Rating: 2.5/5
Adam and I were in the theater during the closing credits.
I voiced my dissatisfaction with how the movie blended sincere melodrama with darkly comic critiques of melodrama.
Adam pointed out that the movie engages with a Hollywood and literary world from decades ago rather than addressing current issues. Not that we’ve made many strides in representation. It just looks different now than when Boyz n the Hood came out.
A fellow theatergoer stood up and expressed admiration for the movie’s ambitions. He was impressed by how the movie wove all its elements together.
He might forget about it in a few decades. But it’s on his mind tonight.
This movie has an audience. I’m just not that audience.
I’m disappointed that this adaptation avoided the novel’s messier and more nuanced meta-textual elements. We get close to it with the conversation between Jeffrey Wright and Issa Rae.
The movie feels like it had the edges whittled down so the filmmakers could make it, which tells you everything.