|
BABY BOY Send This Review to a Friend
Writer-producer-director John Singleton, who won admiration for his 1991 first feature "Boyz N the Hood," has graduated to men in the hood with his new film, "Baby Boy." This time he is dealing with a young African-American male trying to find his way as an adult and with the assorted male and female characters in his uncertain world of South Central Los Angeles. It's a full-bodied, emotional drama and Singleton deserves respect for his willingness to go for broke and not worry about veering toward soap opera or plot excess. He wears his emotional approach without shame, and the actors don't hold back either. The result is a generous film brimming with insight, realism, theatrics and feeling, often accompanied by an expressive pop soundtrack that ties the songs to the emotions of the moment. In the sexual scenes Singleton doesn't fool around either. When his characters make love the physicality is intense as they moan, groan, shout and make rash promises of love, fidelity and permanence.
Singleton starts with the premise that back men have a special problem growing up. They are still metaphorically in a fetal position and life is tougher for them to mature than for their white counterparts because of the extra problems they face. Hence the title "Baby Boy." The central young man in question is Jody, portrayed with conviction and range by handsome Tyrese Gibson, who makes an impressive protagonist. Twenty-year-old Jody lives with his mama Juanita, a youthful, gutsy woman, given a feisty, in-depth portrayal by A. J. Johnson. Juanita plants her garden, which she proudly nourishes, and she is also happily nurturing a new relationship with ex-con Melvin, powerfully depicted by muscular Ving Rhames. The hostility between Jody and Melvin is palpable, as Jody feels that his mother wants to kick him out of the house in favor of her lover, and Jody seethes when he hears the hot sex being played out between Melvin and his mom, who is bent on having a life of her own and believes that her son should move on for his own good as well as for hers.
Jody, who has a young son and daughter by different mothers, has trouble finding work, and in his own romantic life, he is in love with Yvette but cats around with different women as a way of existence, and given his looks and prowess, he has no trouble getting them. Yvette, who, thanks to Taraji P. Henson's performance can come across as pathetically vulnerable or a spitfire who refuses to take any more of Jody's irresponsibility no matter how much it hurts. In short, Jody is causing a good deal of pain and has to grow up, but it isn't easy. His being anchored to his mother isn't the usual mama's boy stuff. Here it is fueled by a nagging fear of being killed if he goes out into the world on his own. Violence is never far from the film's surface, whether it is in a domestic battle or in the streets. Jody is capable of smacking Yvette in a regretted moment of anger but has no stomach for becoming a killer. Tension builds because the line is thin between the possibility of Jody shaping up and finding happiness or ending as another African-American male victim.
The language is blunt and the sexual references are explicit with the usual argot involving "bitches," "black ass," and body parts. It's all part of the realism and Singleton doesn't flinch from telling it like he sees it. The complications are lightened at times with humor, as when Jody turns on all the charm he can muster to sell dresses that, as the saying goes, fall off a truck. One thing Jody knows how to do is sweet talk the ladies, who are receptive to begin with.
This is a film that speaks loudest to African-American audiences, but the rest of the world can tune in easily, for the drama has a gripping honesty that crosses boundaries, and the acting is appealing all the way by the excellent cast that includes Omar Gooding, Snoop Dogg, and Tamara Bass. A Columbia Pictures release.
|