--- title: "Menace II Society: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/menace-ii-society/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/menace-ii-society" critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 7 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Menace II Society (1993): what the critics said Critics' score 73 from 7 reviews: 6 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics admire Menace II Society as a bleak, unsentimental debut from the Hughes brothers. The praise clusters on its honesty: reviewers repeatedly credit the film for showing young Black men in Watts without preaching, condescension or the redemptive turns of earlier ‘hood dramas, and for treating violence as something cyclical rather than something a speech can fix. The fast, documentary-flavoured style and the energy of the performances are singled out, and several reviews note how saccharine it makes its predecessors look. Later reassessments broadly agree with the reviews from 1993. The reservations are about limits rather than failures. Empire finds stretches of it hard to follow beneath the lewd and violent surface, and more than one critic wonders whether unrelenting despair leaves the film anywhere to go. The spread is wide, from full marks to a single clear dismissal: The New Yorker calls the cynicism adolescent and the kinetic manner short on expressive range, while still crediting the film’s nerve in rejecting convention. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 26 May 1993. The critic praises the film as a powerful, unsentimental portrait of a young Black man trapped by his environment and street values, noting its energy and strong performances while highlighting its unflinching look at inner-city violence without easy hope or blame on external racism alone. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/menace-ii-society-1993) ## Variety — Leonard Klady Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 May 1993. Festival review. The film is a grim, nihilistic, fierce, violent, and searing inner-city trip that marks a dynamic debut for the Hughes brothers. It suggests a bright future for the filmmakers despite its unrelenting tale. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1993/film/reviews/menace-ii-society-1200432205/) ## Empire — Ian Nathan Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2013. The Hughes brothers deliver a visceral, anti-violence message through a pseudo-documentary style that stands out in the ghetto genre. The film is undeniably affecting despite its lewd and violent content and occasional incomprehensibility. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/menace-ii-society-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Peter Rainer Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 1993. The Hughes twins deliver a free-form 'hood drama that is best when it sets out its horrors without moralizing, making previous films seem saccharine by comparison. The young filmmakers' instincts allow an inside view of Watts gangbangers' violent generational attitudes. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-26-ca-39806-story.html) ## Slant Magazine — Derek Smith Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2021. The critic praises the Hughes brothers' debut for its intuitive understanding of Los Angeles’s racial hierarchies and the persistence of violence and neglect in Watts. It presents a despairing, authentic portrait of a community at war with itself, rejecting redemptive clichés in favor of a cyclical view of tragedy. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/menace-ii-society-4k-review-albert-allen-hughes-criterion/) ## The New York Times — Caryn James Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 13 June 1993. The film is praised for its radical bleakness and honesty in depicting disaffected young black men in Los Angeles without preaching or condescension. It offers an uncomfortable but valuable way to understand the characters' perspective on violence and despair. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/13/movies/film-view-menace-ii-society-stakes-a-claim-to-bleak-turf.html) ## The New Yorker — Terrence Rafferty Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 24 May 1993. The review describes the film as a speedy, violent, and adolescent-cynical take on no-hope lives, noting the directors' kinetic style suits the material but ultimately leaves it short on expressive options. It compares the film unfavorably to Buñuel's Los Olvidados while acknowledging its brave rejection of conventions. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/05/31/dead-end-4) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/menace-ii-society.md