Content Starts Here
Baby Boy film review
BABY BOY
Running time: 129 mins
Starring: Tyrese Gibson, Omar Gooding, A.J. Johnson, Taraji P. Henson, Ving Rhames, Snoop Dogg, Tamara LaSeon Bass
Inevitably everything John Singleton directs will have the misfortune of being compared to his 1991 debut, the groundbreaking and hugely influential Boyz N The Hood. It's the price he pays for having set such a high standard the first time out of the blocks. In the subsequent ten years his films, which have included Poetic Justice and the remake of Shaft, have failed to match the promise of Boyz N The Hood. And while Baby Boy has Singleton returning to familiar ground, the absorbing but inconsistent melodrama yet again finds comparisons coming up short.
The problems of disaffected African American kids growing up in Los Angeles was the theme he explored so convincingly in his first film and it's the one he re-examines in Baby Boy, but instead of focussing on the gang aspect, here it becomes a marginal factor in what is essentially a coming of age story. Ten years on Singleton has his own family and it's something that's clearly influenced his story, enabling him to return to the streets of South Central with a different perspective.
The film opens with the image of the grown Jody (Tyrese Gibson) in a womb as a voice-over explains how black gang culture maintains strong links with childhood, as men call their girlfriends momma and refer to their homes as cribs. Jody's links to his childhood are more tangible as he still lives with his mother Juanita (A.J. Johnson), despite the fact that he has two young children by two different women. For the jobless and aimless Jody, producing babies provides him with the legacy he fears he'll be deprived of through other means. He is driven by the belief that, like his brother, he will be killed without having had the opportunity to make his mark on society. Jody's fear stems from a series of nightmares that play out his own premature death, haunting him in a violent gang world where death is a daily possibility.
He is torn between the comfort and freedom of living at his mother's home, where his days are spent avoiding work and hanging out with his volatile best friend Sweetpea (Omar Gooding), and the responsibility of living with his girlfriend Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) and their young boy. His numerous infidelities and reluctance to grow up and settle down inevitably cause friction, while life at home has become more strained since the arrival of his mother's new boyfriend, the reformed O.G. (original gangster) Melvin (Ving Rhames). It's the threat of no longer being the most important man in his mother's life that causes Jody to question his future and sets him on a path of self discovery.
Jody is trying to steer clear of the lifestyle that cost his brother his life, but his position is tested throughout, firstly by Melvin and then by the return of Yvette's old gangbanger boyfriend Darren (Snoop Dogg) following a spell in prison.
While many of the characters and performances are convincing, particularly those of Rhames and Johnson, the primary problem with Baby Boy is that it feels one step removed from the gritty realism of street life it is trying to portray. Singleton lays on the symbolism so thickly at times that it only serves as a distraction, blunting the drama rather than enhancing it. Too often events take place in some kind of self-contained and stylised void, impervious to the outside world, resulting in a quixotic ending that's more straight outta Hollywood, than straight outta Compton.
Font size
Mail
My account
Help
Community
Print now
Send to a friend
Related articles
Related products
