Baby Boy
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: June 27, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
14
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
USA TodayMike Clark
An easy movie to pick apart, but it lives, breathes and switches moods from humor to despair better than any American release this year. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Now Singleton, too, dares to take a hard look at his community. His characters are a little older, and he is older, too, and less forgiving. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Jody's story is told with so much heart -- and his character is acted with such a winning combination of playfulness, vulnerability and sexual dynamism by Mr. Gibson -- that you can forgive the occasionally incoherent storytelling, the overwrought moments and the haphazard, unconvincing excursions into dream and fantasy. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Lacks the cumulative impact of "Boyz," since Singleton allows repetition and sermonizing to dull his theme about the infantilization of black males. But Baby Boy leaves you shaken. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Raunchy, provocative and often very funny. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Sometimes gets repetitive and is slightly overlong. But it's got solid performances. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
What holds the movie together, however, is Gibson's broodingly responsive performance. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Kicks off the Oedipus theme that gallops through the story. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A movie that will act like a smack in the face to some audiences, while others may simply laugh in recognition. Read full review
60
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
It's a feel-good movie that happens to have a lot of feel-bad in it. The gratuitous violence sucks, and the pat conclusion prompts one to shout don't believe the hope!. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The characters are so full-bodied and the feelings so raw and complex that I'd call this the best thing he's (Singleton) done to date. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
Rambling and conflicted as it is, it's one of the most entertaining African-American comedies of manners ever made. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
At once too neat and too messy, but films like this are too rare to leave it at that. Ragged but ambitious, it retains a core of genuine emotion -- this picture is doing the best it can, and although that may not be everything, it ought to count for something. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Superbly acted by everyone involved (Rhames does his best work since "Pulp Fiction"), the film is really more about character than plot, though frankly, at more than two hours, it could have used a bit more of the latter. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Singleton just may be challenging us to laugh at the film or with it and then feel extremely uneasy for doing so. If so, that's admirable; if not, he's made a very strange soap opera. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's more ambitious and passionate than thoughtful. Singleton is better at criticizing than understanding, and he leaves too many characters lacking a legitimate voice. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
It would have been enough that Singleton raise these difficult questions without trying to wrap them up, too, in the last five minutes. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Can be taken to task for its overt point-making, lackluster style and some late-on dramatic contrivances seemingly dragged in to provide a little violence. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
You may or may not like what you see, but there it is, indisputably, right in your face. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Despite the audience pandering -- not just in its violence, but in its wall-to-wall sexual vulgarity -- there are terrific elements in Baby Boy. Read full review
40
SalonMary Elizabeth Williams
Singleton's words are no fitting match for his visuals, and his metaphors are so heavy-handed -- they undermine the smart subtlety of the direction. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The movie makes an over-long deal about Jody's immaturity and never seems to get beyond it. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAmy Taubin
Pretty much a mess, but it also has a couple of long stretches that are extremely daring in that they reveal black family dynamics we've never seen on screen before. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A mistaken message is a price a filmmaker pays when he tries to load weighty themes like the cycle of violence on an overgrown boy who scoots around on a bicycle. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
Singleton has neither the emotional nor intellectual depth to do justice to his thesis. He is too in awe of the stereotypical hood lifestyles and macho posturings that he's trying to critique. Read full review
20
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
A preachy, monotonous failure hyped as a follow-up to his incendiary 1991 debut, "Boyz N the Hood."
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