JUICE (1991)

JUICE (R) The title of Ernest R. Dickerson's riveting, up-to-the-minute street drama refers to the pumped-up macho bravado that has come to define style and morality in the inner city. Juice, which is set in Harlem, is a kind of black B-movie Mean Streets about four youths coming of age in a war zone. The movie has a conventional melodramatic script, but Dickerson, who has served as cinematographer on all of Spike Lee's features, proves a born director. His movie lays bare how, in an era when America's inner cities have crumbled into physical and spiritual rubble, the consuming desire for dominion has begun to seep into every corner of people's lives. Tupac Shakur gives a startling performance as Bishop, who leads his crew in a holdup and discovers that murder makes him high. B+

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