Review of Baby Boy (2001) by Mike M — 15 May 2009

With its late afternoon sunlight, laidback hip-hop beats, semi-improvised exchanges and supporting role for Snoop Dogg as the world's worst role model, "Baby Boy" is almost too leisurely to drive its points home; a tougher film might not have let its hero off the hook so easily.

Yet there's a quiet ambition and - yes - maturity here: you can forgive the film its occasional stumbles so long as it's sidestepping gangsta posturing to get at bigger social truths.