The Wood is a funny and heartwarming coming of age film that uses its all star cast effectively instead of wasting them like movies these days tend to do.
The Story: Roland(Taye Diggs) is having cold feet on his wedding day and his friends, Mike(Omar Epps) and Slim(Richard T. Jones) try to help him get over it. While they help him overcome his anxiety of getting married, Mike recalls their younger years growing up in Inglewood California. Mike recalls how he first met Slim and Roland and his childhood love Alicia(Malinda Williams).
Taye Diggs, Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones are all great. The chemistry they have together makes the movie fun as it moves along. There are a lot of funny moments in this movie(when Mike gets beat up by Alicia's brother, The vomit scene,Mike dancing with a plush toy bunny and the dance scene when Mike rises to the occasion and tries to play it off) and some warm moments.
What I like the most about The Wood is its brutal honesty. The people in this movie are realistically portrayed(just like most of Rick Famuyiwa's movies). Now I know most prudes are going to detest how these boys in this movie act but just remember one thing: THEY ARE KIDS! If this movie would have had these youngsters thinking about anything other than girls it wouldn't be realistic. Movies that show us human beings as imperfect will always get slammed by pseudo-intellectual bourgeoisie puppets but who cares what they think.
In conclusion The Wood is an excellent coming-of-age movie that is necessary requirement for any fan of Black Cinema. Two Thumbs up.
The Story: Roland(Taye Diggs) is having cold feet on his wedding day and his friends, Mike(Omar Epps) and Slim(Richard T. Jones) try to help him get over it. While they help him overcome his anxiety of getting married, Mike recalls their younger years growing up in Inglewood California. Mike recalls how he first met Slim and Roland and his childhood love Alicia(Malinda Williams).
Taye Diggs, Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones are all great. The chemistry they have together makes the movie fun as it moves along. There are a lot of funny moments in this movie(when Mike gets beat up by Alicia's brother, The vomit scene,Mike dancing with a plush toy bunny and the dance scene when Mike rises to the occasion and tries to play it off) and some warm moments.
What I like the most about The Wood is its brutal honesty. The people in this movie are realistically portrayed(just like most of Rick Famuyiwa's movies). Now I know most prudes are going to detest how these boys in this movie act but just remember one thing: THEY ARE KIDS! If this movie would have had these youngsters thinking about anything other than girls it wouldn't be realistic. Movies that show us human beings as imperfect will always get slammed by pseudo-intellectual bourgeoisie puppets but who cares what they think.
In conclusion The Wood is an excellent coming-of-age movie that is necessary requirement for any fan of Black Cinema. Two Thumbs up.