‘John Singleton’s Hood Trilogy’ Now Available

“John Singleton’s Hood Trilogy (The Criterion Collection)” is now available.

Three classics; “Boyz n the Hood,” “Poetic Justice” and “Baby Boy” in 4K UHD.

With his electrifying debut feature, “Boyz n the Hood,” John Singleton brought his South Central Los Angeles community to the screen with a bracing immediacy that rocked 1990s American cinema and popular culture.

“Poetic Justice” and “Baby Boy” completed what the director considered his ‘Hood Trilogy,’ a series of richly nuanced films that constitute a dramatic universe all their own.

Featuring remarkable performances from supernova talents like Cuba Gooding Jr., Angela Bassett, Regina King, Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur, and Taraji P. Henson, these indelible tales of urban life explore the experience of growing up Black and searching for one’s place in the world.

From the moment he graduated film school in 1990, at the age of 22, John Singleton was insistent on obtaining creative control, because he wanted to demonstrate the humanity of the people living in his community, flaws and all.

In a string of movies he called his Hood Trilogy — Boyz n the Hood (1991), Poetic Justice (1993), and Baby Boy (2001) — he showcased his gift for grounding his characters in the specificities of time and place.

The Angelenos in these films work at the Fox Hills Mall, party on Crenshaw Boulevard, and spend wild nights at the Snooty Fox Motor Inn.

They put tinted windows and ten-inch gold Dayton rims on their Honda Accords.

They belong to street gangs like the Rollin’ 60s Crips and the Crenshaw Mafia Bloods.

Details like these—along with the characters’ clothes, hairstyles, and accents — met John Singleton’s high threshold for authenticity.

As a subject for his filmmaking, South Central remained a place of comfort and expertise for Singleton, even as his ambitions carried him elsewhere—to 1920s rural Florida in “Rosewood” (1997), one of his best films, and then to the world of Hollywoodfranchises with “2 Fast 2 Furious” (2003), which became his greatest commercial success.

No matter where his career took him, he was always rooted in his respect for the place where he grew up.

His trilogy is the key to understanding his artistry; taken together, these three movies shine a light on a community that was still trying to make good on the promise of the Great Migration, in which droves of Black Americans moved from the South to cities like Los Angeles in pursuit of better lives—only to encounter racism, violence, and injustice in their new homes.

Throughout these films, John Singleton shows how, generations after this huge demographic shift, Black people continued to make their own way in the face of extraordinary obstacles. – Julian Kimble

Boyz n the Hood 1991

One of the greatest debuts in American cinema, John Singleton’s first feature is a harrowing and compassionate immersion into the lives of three Black teenage boys grappling with the uncertainty of their futures.

Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, the precocious Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the street-smart Doughboy (Ice Cube), and the athletically gifted Ricky (Morris Chestnut) navigate friendship, first love, the hopes and dreams of their families, and the realities of gang violence in a society where the odds are stacked against them.

Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the age of twenty-four, Singleton established himself as a vital new auteur already in breathtaking command of his craft.

Poetic Justice 1993

Once upon a time in South Central LA . . . For his follow-up to Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton again turned the camera on his hometown to create a stirring exploration of grief, love, and creativity.

Built around the electric chemistry between superstars Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, the film follows two young Angelenos—Justice, a sensitive hairdresser and poet mourning the death of her boyfriend, and Lucky, a dashingly charismatic postal clerk—as they fall in love over the course of a liberating road trip.

Featuring soul-nourishing poetry by Maya Angelou and scene-stealing performances from Regina King and Joe Torry, Poetic Justice is one of the most irresistible romances of the 1990s.

Baby Boy 2001

In this funny and fearlessly honest character study, John Singleton illuminates the pressures that Black men face as they make their way through early adulthood. Jody (Tyrese Gibson, in his feature-film debut) is a young native of South Central Los Angeles struggling to find direction in his life.

At the same time, he tries to reconcile his volatile relationships with his loving but conflicted girlfriend (a revelatory Taraji P. Henson), who bears much of the burden of raising their son, and his strong-willed mother (AJ Johnson), whose imposing ex-con beau (Ving Rhames) is a thorn in Jody’s side.

Confronting complicated questions about sex, violence, and parent-child dynamics, the final installment in Singleton’s Hood Trilogy showcases the deep humanism of a celebrated filmmaker working at the height of his powers.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

4K digital restoration of Boyz n the Hood, supervised and approved by director John Singleton, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack and alternate Dolby Atmos soundtrack

New cover by Ngabo “El’Cesart” Desire Cesar