Menace II Society is a savage film. If Boyz n the Hood was the ying, Menace would be the yang, its dark reflection. Menace takes the groundwork laid by Boyz and pushes it to a dark nihilistic fatalism. Menace claims to depict what life on the streets of Watts, California was truly like in the early 1990’s. This is the Hughes Brothers directorial debut and their greatest triumph; full of the no nonsense-in your face grittiness that would define their later films (Dead Presidents, From Hell, The Book of Eli). Menace is not only one of the best “hood films”, equaling the high bar set by Boyz, it's one of the best films of the 1990’s. The narrative is extremely tight and focused, and there are few if any extraneous shots in this bleak drama. The story focuses on Kaydee “Caine” Lawson (Tyrin Turner) and his core group of friends during one summer in Watts, California as he ascends to adulthood.

Boyz n the Hood is the archetypal hood film. John Singleton’s 1991 directorial debut is the progenitor for a decade of films that would be defined as “hood films”. Spike Lee may have sparked the independent black movement with Do The Right Thing in 1989, but few movies have set the tone for an entire genre like Boyz n The Hood. The best part? It is a genre defining film in every sense of the word. The film tells the tale of a young black man Tre, who is raised in a tough California neighborhood in the mid-eighties through early nineties. The film touches on almost every aspect of the young black male psyche growing up in the LA ghettos, and is meticulously detailed because the writer and director, John Singleton, grew up on these very streets.

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