Baby Boy

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Baby Boy ★★½ 2001 (R)

Singleton's candid look at a culture that fosters and tolerates lack of emotional maturity in young African-American males. Jody (Gibson) is a 20-year-old manchild who still lives with his mother (Johnson), has two children with two different women, no job, and cheats on his current girl, Yvette. Jody's life changes when his mother's boyfriend moves in. Melvin (Rhames), an excon who's been down the road Jody is heading, shows no tolerance for his attitude. Real trouble starts when Rodney (Snoop Dogg), a street thug and Yvette's ex, is released from prison and refuses to leave her house. Singleton toys with two endings, but finishes the story with the message that the means to fix the problems he's described are within reach. 129m/C VHS, DVD, UMD . US Tyrese Gibson, Omar Gooding, Taraji P. Henson, Adrienne-Joi (AJ) Johnson, Snoop Dogg, Tamara La Seon Bass, Ving Rhames, Angell Conwell; D: John Singleton; W: John Singleton; C: Charles Mills; M: David Arnold.