Wood Prices

A mere three hours before he's scheduled to walk down the aisle, Roland (Taye Diggs--the man who helped Stella reclaim her groove) gets cold feet. Now it's up to his best buddies Slim (Richard T. Jones) and Mike (Omar Epps) to ease his pre-nuptial jitters and get him to the church on time--a task that inspires a trip down memory lane to their coming-of-age days in "The Wood" (Inglewood, California) during the 1980s.

A mere three hours before he's scheduled to walk down the aisle, Roland (Taye Diggs--the man who helped Stella reclaim her groove) gets cold feet. Now it's up to his best buddies Slim (Richard T. Jones) and Mike (Omar Epps) to ease his pre-nuptial jitters and get him to the church on time--a task that inspires a trip down memory lane to their coming-of-age days in "The Wood" (Inglewood, California) during the 1980s.

A mere three hours before he's scheduled to walk down the aisle Roland Taye Diggs--the man who helped Stella reclaim her groove gets cold feet. Now it's up to his best buddies Slim Richard T. Jones and Mike Omar Epps to ease his pre-nuptial jitters and get him to the church on time--a task that inspires a trip down memory lane to their coming-of-age days in "The Wood" Inglewood California during the 1980s.

It looks like writer-director Rick Famuyiwa started a popular trend with his marriage-jitters comedy about three friends who reminisce about their lives together as one prepares to leave the group when he gets married. Everyone who rushed to see The Best Man should catch this sleeper which also stars Taye Diggs (as Roland, the reluctant groom), as well as Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones, who together provide charming, cheerful performances full of warmth and humor. This buddy story is told through flashbacks to 1986, when the three met at public school. The young men gain our affection in their competition to win the most girls, which enhances the bond of loyalty we see in them as men on the eve of Roland's wedding. The casting of the boy actors is almost spooky in its perfection, especially Sean Nelson (who had already proven his acting acumen in American Buffalo) as the younger version of Epps. Although the cast is African American, there's no color bar to the themes or entertainment the movie offers, providing a salient lesson to network TV producers under attack by the NAACP for their inability to include characters of color in TV shows. Instead of stereotyping the characters by placing them in "the hood, " where gang members and tragedy rule, this life-affirming comedy depicts the lives of members of "the wood, " which refers to Inglewood, a middle-class suburb of L.A. that general audiences will find easy to relate to. --Lloyd Chesley

It looks like writer-director Rick Famuyiwa started a popular trend with his marriage-jitters comedy about three friends who reminisce about their lives together as one prepares to leave the group when he gets married. Everyone who rushed to see The Best Man should catch this sleeper which also stars Taye Diggs (as Roland, the reluctant groom), as well as Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones, who together provide charming, cheerful performances full of warmth and humor. This buddy story is told through flashbacks to 1986, when the three met at public school. The young men gain our affection in their competition to win the most girls, which enhances the bond of loyalty we see in them as men on the eve of Roland's wedding. The casting of the boy actors is almost spooky in its perfection, especially Sean Nelson (who had already proven his acting acumen in American Buffalo) as the younger version of Epps. Although the cast is African American, there's no color bar to the themes or entertainment the movie offers, providing a salient lesson to network TV producers under attack by the NAACP for their inability to include characters of color in TV shows. Instead of stereotyping the characters by placing them in "the hood, " where gang members and tragedy rule, this life-affirming comedy depicts the lives of members of "the wood, " which refers to Inglewood, a middle-class suburb of L.A. that general audiences will find easy to relate to. --Lloyd Chesley

It looks like writer-director Rick Famuyiwa started a popular trend with his marriage-jitters comedy about three friends who reminisce about their lives together as one prepares to leave the group when he gets married. Everyone who rushed to see The Best Man should catch this sleeper which also stars Taye Diggs (as Roland, the reluctant groom), as well as Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones, who together provide charming, cheerful performances full of warmth and humor. This buddy story is told through flashbacks to 1986, when the three met at public school. The young men gain our affection in their competition to win the most girls, which enhances the bond of loyalty we see in them as men on the eve of Roland's wedding. The casting of the boy actors is almost spooky in its perfection, especially Sean Nelson (who had already proven his acting acumen in American Buffalo) as the younger version of Epps. Although the cast is African American, there's no color bar to the themes or entertainment the movie offers, providing a salient lesson to network TV producers under attack by the NAACP for their inability to include characters of color in TV shows. Instead of stereotyping the characters by placing them in "the hood, " where gang members and tragedy rule, this life-affirming comedy depicts the lives of members of "the wood, " which refers to Inglewood, a middle-class suburb of L.A. that general audiences will find easy to relate to. --Lloyd Chesley

It looks like writer-director Rick Famuyiwa started a popular trend with his marriage-jitters comedy about three friends who reminisce about their lives together as one prepares to leave the group when he gets married. Everyone who rushed to see The Best Man should catch this sleeper which also stars Taye Diggs (as Roland, the reluctant groom), as well as Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones, who together provide charming, cheerful performances full of warmth and humor. This buddy story is told through flashbacks to 1986, when the three met at public school. The young men gain our affection in their competition to win the most girls, which enhances the bond of loyalty we see in them as men on the eve of Roland's wedding. The casting of the boy actors is almost spooky in its perfection, especially Sean Nelson (who had already proven his acting acumen in American Buffalo) as the younger version of Epps. Although the cast is African American, there's no color bar to the themes or entertainment the movie offers, providing a salient lesson to network TV producers under attack by the NAACP for their inability to include characters of color in TV shows. Instead of stereotyping the characters by placing them in "the hood, " where gang members and tragedy rule, this life-affirming comedy depicts the lives of members of "the wood, " which refers to Inglewood, a middle-class suburb of L.A. that general audiences will find easy to relate to. --Lloyd Chesley