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Juice (1992)
An hour before Juice turns into a DJ battle and melodrama of Shakespearean stakes, four teenagers start their day.
The bedside vantage is no thoughtless maneuver from writer/director Ernest Dickerson (perhaps best known as Spike Lee’s cinematographer). We meet Quincy, Roland, Raheem and Steel via a clear reminder that they’re barely out of childhood.
Among these, no character introduction is more striking than that of Roland (Tupac Shakur). While his friends all have parents who double as alarm clocks, he finds and gently greets his grandma in the kitchen, standing like a child who just woke up from a nightmare.
It’s easy to lose that moment in the live-wire—and often unhinged—Tupac performance that follows, as Roland becomes hell-bent on acquiring street cred through brutality. But it shows the range that the iconic West Coast emcee cultivated in his mere half dozen film roles.
He could play the borderline suicidal stick-up artist who could also convincingly crack up a friend group and then, in private moments, affect the innocent body posture of a kid who’s barely begun to be haunted.
Juice plays May 18 at Hollywood Theatre.
Also Playing:
5th Avenue: Strike (1924), May 15–17. Academy: Drive (2011), Angel’s Egg (1985), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), May 15–21. Cinemagic: Uncle Buck (1989), May 13. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), May 13. Sixteen Candles (1984), May 14. Drive (2011), May 14. Pusher (1996), May 15 and 18. Pusher II (2004), May 19. Cinema 21: Nights of Cabiria (1957), May 16. Clinton Street: AOOM (1970), May 13. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part1 (2011), May 14. The Exterminating Angel (1962), May 15. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), May 16. The Abomination (1988), May 18. Flaming Creatures (1963), May 19. Cult Classics: Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988), May 17. Hollywood: 3 Faces (2018), May 14. Hausu (1977), May 14. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), May 15. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), May 15–21. Nekromantik (1988) and Nekromantik 2 (1991) double feature, May 16. Double Indemnity (1944), May 16 and 17. Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973), May 19. Mission: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), May 15. Tomorrow: The Wicker Man (1973), May 15. My Neighbor Totoro (1988), May 16. Clueless (1995), May 17. Fancy Dance (1989), May 17.
