The Wood
USA 1999
Reviewed by Leslie Felperin
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Inglewood (nicknamed 'The Wood') in Los Angeles, the present. On the day of his wedding, a drunken Roland summons his friends since childhood Slim and Mike to come and meet him at his ex-girlfriend Tanya's house. He's panicking about getting married. Slim and Mike sober him up, revisit some of their childhood haunts and remember their teenage years.
In 1986, the three met at middle school. Mike developed a crush on Alicia, the prettiest girl in their class, and was beaten up by her brother Stacey for daring to touch her backside in a bet with Slim and Roland. Later that year, he and Alicia danced together. Mike won Stacey's respect for withstanding the beating and distracting a cop's attention away from a gun in Stacey's car. When they were in their junior year at high school, the three friends had a bet on who would lose his virginity first. Mike was the first to have sex, with Alicia, though he concealed the fact from his friends.
In the present, after being ribbed by Mike and Slim for agreeing to move for the sake of his bride-to-be Lisa's job, Roland convinces the furious Lisa to go through with the wedding. The day is a success. Alicia, now a successful lawyer in New York, and Mike have a dance. He asks about the weather in New York.
Review
Focusing on three friends growing up in the middle-class black community of Inglewood in Los Angeles during the 80s, The Wood was released late last summer, coasting the last breaking wave of the teen comedies that so dominated 1999. Although its makers stress its 'universal' themes, the best things about it are its culturally specific details rather than its male-bonding and friendship homilies and stabs at gross-out humour, including a copious-vomiting sequence.
The film-makers, including debut-feature writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, have taken exacting pains to include enough jheri curls, K-Swiss trainers and posters for De La Soul in the mise en scène to induce terminal nostalgia in a finely calibrated section of the target audience. And, as seems befitting for a film financed by MTV's new film-production arm, key hip-hop, soul and R&B tunes are lined up to bring sense memories flooding back on cue. Each flashback is presaged by a spinning LP, and Luther Vandross' cover of 'If This World Were Mine' plays a key role in helping Mike win over Alicia at the dance.
The fact that it works, making Alicia a kind of Pavlov's dog in a party dress, only shows up how programmatic the characterisation is. The Wood never delves much deeper into the three friends' psychology than a sitcom pilot would, though the cast try their best. Sean Nelson as young Mike particularly shines, and ultimately carries the film since the present-time-frame device feels like it lost a few segments somewhere between the preview cinemas and here. Some viewers may find the casual sexism of the three protagonists offensive, but (as with American Pie) they are more often than not shown to be ineffectual in their efforts to get "booty" and fairly hopeless at it when they do get it. Even the bizarre debate about whether it's acceptable for a guy to follow his wife when her job requires it rather than the other way round is shown up to be hollow, macho posturing by the film's conclusion.
Credits
- Director
- Rick Famuyiwa
- Producers
- Albert Berger
- Ron Yerxa
- David Gale
- Screenplay
- Rick Famuyiwa
- Story
- Rick Famuyiwa
- Todd Boyd
- Director of Photography
- Steven Bernstein
- Editor
- John Carter
- Production Designers
- Roger Fortune
- Maxine Shepard
- Music
- Robert Hurst
- ©Paramount Pictures Corporation
- Production Companies
- Paramount Pictures presents an MTV Films production in association with Bona Fide Productions
- Developed in association with The Sundance Institute
- Executive Producer
- Van Toffler
- Co-producer
- Douglas Curtis
- Associate Producers
- Todd Boyd
- Momita Sengupta
- Production Supervisor
- Bob Johnston
- Production Co-ordinator
- Jennifer Scott
- Unit Production Manager
- Douglas Curtis
- Location Manager
- Jeremy Alter
- Post-production Supervisor
- Lisa Rodgers
- Assistant Directors
- Don Wilkerson
- Seth Edelstein
- Rosemarie Unite
- Script Supervisor
- Nicole Cummins
- Casting
- Mali Finn
- Emily Schweber
- ADR Volice:
- Barbara Harris
- Camera Operator
- Michael Ferris
- Steadicam Operator
- Kirk R. Gardner
- Special Effcts Co-ordinator
- Bruce Steinheimer
- Additional Editing
- Dirk Westervelt
- Art Director
- Richard Haase
- Set Designer
- Masako Masuda
- Set Decorators
- David Smith
- F. Beauchamp Hebb
- Storyboard Artists
- Kasia Adamik
- Elizabeth Colomba
- Mike Swift
- Costume Designer
- Darryle Johnson
- Costume Supervisor
- Shirlene Williams
- Make-up
- Supervising Artist:
- Laini Thompson
- Artists:
- Edna M. Sheen
- Kali Balugo
- Supervising Hair Stylists
- Leonard Drake
- Joann Stafford-Chaney
- Hair Stylists
- Warren Lewis
- Robert Mathews
- Main Title Design
- Goodspot
- Opticals
- Cinema Research Corporation
- Additional Music
- Camara Kambon
- Music Supervisor
- Pilar McCurry
- Co-music Supervisor
- Melodee Sutton
- Music Editors
- Jay Bolton
- Michael T. Ryan
- Soundtrack
- "I Wanna Know" by Joe Thomas, Jolyon Skinner, Michele Williams, performed by Joe; "Crave" by Timothy Monroe Allen, Jolyon Skinner, Larry Campbell, Marc Dorsey, performed by Marc Dorsey; "Freaks Come Out at Night" by Jalil Hutchins, Lawrence Smith, performed by Whodini; "Make the Music with Your Mouth Biz" by Biz Markie, Marlon Lu'Ree Williams, performed by Biz Markie; "Back in the Day (Remix)" by Ahmad, Stefan Kendal Gordy, performed by Ahmad; "If This World Were Mine" by Marvin Gaye, performed by Luther Vandross, Cheryl Lynn
- Choreography
- Jossie Harris Thacker
- Sound Mixer
- Walter P. Anderson
- Re-recording Mixers
- André Perreault
- Derek Marcil
- Stanley Kastner
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Gregory Hedgepath
- Dialogue Editor
- Dwayne Avery
- Sound Effects Editor
- Charles Maynes
- ADR
- Group:
- Kimberly Bailey
- Lanei Chapman
- Stanley Bennett Clay
- Jeff Coopwood
- Nikki Crawford
- Trey Davis
- Michelle Davison
- Barbara Iley
- Mark Christopher Lawrence
- Tina Lifford
- Richard McGregor
- Patrick Malone
- Terence Mathews
- J. Lamont Pope
- Recordists:
- Shawn Kennelly
- Thor Benitez
- Mixers:
- Eric Thompson
- Matthew C. Beville
- Supervising Editor:
- Bobbi Banks
- Editor:
- Willy Allen
- Foley
- Artists:
- Vanessa Theme Ament
- Mixer:
- Karen Roulo
- Editor:
- David E. Stone
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Eddie Watkins
- Cast
- Taye Diggs
- Roland
- Omar Epps
- Mike
- Richard T. Jones
- Slim
- Sean Nelson
- young Mike
- Trent Cameron
- young Roland
- Duane Finley
- young Slim
- Malinda Williams
- young Alicia
- De'Aundre Bonds
- Stacey
- Sanaa Lathan
- Alicia
- LisaRaye
- Lisa
- Tamala Jones
- Tanya
- Elayn Taylor
- Roland's mother
- Patricia Belcher
- Mrs Hughes
- Cynthia Martells
- Mike's mother
- Wyking Jones
- Geoffrey Blackshire
- cashiers in mini mart
- Jascha Washington
- Mike's brother
- Aiysha Sinclair
- Tracey
- Melvin Lyons
- gang member
- Samuel Hiona
- cashier in mini mart 1986
- Antwon Tanner
- Boo
- John Wesley
- Oscar Dillon
- police officers
- Tia Gainer
- girl at dance
- Howard Thompson
- DJ at dance
- Douglas Shamburger
- DJ on radio
- Brandi Wilson
- Christina Milian
- girls at dance
- Dawnn Lewis
- woman in cleaners
- Crystal Grant
- girl with Slim
- La'Myia Good
- Monica
- Alecia Smith
- girl with Roland
- Kongit Farrell
- girl with Slim
- Stacey Arnell
- woman with Stacey
- Telma Hopkins
- Slim's mother
- Basil Wallace
- Lisa's father
- Todd Boyd
- Reverend Parker
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Nubian Tales
- 9,600 feet
- 106 minutes 40 seconds
- Dolby digital
- Colour by
- DeLuxe