Tales from the Hood.

Review #2465: Tales from the Hood.

Cast:

Welcome to My Mortuary (framing segments): Clarence Williams III (Mr. Simms), Joe Torry ("Stack"), Samuel Monroe Jr. ("Bulldog"), and De'Aundre Bonds ("Ball")

"Rogue Cop Revelation" segment: Tom Wright (Martin Ezekiel Moorehouse), Anthony Griffith (Officer Clarence Smith), Wings Hauser (Officer Strom Richmond), Michael Massee (Officer Newton Hauser), and Duane Whitaker (Officer Billy Crumfield)

"Boys Do Get Bruised" segment: Brandon Hammond (Walter Johnson), Rusty Cundieff (Richard Garvey), Paula Jai Parker (Sissy Johnson), and David Alan Grier (Carl)

"KKK Comeuppance" segment: Corbin Bernsen (Duke Metger), Roger Guenveur Smith (Rhodie Willis), Art Evans (Eli), Tim Hutchinson (Councilman Rogers), Christina Cundieff (Miss Cobbs), John A. Cundieff (Funeral Priest), and Erika Hansen (Anchorwoman)

"Hard-Core Convert" segment: Lamont Bentley (Jerome "Crazy K" Johns), Rosalind Cash (Dr. Cushing), Ricky Harris ("Lil' Deke"), and Rick Dean (Racist Inmate)

Directed by Rusty Cundieff.

Review: 

"The title, Tales From the Hood, seemed to be the automatic way to put across the idea that it was an anthology, and also related to the black experience, whatever that was at the time. I wanted to make sure that the there was something socially relevant within each piece, and also create a situation where the horror and supernatural forces were things that you were rooting for as opposed to against. We didn’t have young co-eds who you wanted to stay alive. All the humans in Tales from the Hood do bad things and the supernatural is their comeuppance."

The movie's anniversary did slip past by me, but there's always time to redeem oneself. Rusty Cundieff was born and raised in Pittsburgh with an interest in the entertainment business from a young age, with horror being a genre he liked from his days watching Chiller Theatre on late Saturday nights going hand in hand with him participating in plays as a youth that had him liking comedy, and he started doing stand-up in his junior year of high school. He attended Loyola University for his freshman year at college before transferring to USC with an interest in their film and television department, although its lack of great features meant that he took filmmaking courses on the side; he graduated with degrees in philosophy of religion, journalism, and drama. He did a bit of acting and found the experience in working on School Daze (1988) to make him want to direct and write. In 1993, Cundieff wrote and directed his first film with the rap mockumentary Fear of a Black Hat. The basis for his second film came from a one-act play he performed called The Black Horror Show: Blackanthropy. Cundieff and Darin Scott co-wrote the film, which was made with Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. The movie had a mild impact with audiences but for whatever reason, it had a prolonged release on home media in the 21st century, where a DVD release occurred in 1998 that subsequently went out of print before a Blu-Ray release finally came out in 2017. Cundieff has directed for a variety of television shows (most notably Chappelle's Show) and a few films over the prevailing decades and was behind two sequels to Tales from the Hood in 2018 and 2020.

Within a 98-minute runtime features an eight-minute opening to set the stage of what is to come that might remind you of Tales from the Crypt (1972) or The House of the Dead (1978) in coffins and mislaid belief colliding together with a stranger (in this case a group trying to score some drugs); each of the four stories have its own length, with "KKK Comeuppance" running the shortest at roughly 18 minutes while the longest story is the last one at "Hard-Core Convert", which goes 27 minutes. It is clear pretty early that Cundieff wanted to make a movie that actually touched upon issues one could find in their community without being done for cheap scares or jokes that basically meant that the scariest things that could happen to someone if the human things that happen every day. Williams makes for a solid person to set up each of the stories in his daffy energy that is quite infectious and altogether entertaining. You get four pretty solid segments, all things considered. "Rogue Cop Revelation" deals with the fallout that arises when a Civil Rights activist is brutally murdered by a group of cops. It proves to be an interesting one for the eventual comeuppance for its key adversaries that are probably just as likely to exist in the real world as one thinks. Wright is a solid enough crusader from the grave (the best one is when he turns someone into a mural), and the overall endgame that comes from reckoning with action vs inaction is at least a curious one to end on. "Boys Do Get Bruised" deals with a young boy dealing with a monster in his closet that leads the teacher to learn what it really means to draw upon experiences at home. It probably fits the best in being a short segment when you consider that it is actually a segment about the perils of domestic violence, and Grier makes the most of a brief but terrifying enough role. Apparently, the movie was going to get an X rating until a chunk of the domestic violence scene near the end was trimmed. At any rate, it has a neat little ending. "KKK Comeuppance" (as "absolutely informed" by 1975's TV movie Trilogy of Terror) deals with an aspiring politician (and white supremacist) that deals with a few historical dolls. Coincidence or not, when actual racist-turned-politician David Duke ran for Governor of Louisiana in 1992, someone did an anti-Duke voodoo doll on display in New Orleans and a photo was taken of it. Bernsen makes for a delightfully hammy performance in extolling just the type of person that could have confidence in themselves to say what they say and not expect it to boomerang back to them. Sure, you know what is going to happen pretty early on, but it is still fun. Apparently, the last sequence, as done by the Chiodo Brothers in stop-motion animation, was only done because test audiences were not satisfied at the original ending. Clearly, they made the right decision. "Hard-Core Convert" deals with a murderer being given a chance to cure himself by seeing the consequences of his actions literally thrown at him. Amid the gang violence of the time that was depicted in movies such as Boyz n the Hood (1992) is a look upon a violent person seeing both a racist that wants to bond with him because of their apparent shared hatred of black people and then a montage of actual public lynchings and beatings. It probably is the standout segment of the four for how Bentley handles the scenario thrust upon him in all of its bravado and vulnerability as a murderer. In total, what we have is four pretty interesting segments that all want to look upon actual things that happen in people's lives (black or not), whether that involves domestic violence or a lust for violence and make it compelling to see it intersect with the supernatural for macabre effectiveness. In that regard, it is a nice little film that may be right up your alley.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Next up: the match made for the Devil itself: Exorcist: The Beginning vs. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist

Poetic Justice.

Review #2183: Poetic Justice.

Cast: 

Janet Jackson (Justice), Tupac Shakur (Lawrence "Lucky"), Regina King (Iesha), Joe Torry ("Chicago"), Tyra Ferrell (Jessie), Rose Weaver (Aunt Audrey), Khandi Alexander (Simone), John Cothran Jr. (Uncle Earl), Maya Angelou (Aunt June), and Norma Donaldson (Aunt May) Written and Directed by John Singleton (#545 - Shaft (2000), #1640 - Boyz n the Hood, #1807 - Baby Boy)

Review: 

"Why not do a movie about a young sister and how all the tribulations of the brothers affect her?”

I had been wanting to do this film for quite a while, because if there's one thing more interesting than picking a film with noted names in black cinema, it's the film that comes right after making a seminal classic. Yes, this is the film that John Singleton directed after Boyz n the Hood (1991), and it is one that Singleton wrote with Jackson in mind as the lead for her feature film debut (after appearing on television as a child and, well, being a noted singer). Incidentally, this is the second starring role for Shakur and the only romantic drama he appeared in as an actor before his untimely death in 1996. The poetry that is depicted in the film was composed by Maya Angelou, who has one scene in the film, which really does start with a title card saying, “Once upon a time in South Central L.A….” before having a neat set of cameos in Billy Zane and Lori Petty (work with me on this). Singleton wrote the film as one to look upon the girls that were left behind in relationships ripped away from them due to gang violence, right down to the hairstyle (box braids) as discussed with Jackson, Singleton, and others. It ended up as a modest success with audiences on a budget of $14 million that has had at least one argument for being a "cult classic".

The movie may not seem as "disciplined" when it comes to comparing it with his previous film, but so what? It is a road movie that happens to try it play fast and loose in would-be romances in a place where one has to find a way back to actually caring for others again (South Central LA in this case). It is a moody film that comes and goes at 109 minutes (apparently Singleton had made a cut of two and a half hours before going with Columbia Pictures in their request to trim 45 minutes out), and perhaps it isn't surprising that one of Singleton's influences for the film was Federico Fellini. Jackson and Shakur make a quality pair in that bubbling sense of vulnerability that comes with trying to keep one's guard up again and again. Opening one's heart to possibility of others reaching out is a curious one for all around us, and Singleton wanted to make one for black women to see something in themselves that I think he succeeded with in the long run. Of course, that doesn't mean Shakur is in the background, because his presence is electric even with that guarded sensibility of care for the people really close to him (whether children or in ideas for something better than the post office). King and Torry make a volatile pair among the main four that harkens most to soap opera in the natural conclusion of certain young people that think they know who and what they are. Ferrell is also pretty engaging in the scenes spent within the salon that varies in timing and relief. The fact that it was a film that happened to be done right after a seminal classic in Boyz that dared to have its share of profanity (do you need to guess how much I don't care about profanity usage?) and ideas about men and women means that, well, sometimes even love stories need some credit. In general, Singleton has a clear interest in showing a wider range of the street experience in terms of learning to start again in the face of change and surprise around them. It meanders from time to time on the road, but as a whole, it proved a worthy curiosity when looking upon Singelton and his work as a whole in black storytelling.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.