Allen and Albert Hughes's 'Menace II Society' opens theatrically
New Line Cinema releases the Hughes Brothers' debut feature about a young Watts gang member trying to escape the cycle of violence around him. With Boyz n the Hood (1991), Juice (1992), and South Central (1992), the film cements the early-90s hood film as a major commercial genre and helps anchor MC Eiht (who plays A-Wax) as a serious West Coast voice.
Why it matters
Menace II Society opened May 26, 1993. The Hughes brothers (Allen and Albert), then 21 years old, directed it. It is their debut feature. The film is about a young Watts gang member named Caine (played by Tyrin Turner) trying to escape the cycle of violence around him. It does not particularly end well for Caine. Menace II Society is the harder, harsher, more nihilistic cousin to Boyz n the Hood. Both films opened within two years of each other. Both films were directed by very young Black filmmakers. Both films were about young men in South Central trying to grow up. Singleton's film is a more hopeful one and won the awards. The Hughes brothers' film has, in some critical circles, aged better. MC Eiht plays A-Wax. The Pocahontas-themed liquor-store scene is one of the most-quoted opening sequences in 1990s American film. You should watch both of these movies, in either order. They are the visual canon of early-90s West Coast rap before the rap industry had figured out how to make its own movies.
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