John Singleton's 'Boyz n the Hood' opens theatrically

Why it matters

Boyz n the Hood opened in theaters July 12, 1991. John Singleton directed it. He was 23 and a recent USC film school graduate. Ice Cube, in his first major film role, played the older brother Doughboy. Cuba Gooding Jr. played the younger brother Tre. Laurence Fishburne played Tre's father. The movie is set in South Central Los Angeles and is about, broadly, the question of whether the next generation of Black men in the neighborhood gets to grow up. The film was a commercial hit and a critical hit. Singleton became the first Black filmmaker, and the youngest filmmaker, ever nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Cube's performance proved he could carry a movie, which kicked off the second decade of his career (Friday in 1995, Barbershop, the Are We There Yet franchise, the producer credits). Boyz n the Hood is also the film that made the next twenty years of South-Central-LA-set rap-adjacent cinema possible. Menace II Society, Friday, Set It Off, Training Day. The lineage is direct. If you have not watched Boyz n the Hood in a while, you should.