The movie may have a lot of truth, but it isn't much fun to watch for exactly that reason.

| Aug 26, 2024

Singleton never asked for tears or trendy social reform but insisted on the honesty that politicians and the media shunt aside in favor of platitudes. Baby Boy remarkably withholds platitudes.

| Jul 7, 2021

The film is a bold examination of an aspect of African American life. There's no shortage of sex, violence, or urban realism.

| Original Score: B | Jul 4, 2011

The characters are so full-bodied and the feelings so raw and complex that I'd call this the best thing John Singleton has done to date

| Jan 29, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 7, 2008

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

This is yet another coming-of-age tale except that the hero is not a teenager but a young man who goes out of his way to be macho but really is a mama boy.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 26, 2006

Recommended mainly to the more devoted Singleton fans, Baby Boy is pretty strong evidence of a filmmaker who still has plenty to say.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 21, 2005

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 17, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 20, 2003

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 8, 2002

An unfortunate hybrid of Oedipal and Peter Pan complexes, Singleton's film is a mishmash of half-cocked ideas and unrealized sentiments.

Full Review | Nov 18, 2002

...while it's not as gritty as Boyz N the Hood or as compelling as Higher Learning, Baby Boy is certainly worth checking out if only for the superb performances...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 25, 2002

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 19, 2002

There's no cuddling this Baby Boy, a profoundly sad commentary on the vicious circle that continues to terminally plague our bewildered, impressionable and disadvantaged young urban black men.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2002

Johnson and Rhames are superb as Jody's charming, hard-working mother and her ex-con boyfriend Melvin.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2001

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 7, 2001

It's an intermittently powerful but deeply flawed film.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 2, 2001

To a large degree, its ungainliness is forgivable, as it reflects a breadth of ambition, not a failure of talent.

Full Review | Aug 2, 2001