John Singleton gives young men the humour, hurt and ordinary company that crime dramas too often deny them. We value his patience with actors, even when his dialogue starts explaining what their performances have already made clear.
Fi1m perspective
In Boyz n the Hood (1991), Ice Cube’s Doughboy can be angry and funny without either making his hurt disappear. We were moved by the performance because Cube lets that hurt show through without asking us to excuse the anger. John Singleton, writing and directing his feature debut, gives the young men time to enjoy one another’s company before asking us to fear for them. Morris Chestnut’s openness as Ricky Baker helps distinguish one young man from another when the script is trying to speak for a neighbourhood. That patience is what we value most in Singleton’s directing.
Those conversations about growing up recur across his work, with black masculinity a persistent concern. Poetic Justice (1993), a romance with Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, extended his attention to South Central Los Angeles. Higher Learning (1995) moved to a college setting and a wider set of social questions. Baby Boy (2001) brought him back to the intimate business of becoming an adult. Casting musicians such as Cube, Shakur and Tyrese Gibson was a recurring habit, and Cube’s Doughboy shows why we value it.
The weakness is already there in Boyz n the Hood: Singleton sometimes stops a conversation to deliver a lesson. Laurence Fishburne gives Furious’s speech on gentrification conviction, but the dialogue begins addressing us rather than the people around him. Stanley Clarke’s score presses for emotion that the actors have already earned, making some passages more insistent than they need to be. We also wanted the supporting characters to have the independence granted to the central men. These flaws matter, though they do not outweigh the pleasure of spending time with Doughboy and Ricky.
The move into broader studio work took in Shaft (2000), followed by the action films 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Four Brothers (2005). He later directed for television and co-created Snowfall (2017). Our starting point is still Boyz n the Hood, for the time it gives to parental advice and the business of growing up. Do not put it on expecting only a crime story.
Biography
John Singleton was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born on 6 January 1968 in Los Angeles, California, and died on 28 April 2019. He studied screenwriting at the University of Southern California, where he won several writing awards.
Singleton made his feature debut writing and directing Boyz n the Hood (1991). The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay; at the age of 24 he became the youngest person and the first African American nominated in the directing category. His other feature films include Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), Shaft (2000), Baby Boy (2001), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Four Brothers (2005). He also directed episodes of television series including American Crime Story (2016) and Snowfall (2017).
