Raised from childhood by his Bible-toting grandparents in Watts, Caine is on the verge of graduating high school but the only life that holds any meaning for him is in the streets. Jackson), a dope-dealer in the ‘70s, was murdered when Caine was 10 his mother, a junkie, OD’d. His childhood is filled in for us in flashback: His father (Samuel L. O-Dog likes being the star of his own shoot ‘em up he especially likes to replay the moment when the merchant’s brains go flying.īut it is Caine-who, unlike O-Dog, still seems to have some scruples-who occupies the film’s harsh center. O-Dog grabs the store’s surveillance videotape of the crime and later reruns it proudly for his fellow homeboys, A-Wax (rapper MC Eiht), Stacy (Ryan Williams) and Chauncy (Clifton Powell). A Korean merchant and his wife are casually blown away by O-Dog (Larenz Tate) over a petty dispute while O-Dog’s homeboy, Caine (Tyrin Turner), looks on aghast. The film opens with a blast of brutality. “Menace II Society” (rated R for strong violence, drug use and language) is best-and most shocking-when it just sets out its horrors and lets us find our own way. (Their previous experience is mostly making hip-hop videos.) But their instincts as filmmakers override their instincts as moralizers. The Hughes brothers have such a free-form, caught-in-the-act directorial style that it’s easy to mistake their “objective” unblinking approach with an uncaring attitude. The filmmakers needn’t have worried, but their fears are understandable. So, as a counterbalance, they turn preachy and diagrammatic, just to make sure we don’t confuse the depiction of violence with its endorsement. (Not the worst of faults with filmmakers at least they have something vital to put out.) Because there’s so much mayhem in “Menace II Society” (citywide) the filmmakers may have worried that audiences would get high on it. They aren’t always able to sort out what they put on the screen. Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes, the 21-year-old twin brothers who directed the youth-in-trouble movie “Menace II Society,” along with 23-year-old screenwriter Tyger Williams, are young enough to get inside the lives of Watts gangbangers without making it seem as if we’re watching something taking place on another planet.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |