Critic Reviews

• Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

  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

• Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

  I felt myself drawn into a vortex of raw emotion from which I could not escape.

• David Edelstein, Slate

  One of the most entertaining African-American comedies of manners ever made.

• Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com

  [Jody's] lessons on growing up and moving on never ring more than halfhearted and false.

• Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

  What holds the movie together ... is Gibson's broodingly responsive performance.

• Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

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

• Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

  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.

• Scott Weinberg, DVD Clinic

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

• Rachel Deahl, Baltimore City Paper

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

• David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

  ...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...

• Frank Ochieng, Movie Eye

  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.

• Jane Crowther, BBC

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

• Adam Nayman, eye WEEKLY

  It's an intermittently powerful but deeply flawed film.

• Joe Leydon, San Francisco Examiner

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

• Daniel Eagan, Film Journal International

  The director deserves credit for tackling a worthwhile subject, but many will find the film's tone too soft and approving.

• Steve Rhodes, Internet Reviews

  Never rises above the level of a soap opera.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  With a combination of sensitivity and insight, John Singleton presents a fascinating portrait of an African American that goes against stereotypes of 20-year-old men.

• Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope

  'Baby Boy' is a powerhouse of a film, and so sexy it's like celluloid Viagra.

• Chuck Rudolph, Matinee Magazine

  Baby Boy, for all of its naiveté and indulgences, has some humility in it as well, which does its creator good.

• Susan Granger, www.susangranger.com

  "Singleton's thesis is that pervasive racism and a lack of role models have psychologically infantalized Afro-American men."

Read all 21 critic reviews