The Wood Critic Reviews

An across-the-board delight featuring a spot-on ensemble cast that treats the most awkward and embarrassing moments in the rites of passage with affectionate hilarity.Read the full review

Famuyiwa's dialogue is easygoing and witty, and the warmhearted comic performances mesh beautifully.Read the full review

Feels a little uncertain, as if it's moving from present to past under the demands of a screenplay rather than because it really feels that way. But the growing-up stuff is kind of wonderful.Read the full review

A genial story of friendship among three young African-American men that gets far on charm even when the cinema technique falters and stalls.Read the full review

A pleasant but relatively inconsequential movie.Read the full review

This rambling and episodic autobiographical saga of three friends coming of age in Inglewood, Calif. (aka The Wood) in the '80s is so determined to be likable that it forgets to be interesting.Read the full review

Despite the unforced humor and honesty in the performances of its young and talented cast, The Wood spends too much time wallowing in arrested adolescence to make you feel you've traveled anywhere.Read the full review

The picture, directed by Rick Famuyiwa, becomes a juggling act, contrasting the efforts of the three grown-up buddies to get to a wedding on time, with flashbacks of their youth.Read the full review