
John Singleton, a director who grew up in South Central Los Angeles and graduated from USC film school, was known for authentically portraying the lives of young Black people – a perspective rarely seen in mainstream cinema before his work. He was also a versatile filmmaker, skillfully incorporating elements from various genres like road movies (as seen in Poetic Justice), westerns (Rosewood), blaxploitation films (Shaft), and thrillers (Abduction). Though he tragically passed away seven years ago at the age of 51, his impact on film endures. This week, three of his most celebrated films – Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice, and Baby Boy – are being added to the Criterion Collection as his ‘Hood Trilogy,’ making it a fitting time to consider his complete filmography and how his nine features stack up against each other.