate gang violence and other like ailments of this youth demographic, though a sense of nostalgia about it exists nonetheless. Perhaps it was the bright color of the costume and props among the drab yellowing neighborhood that tipped me off to its melodramatic mode, and between a sexually frustrated relationship between Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his girlfriend, and a final shooting scene with one of the film's most sympathetic characters, the film truly is equal parts social picture and melodrama.
Boyz n the Hood looks like Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989), but transplanted in L.A. Cuba Gooding Jr. stars as the son of divorced parents, a pickle in the middle of a upwardly-mobile mother who worked her way out of the ghetto, and a moralistic but blue collar father who raises him in south central Los Angeles. It's a socially aware flick that laments the loss of young blacks to drugs, guns and gangs—worlds away from the aforementioned Lee whose films are a public display of outrage meant to incite awareness and change. In comparison, Lee is uncomfortable with a romanticized ghetto culture, but here, director John Singleton presents it as a simple fact of life. In no way does Singleton advocate gang violence and other like ailments of this youth demographic, though a sense of nostalgia about it exists nonetheless. Perhaps it was the bright color of the costume and props among the drab yellowing neighborhood that tipped me off to its melodramatic mode, and between a sexually frustrated relationship between Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his girlfriend, and a final shooting scene with one of the film's most sympathetic characters, the film truly is equal parts social picture and melodrama.
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