Reissue of the Week: Boyz N the Hood – Still vital viewing after 25 years

Filled with trash-talking and wise words, John Singleton’s provocative, funny, Oscar-nominated debut still dazzles

Urban survivors: Cuba Gooding Jr and Morris Chestnut in “Boyz N the Hood”.

Urban survivors: Cuba Gooding Jr and Morris Chestnut in “Boyz N the Hood”.

When Tre Styles (Desi Arnez Hines II, and later Cuba Gooding Jr) gets in a fight at school, his divorced mother (Angela Bassett) sends him to live with his father, Furious (Laurence Fishburne), in South Los Angeles.

Tre soon finds companionship with the titular boyz, including Doughboy (Ice Cube), who grows up to be a Crip; Chris, another Crip, who is confined to a wheelchair after a gunshot wound; and Ricky (Morris Chestnut), a star football player with a chance of a college scholarship. In common with most teenage boys in coming-of-age dramas, Tre hopes to get some from his chaste girlfriend Brandi (Nia Long).

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