MENACE II SOCIETY
A film review by Steve Baumgarten
Copyright 1993 Steve Baumgarten
[ Phans -- After some thought, I've decided to write some non-horror reviews as myself, rather than as the Phantom. It's likely that the majority will be about action and/or exploitation films, from CLIFFHANGER (in the works) to SLIVER (which I took a pass on). It's also likely that since many of these films won't be as downright awful as LEPRECHAUN, the reviews probably won't be as funny. I may get tired of semi-serious reviewing, in which case I'll switch to direct-to-video releases or something like that, since there aren't going to be many horror releases this summer. Happy reading, and I'll try to live up to the high standards set by my alter ego. SBB ]
MENACE II SOCIETY
A review by Steve Baumgarten
(sbb@panix.com)
I don't know who the Hughes Brothers are, but I sincerely hope they continue to make films as good as MENACE II SOCIETY, the latest in a series of impressive debuts by new black directors. Like many low-budget filmmakers, they chose to write (with Tyger Williams) and direct an urban coming-of-age film, part drama, part exploitation, and part "message" film.
When making an urban "message" film, you walk a fine line between producing little more than a big-budget ABC After School Special, or an exploitation film that's ultimately as unsatisfying as it is entertaining. Recently, we've had both: John Singleton's BOYZ N THE HOOD and Ernest Dickerson's JUICE played out as entertaining, well-made urban dramas that deal with the challenges black youth face growing up in a city like Los Angeles. Singleton proved that he was a capable filmmaker and benefited greatly from a standout performance by the rapper Ice Cube; Dickerson showed us why Spike Lee has used no one else as his cinematographer. On an emotional level, BOYZ N THE HOOD was quite powerful -- partly because it was the first mainstream Hollywood film to deal with these issues in a serious way, and partly because of the performances Singleton was able to get from his young cast. JUICE was entertaining for as long as it remained on the screen, but after that it became instantly forgettable. It ultimately failed because Dickerson didn't know whether he wanted to make an exploitation film (in the mold of NEW JACK CITY) or a "message" film that would at least help redeem the film's violent tone. In attempting to make both, he really made neither, though his cinematographer's eye was largely responsible for the film's glossy and very attractive look.
(As a pure exploitation film, NEW JACK CITY was hampered only by the occasional bout of moralizing; it seems that either black filmmakers are not yet comfortable making films as mindlessly violent as those of white filmmakers, or they feel that mainstream audiences won't feel as comfortable with such films. Either way, it's a recent development, as we are not yet too far removed in time from the heyday of the "blaxploitation" film, when the only goal filmmakers had was to churn out entertaining product as quickly as possible, before the fad collapsed.)
MENACE II SOCIETY comes to us with an award from Cannes, which indicates that the Hughes Brothers (as they bill themselves) are as lucky as they are talented, this being a time when violent films are held in high esteem at that august festival. It's been my opinion for a while that the judges at Cannes wouldn't know a good film if it leaped at them out of their popcorn boxes, but then again my definition of "good" is closely tied to my definition of "entertaining". I'm much less interested in getting "messages" from the films I see than I am in being entertained in ways that novels, plays, and television cannot duplicate. Films without messages are hard to come by these days, but again, that's a recent development: just two decades ago the silver screen was awash in graphic violence for the sake of violence, and films like A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and THE WILD BUNCH were considered mainstream. That RESERVOIR DOGS -- a film very much in the Peckinpah mold -- would cause the uproar it did, now 25 years later, shows you just how far we've regressed since the glory days of filmmaking freedom in the late sixties and early seventies.
But under the cloak of The Message, the Hughes Brothers have assembled a film that's as entertaining as it is well-crafted, and one that has much more depth to it than any other recent urban film. Its story is familiar, following as it does the life of one black teenager as he grows up in a family, a neighborhood, and among friends who do all they can to force him into making one bad decision after another. That some of these decisions will have lethal consequences is a foregone conclusion, but the genius of MENACE II SOCIETY is that it does not allow us to fall into the comfortable trap of complete identification with a totally sympathetic protagonist. As disturbing as BOYZ N THE HOOD was, we never had to deal with the possibility that Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character would turn out to be something other than he was on the surface: a bright, well-intentioned, likable kid who gets caught up with a crowd of "bad" friends.
But that possibility lies at the center of the Hughes Brothers' film; what keeps MENACE II SOCIETY interesting is its ability to keep us off balance as it presents us with several inter-connected slices of life. Although it has all the trappings of another coming-of-age film, there's more going on in MENACE II SOCIETY than meets the eye. It is, at heart, a darker film than BOYZ N THE HOOD; it is also in a number of ways a better made film. (This is true especially in the mechanics of filmmaking, where the Hughes Brothers' background as directors of hip-hop and rap music videos occasionally shines through and keeps their film as interesting visually as it is on other, deeper levels.)
MENACE II SOCIETY starts on a jittery note: after a brief title sequence, we're pulled into the middle of a situation in a Korean grocery that seems about to go very wrong. Any violent scene can be used to shock an audience out of its complacency, but where other filmmakers have used urban violence to do little more than show us how terrible such violence is, the Hughes Brothers use it as well to ground us in the everyday life of Caine (the story's protagonist and the character with whom we'd most like to identify) and his volatile side-kick O-Dog. Too, the scene is used to show us how such violence affects Caine and his friends, because as compelling as the scene is initially, it only gains power as the Hughes Brothers return to it, time and again, as the film's touchstone.
Although the film seems at first to be constructed as a running narration by Caine about the events he experiences as he approaches the end of his senior year in high school, the documentary style is just one of many the Hughes Brothers use throughout the film. In fact, the most powerful scenes are those that provide background for the events that unfold in Caine's life; in particular, a flashback to Caine's troubled childhood works on several levels: it is so well done it nearly stands on its own as a movie within a movie, yet by giving us a chance to live Caine's life as he did, it allows us to see why many of his actions as a young adult make sense to him, even if we'd like to believe that he is simply responding to recent events in his life in a way that society finds unacceptable. There are also scenes in this film that reminded me of another of my favorite slice-of-life dramas, though one of a very different kind. On more than one occasion, the Hughes Brothers' ability to present shocking events as hardly out of the ordinary recalled John McNaughton's brilliant horror film HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. These scenes -- most involving the very unstable O-Dog -- each have relatively little impact on us, but collectively they paint the kind of portrait that straight exposition cannot. It's a very effective technique, but one that is rarely used in mainstream films, both because it requires a sure and subtle touch, and because its use implies that the filmmakers respect their audience -- all of which is sadly lacking in Hollywood these days.
Such scenes also point out the only real flaw in this film: that while we're given a certain amount of insight into Caine, other characters exist as mere ciphers. We really don't know why O-Dog is the way he is; perhaps that's the Hughes Brothers' point -- that for every Caine who might be reached and turned away from self-destruction, there will always be others who can't be.
It's a hard lesson to absorb, for Caine and for us. By the end of the film, we're still unsure whether Caine will be able to change his life and escape from the consequences of his past. Endings are always the most difficult part of a film to get right, and it's to the Hughes Brothers' credit that they are able to tell a story that neither leaves us bereft of hope nor expecting a fairy tale ending. They are almost always in control of their tightly constructed, 90 minute film -- one of the few films I've seen recently that was exactly the right length, a rarity in an age of bloated running times when "more" is often mistaken for "better" -- and its brief tour of one troubled young man's life not only leaves us entertained, but gives us something to think about without patronizing us. The screenplay (such as it is -- it's my understanding that the excellent cast improvised large portions of many scenes) is as pared down and well-crafted as the direction. We're spared maudlin soliloquies, montages, and all the other cinematic crutches used by filmmakers who, lacking a central vision, a good screenplay, talented actors, or all three, must fall back on overused dramatic techniques to move the film along.
(One note about the graphic violence in the film: I've seen reviews that claim that MENACE II SOCIETY contains some of the bloodiest and most unsettling violence ever shown in a commercial film. It does not. It does, however, attempt to portray violence in a realistic fashion -- something that is all too rare in a commercial film. To me, films like TOTAL RECALL and ROBOCOP 2 are far more unsettling, if only because they couple graphic violence with an unrelenting mean-spiritedness and place it all in a comic-book context that's designed to appeal to children. I personally find it sad that reviewers would comment unfavorably on the violence in a film like MENACE II SOCIETY -- one in which violence is used only to advance the story, not *as* the story -- and remain largely silent when they have a chance to condemn films that not only glorify graphic violence, but revel in scene after scene in which one character inflicts pain on another. While there are graphic scenes in MENACE II SOCIETY, the film itself never once depicts it as anything other than unfortunate result of generations of unfortunate decisions.)
MENACE II SOCIETY is easily one of the best films to be released this spring, and as summer's deluge of big-budget, sloppily-made and violence-glorifying films draws nearer, it would be a shame if anyone overlooked a film as intelligent and well-made as this one. We can only hope that the Hughes Brothers achieve some measure of success and recognition with their fine debut effort; although it's rarely the case, this time it's true: MTV's loss is very much our gain.
: Steve Baumgarten : sbb@panix.com
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