SOURCE: Brunette, Peter. “Singleton's Street Noises.” Sight and Sound 1, no. 4 (August 1991): 13.

In the following essay, Brunette discusses Singleton's response to the positive and negative critical reaction to Boyz N the Hood.

Present at this year's Cannes festival for the world premiere of his first film, Boyz N the Hood, a sophisticated if somewhat preachy account of three young boys' violent coming of age in the black ghetto of South Central Los Angeles, twenty-three-year-old John Singleton is clearly enjoying the attention.

When I arrive for our scheduled interview, he is on his way back to his room. He suggests that we talk as we walk along the Croisette, Cannes' jam-packed main thoroughfare. We try this for about ninety seconds, and it's clearly not going to work. I propose instead that we reschedule with the publicist and he is instantly, genuinely grateful. Despite what the folks back home think, Cannes...