Post by klep on Jun 3, 2019 8:01:17 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/10: Boyz N' the Hood
BLACK FILM WEEK!
When John Singleton was entertaining studio offers for his script for Boyz N' The Hood, he insisted that he would not allow anyone else to direct it but himself. It was an audacious demand for a kid just out of film school, but one that was entirely understandable. The script was based on his own life, and the themes it dealt with were too sensitive to risk them ending up in the hands of "somebody from Idaho or Encino."
Fortunately, Singleton got his chance and the resulting film feels steeped in authenticity. Right in beginning a group of kids see the scene of a shooting; one questions why the blood is turning yellow, and another has the answer. That's the kind of detail that could only come from having that experience - both knowing that the blood would change color that way and knowing shootings are commonplace enough that a kid would be able to say why. It's a moment that passes without judgement, without a proverbial stare at the audience. It's just the way things are for these black kids in South Central Los Angeles, and that's what Singleton wants us to understand. The film is full of other such details: the black cop who treats the black citizens of LA worse than his white partner, the seductive lure of the military, the Welcome Home party for someone who is still a child returning home from prison.
Singleton's overarching narrative is about how hard it is to be a good man in an environment that is geared to making you a bad one. Tre (Desi Arnez Hines II as a kid, Cuba Gooding Jr. as a slightly older kid) is beset on all sides by drugs, violence, and poverty. Even as a small child death is familiar to him, and he is more annoyed by the stench of a dead body than disturbed by the sight of it. He is only momentarily rattled when his father shoots at an intruder in their home, himself mere feet from the action.
But what separates Tre from his peers - and what ultimately saves him from their fates - is the dutiful attention and care of his parents, and particularly his father Furious (Laurence Fishburne). Furious works hard to instill in his son a sense of responsibility both to his parents and himself - to make sure he doesn't see himself as trapped by his environment and succumb to other traps promising an easy road like gangs or the military.
The cast overall is phenomenal. Tre's mother is played by the divine Angela Bassett in one of her earliest film roles, already playing a woman of regal dignity who refuses to abide by anyone else's rules and forges her own path. Boyz N' the Hood was also a breakout role for Cuba Gooding Jr. The film also gives Regina King her first film role, setting her on the path that led to her winning an Oscar at this year's ceremony. But the most interesting and valuable casting decision was Ice Cube as Tre's friend Doughboy.
Already famous (or infamous, depending on who you talked to) for his membership in NWA, Cube was one of the only primary cast members to come from the Los Angeles ghettos. His ingrown familiarity with the world Singleton was committing to film lends his performance a deep well of pain and frustration. When Doughboy's brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is murdered, Cube doesn't have to act so much as just remember his sister's murder. And when Doughboy ends the film telling Tre how alone and worthless he feels, that too comes with an honesty that can only come from experience. Like Singleton, for Cube Boyz N' the Hood was not just a movie; it was real life.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/10: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
FACT OR FICTION WEEK!
In 1968 William Greaves decided to do something a little strange. He decided to film a movie, but also to film the filming of the movie, and then to film the filming of the filming of the movie. And with those three cameras all covering different aspects of what was going on, to see what would happen. Our next Movie of the Week is the result. Join us next week as we cover Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, available on Kanopy and Criterion Channel.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/4: John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum
The podcast pairs The Warriors with the latest entry in the John Wick saga, as Wick fights to make it through his own version of a hostile New York City. Join us Wednesday for our discussion! John Wick 3 is still in theaters.
BLACK FILM WEEK!
When John Singleton was entertaining studio offers for his script for Boyz N' The Hood, he insisted that he would not allow anyone else to direct it but himself. It was an audacious demand for a kid just out of film school, but one that was entirely understandable. The script was based on his own life, and the themes it dealt with were too sensitive to risk them ending up in the hands of "somebody from Idaho or Encino."
Fortunately, Singleton got his chance and the resulting film feels steeped in authenticity. Right in beginning a group of kids see the scene of a shooting; one questions why the blood is turning yellow, and another has the answer. That's the kind of detail that could only come from having that experience - both knowing that the blood would change color that way and knowing shootings are commonplace enough that a kid would be able to say why. It's a moment that passes without judgement, without a proverbial stare at the audience. It's just the way things are for these black kids in South Central Los Angeles, and that's what Singleton wants us to understand. The film is full of other such details: the black cop who treats the black citizens of LA worse than his white partner, the seductive lure of the military, the Welcome Home party for someone who is still a child returning home from prison.
Singleton's overarching narrative is about how hard it is to be a good man in an environment that is geared to making you a bad one. Tre (Desi Arnez Hines II as a kid, Cuba Gooding Jr. as a slightly older kid) is beset on all sides by drugs, violence, and poverty. Even as a small child death is familiar to him, and he is more annoyed by the stench of a dead body than disturbed by the sight of it. He is only momentarily rattled when his father shoots at an intruder in their home, himself mere feet from the action.
But what separates Tre from his peers - and what ultimately saves him from their fates - is the dutiful attention and care of his parents, and particularly his father Furious (Laurence Fishburne). Furious works hard to instill in his son a sense of responsibility both to his parents and himself - to make sure he doesn't see himself as trapped by his environment and succumb to other traps promising an easy road like gangs or the military.
The cast overall is phenomenal. Tre's mother is played by the divine Angela Bassett in one of her earliest film roles, already playing a woman of regal dignity who refuses to abide by anyone else's rules and forges her own path. Boyz N' the Hood was also a breakout role for Cuba Gooding Jr. The film also gives Regina King her first film role, setting her on the path that led to her winning an Oscar at this year's ceremony. But the most interesting and valuable casting decision was Ice Cube as Tre's friend Doughboy.
Already famous (or infamous, depending on who you talked to) for his membership in NWA, Cube was one of the only primary cast members to come from the Los Angeles ghettos. His ingrown familiarity with the world Singleton was committing to film lends his performance a deep well of pain and frustration. When Doughboy's brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is murdered, Cube doesn't have to act so much as just remember his sister's murder. And when Doughboy ends the film telling Tre how alone and worthless he feels, that too comes with an honesty that can only come from experience. Like Singleton, for Cube Boyz N' the Hood was not just a movie; it was real life.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/10: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
FACT OR FICTION WEEK!
In 1968 William Greaves decided to do something a little strange. He decided to film a movie, but also to film the filming of the movie, and then to film the filming of the filming of the movie. And with those three cameras all covering different aspects of what was going on, to see what would happen. Our next Movie of the Week is the result. Join us next week as we cover Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, available on Kanopy and Criterion Channel.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/4: John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum
The podcast pairs The Warriors with the latest entry in the John Wick saga, as Wick fights to make it through his own version of a hostile New York City. Join us Wednesday for our discussion! John Wick 3 is still in theaters.