In the '90s, films that launched the hood homeboy genre in cinema reinvigorated Black film and put a spotlight on what was happening in inner-cities across America. John Singleton's stunning debut Boyz n the Hood pave the way for films like Juice, Menace II Society, Jason's Lyric, and New Jack City. These were explosive and truthful portrayals of what was occurring in impoverished Black communities suffering under police brutality, the crack cocaine epidemic, devastating poverty, and the erosion of housing projects.
Now nearly 30 years later, Rod S. Scott is turning his lens on South Los Angeles today. Unfortunately, not much has changed. Nineteen Summers opens in the early 2000s, young single mom, Porsha (Iyana Halley), has high aspirations for her newborn son, DeAndre. Though she knows the odds are against her as a young Black woman with little to no support system, she is determined to carve out a life for herself and a future for the Black man she brought into the world. It's a dream that all loving Black mothers cling to.
Sliding forward into the present day, we meet a grown-up DeAndre (Emonjay Brown). At 19 — South L.A. has hardened him. He's often tense, wearing a massive "EBK" face tattoo on his skin like a coat of armor. Though he has tender moments with her mother (now portrayed by Elise Neil), his girlfriend Diamond (Terri Abney), and his baby daughter Jenny, DeAndre is mostly stoic and calculating. He spends his days on edge -- looking over his shoulder as he and his boys, Cartoon (Seth Wright) and Willie (Norman Johnson Jr.) sell drugs to make a living for themselves and their families.
Unfortunately, living a life in the streets puts a target on your back, and though he wants a better life for himself and his future, DeAndre can sense that he's trapped — even when he tries his best to see a new direction for his life.
There is much of Nineteen Summers the works well. DeAndre is charismatic and extremely smart. Though he has a disdain for the "real job" Porsha and Diamond beg him to get, and he's quick to complain, he often tries to do the right thing. He's willing to make an effort for the women that depend on him —even getting a life insurance policy in his name and making sure Diamond is set with rent money, two years into the future. The chemistry between the pair and the affection that they share is one of the highlights of the film.
The characters surrounding DeAndre, everyone from Porsha who is still trying to make a way for herself, his neighbor Leon who becomes addicted to drugs, and the wino who offers him advice, are fully fleshed out characters with their own dreams, desires, and aspirations. Diamond is particularly impressive. Though weary in her role as a young mom, she's determined to push forward in nursing school while soothing DeAndre's frustrations and angry outbursts.
Still, Nineteen Summers isn't without its issues. The pacing in the various acts of the film doesn't always align with the narrative, and the dialogue doesn't feel as authentically poetic as it has in other films of the same subject. Likewise, a few plotholes and random scenes are strewn about here and there, throwing off the tone of the film at times. A shaper edit could have tightened the film and the narrative quite well.
Yet, Scott's message rings loud and clear. The inner city can be a death trap, something you can't outrun no matter what you do. DeAndre does heinous things to survive, but his humanity never leaves him. In one particularly stellar sequence, he runs from there cops, dodging through alleys as the wings of an LAPD helicopter whirl in the sky — "Run, "N****r, Run," a 19th Century African-American slave song plays as a haunting echo to the Black experience in America.
Nineteen Summer isn't perfect, but the intent behind the film and Emonjay Brown's outstanding breakout performance easily carries this examination of South Los Angeles in the 21st century as it comes to its rage-filled conclusion echoing a generation of films the came before it.
Nineteen Summers is out now on Digital, and Blu-Ray