What I Watched -- Boyz n the Hood

I am probably not the target audience for Boyz N the Hood.  However, it was another one of those movies I heard an interview about - this time it was John Singleton on NPR, looking back at his directorial debut 20 years on.

Cuba Gooding, Jr., stars as Tre Styles in his first major role, and Laurence Fishburne plays his father Furious.  Tre becomes too much for his mother to handle, so she sends him to South Central to live with his father.  Tre grows up with the fatherless boys across the street, Ricky (Morris Chestnut) and Doughboy (Ice Cube, in his first-ever acting role, though you should check him out in Three Kings).

Ricky is a good kid who has his heart set on playing college football, and he works hard to make it happen.  Doughboy can't seem to stay out of trouble.  Tre feels for Doughboy, but learned a lot from his father (what a great name - Furious Styles!) and wants to do more with his life than live in the hood.

It's a complex look at poverty and life in the ghetto, while still managing to be an entertaining movie rather than a sermon.  One of the most interesting characters of all just has a couple of scenes: he's a dirty cop who works the beat in South Central, and hates everyone who lives there because they're black (so is the cop).  A brief but fascinating peek into psychology.

The film also stars Nia Long, Regina King, and Angela Bassett (as Tre's mother).

Bottom line: the artistic direction is definitely dated (look at Tre's outfit on the cover!), but the questions are still worth pondering.