The Life of Singleton: From Boyz N The Hood to Snowfall by Thomas Golianopoulos
Many thanks to Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley for sending me
an advanced copy of Thomas Golianopoulos’s meticulously researched critical
biography/filmography of the late John Singleton titled The Life of
Singleton: From Boyz N The Hood to Snowfall. I was incredibly excited to
find this book since I grew up with Singleton’s films being an important part
of my life, and Singleton was included in another recent book on young
filmmakers of the 90s titled Generation Tarantino by Andrew Rausch.
Rausch’s book was a great overview of the changes that were evident in the 90s cinematic
scene, but the chapter on Singleton primarily examines his 90s output (Boyz,
Poetic Justice, Rosewood, Higher Learning) and doesn’t really delve into
his personal life the way that Golianopoulos’s book does. Golianopoulos
deserves much praise for researching and crafting an interesting and critical
study of Singleton’s films, as well as the various factors that influenced his
films. We learn about Singleton’s early appreciation for films, growing up in
South Central Los Angeles in the 70s and 80s, and how his internships on sets
like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and The Arsenio Hall Show influenced his
treatment of cast and crews and introduced him to future collaborators like
Lawrence Fishburne and Ice Cube. As Golianopoulos notes, Singleton was both a titan
of film and a complicated man, and because this is an unauthorized biography, readers
learn more about Singleton’s personal life and relationships, which I found to
be incredibly fascinating in this book. Nevertheless, it’s also amazing that
there haven’t been more critical retrospectives on Singleton’s work since he
was the youngest and first Black director nominated for an academy award nearly
35 years ago! Although his subsequent films never attained the same kind of
critical response that Boyz did, Golianopoulos shows that Singleton’s
persistence and vision to bring compelling and meaningful Black stories to the screen
demonstrate the significance of Singleton’s filmography.
Golianopoulos organizes the chapters with Singleton’s films,
with chapters focused on films he worked on from Boyz to Poetic
Justice, with the earliest chapters focusing on Singleton’s life before
filmmaking. It was great to read about his experiences growing up as a film lover
and eventually gaining acceptance to USC’s famed filmmaking program. However, I
found the film chapters to be much more engaging, as Golianopoulos provided key
details about the development and production of each film, focusing on how
Singleton developed ideas, found actors to work with, and eventually sought out
funding from studios for his projects. Singleton famously insisted on being the
director for Boyz, despite having no experience and being straight out
of USC. His success with the film led the studio to provide him with nearly anything
he wanted for his follow-up. It’s crazy to think that Poetic Justice was
even made, featuring two superstars of music, Janet Jackson and Tupac, as well
as other luminaries including Maya Angelou and Regina King. Golianopoulos
examines some of the issues that plagued the development of this film, including
many of Singleton’s supporters noting that he was trying to write a film told
from a woman’s perspective as a young man with limited experience. Although Poetic
Justice didn’t achieve the same critical success as Boyz, it has
still been recognized as an important film from the 90s, and it emphasizes
Singleton’s attempts to move Black narratives out of genre pictures and into more
mainstream dramas. What I found particularly interesting about these chapters
was the development and eventual falling out of Singleton’s friendship with
Tupac, whom he claimed would be DeNiro to his Scorsese. It was fascinating to
learn more about how Singleton and Tupac viewed each other as beneficiaries of
their success, with Singleton encouraging Tupac to stop rapping and stick to
acting. As Golianopoulos reports, Tupac’s continued development of the Bishop-thug
life persona caused issues on the set of Poetic Justice and seemed to
have distanced him from Singleton. It’s a shame to think about what could have
been an incredible director-actor combo.
Other chapters detail similar challenges and difficulties
with productions with many of them coming from Singleton himself. However, Golianopoulos
also notes how as Singleton’s reputation worsened and his box office returns
decreased, studios ended up putting more and more restrictions on his work.
These kinds of limitations also made productions more challenging and led to
limitations in the scripts and films he was able to move ahead. I actually didn’t
even realize that he directed the second entry to The Fast and the Furious
films, which at the time was one of the highest grossing films of the year and
Singleton’s highest grossing film of his career. It was interesting to learn,
though, that many of Singleton’s closest friends wondered about why he chose to
work on this film, since it didn’t really match up with the previous stories
that he brought to big screens. Furthermore, the success of 2 Fast 2 Furious
didn’t seem to bring him any new large budget films. I loved reading about the
proposed film projects that Singleton either was attached to or couldn’t get
made; it was interesting to think about the different bigger budget stories
that Singleton tried to make, including a Black Panther film due to his
love of comic books that pre-dated the current Marvel craze by nearly 20 years.
There were other projects with Will Smith and Wesley Snipes that never got off
the ground, but were interesting to think about what could have been.
Singleton found more success with two excellent films from
the early 2000s Hustle and Flow, which he produced, and Four Brothers,
which he directed. I actually remember seeing these films in the theater
and loving them. Both films were gritty throwbacks that seemed out of place for
the more popular films of the time, yet totally entertaining for someone
looking for a unique voice in film. Although maybe not as symbolic as Boyz,
both films examine underdogs or those individuals living at the margins of
society who seek to challenge the more dominant systems and find their voices
and places by taking power back. Golianopoulos continually references the
importance of Kurosawa for Singleton’s films, and I can see how some of these
films represent that kind of post-war Kurosawa that show how marginalized people
have to fight and scrape along to survive. Although Singleton did find further
success with some of his later films, he was still in his 30s when these films
were made, which is crazy to think about. Compared to some other filmmakers, he
was still relatively young, Golianopoulos notes how some of his personal life
may have taken a toll on his health. For one, Singleton loved women, often to a
fault. Golianopoulos interviewed many of the women Singleton was involved with
and who were mothers to his children. Although Singleton tried to care for his
children, Golianopoulos explains that as a director trying to get films
produced and work long hours on the set, Singleton didn’t always have the time
to take care of his kids. I thought that Golianopoulos provides a fair balance,
noting the different ways that Singleton attempted to keep involved in his kids’
lives, but also noting the strain he had with their mothers and how his busy
work schedule often prevented him from being more involved in their daily
activities.
As Singleton looks to capitalize on the success of these films,
he only had one other film directed after Four Brothers, Abduction,
which seemingly ended his film career. However, this failure led to Singleton’s
third act as a television creator and director. I loved learning more about his
involvement with Snowfall, a show that I regularly watched and waited
for the weekly episodes to drop. I actually ended up watching the first season about
6 months after it started, but I absolutely loved it, and I couldn’t believe
that Singleton directed some of the earliest episodes. It kind of felt like it
was a prequel to Boyz, identifying some of the possible events that led to
the gang affiliations shown in Boyz. Despite achieving success with this
show, Singleton’s health and homelife continued to deteriorate. He had numerous
girlfriends, and with social media, it seemed that many of them were in contact
with each other. It also seemed that because Singleton relied on his vision and
stamina as a director, he was a little less likely to check up on his health
and acknowledge the kinds of vision and cardiovascular problems he was
experiencing. Singleton eventually experienced a stroke in 2019, was put in a medically
induced coma, and died a few days later. I actually remember being upset about Singleton’s
passing and wondering what would happen to Snowfall. I also couldn’t
believe that Singleton was only 51 when he died. Golianopoulos notes that during
his final years, many of Singleton’s friends and colleagues noted how unhealthy
he looked. Yet he continued to work, compelled to tell Black meaningful and
significant Black stories.
Golianopoulos has written an important book that details the
life and legacy of one of the most important directors of the last 35 years. Although
Singleton’s film legacy is well-established, Golianopoulos also reports on his
more complicated personal life. Singleton’s life was interesting, but also
incredibly complicated. Golianopoulos does note at the end of the book some of
the complexities he encountered while working on this book, struggling with “the
responsibilities that accompanied writing a book like this on a titan like
Singleton.” He notes that Singleton has
an awe-inspiring life story, and an astonishing drive, yet he was flawed. This
book is a great balance of these aspects of Singleton’s life. Nevertheless, Golianopoulos
notes these aspects in the acknowledgements at the end of the book. He also
notes that this biography is unauthorized but also features reporting from nearly
four hundred interviews. I wish that this note was at the beginning of the book
to further explain the writing process. Many of the quotes and dialogue from
Singleton’s conversations were specific, and I wondered whether these were
accurate quotes or from memory. It wasn’t always clear. Interestingly, one of
the more prominent voices in the book was Brett Ratner, who has faced his own
personal challenges as a director. I was curious to think about what Singleton
would have thought about Ratner’s latest film project for Amazon. Golianopoulos’s
reporting is engaging and entertaining. It kept me reading, especially as
Singleton’s career continues to take off in the film industry and his personal
life becomes even more complicated. Regardless, this was a great book on one of
the most important directors of the last 35 years. This is a great book for
fans of film and popular culture, and I hope that it leads to more critical
evaluations of Singleton’s work. Highly recommended.
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