The Wood
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rick Famuyiwa
Produced by	Albert Berger, David Gale, Douglas Curtis, Momita Sengupta, Ron Yerxa, Todd Boyd, Van Toffler
Written by	Rick Famuyiwa Todd Boyd
Starring	Omar Epps Richard T. Jones Taye Diggs Sean Nelson Malinda Williams
Music by	Robert Hurst
Cinematography	Steven Bernstein
Editing by	John Carter
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	July 16, 1999
Running time	106 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
Budget	$6,000,000[1]
Gross revenue	$25,059,640

The Wood is a 1999 comedy/romance film, written by Rick Famuyiwa and Todd Boyd. Famuyiwa also directed the film, which stars Omar Epps, Richard T. Jones, and Taye Diggs.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Critical Reviews 4 Awards and nominations 5 Soundtrack 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

Mike (Omar Epps) tells the story of how he grew up in Inglewood, California (nicknamed "The Wood"), with best friends Roland (Taye Diggs), who is getting married and Slim (Richard T. Jones). The story reminisces back to Mike's (portrayed as a youth by Sean Nelson) first encounters with Roland (Trent Cameron) and Slim (Duane Finley), his first real crush on a girl named Alicia (Malinda Williams), and the three young men's misadventures as teenagers.

When Mike was younger he touched Alicia's buttocks, leading to a big fight with her big brother Stacey (De'Aundre Bonds). When Mike and Slim go find Roland for his wedding, they get a call from Tanya (Tamala Jones) saying that she has him with her and that he is very drunk. They get to her house to pick him up to take him back to the wedding to marry his bride Lisa (LisaRaye) because they only have two hours before the ceremony begins.

Back to their old school times, they go to their first dance of the year, go to a store the gets held up by Stacey and almost gets arrested by two cops while the three are riding in a car with Stacey. When they get back to the dance it is almost over and Mike gets to dance with Alicia and at the end of the dance he gets her number. In the meantime Roland gets sick, throws up and now they only have an hour left before the wedding and they have to get cleaned up, then they take their clothes to the cleaners. Mike returning back to their memories, they were now juniors in high school, thinking about sex, ways to get it and making a lot of bets. They finally make it to the ceremony to have Roland apologize to Lisa for leaving her worried before the wedding ceremony. Before the ceremony begins Mike sees Alicia (Sanaa Lathan) his childhood crush, and finally Roland and Lisa get married. Mike tells his last childhood memory, and its when they go to a homecoming dance for their school and that they will be the boys from "The Wood".

[edit] Cast

• Omar Epps as Mike, and he tells the story about how he and his friends grew up together in “The Wood”.

• Richard T. Jones as Slim, he and Mike helps Roland get back to the ceremony to get married.

• Taye Diggs as Roland, he is supposed to get married and has second thoughts about it and is found drunk by his two best friends.

• Sanaa Lathan as Alicia, an old childhood friend that grew up and came back to see Mike.

• LisaRaye McCoy as Lisa, a bride getting ready to marry Roland, and gets upset about his disappearance.

• Sean Nelson as young Mike ,is new from North Carolina, and just moved to Inglewood at a new school and became friends with Roland and Slim.

• Duane Finley as young Slim , raised up in “The Wood” best friends with Roland growing up and then meeting the new kid on the block Mike. He was always asking for Roland to hook him up.

• Trent Cameron as young Roland, he is hip, fresh, and cool, gets all the ladies, and he gets no play most of the time.

• Malinda Williams as young Alicia, she was hardcore, but sweet and in time she began to like Mike.

• De'Aundre Bonds as Stacey, and is Alicia's big brother that takes up for her when she is younger. He also is in a gang and reps with set called “Bloods”.

[edit] Critical Reviews

Critical Consensus Critics Reviews Average Grade: B- culturevulture.net, "...there is substance given to the characters' lives." more... B- Nitrate Online, Cynthia Fuchs "...involves basic boy-bonding." more... C+ Orlando Weekly, Philip Booth "...a coming-of-age tale that's only occasionally too sweet." more... B- ReelViews, James Berardinelli "...a pleasant but relatively inconsequential movie..." more... B- More Critics Reviews...

[edit] Awards and nominations

2000 Black Reel Awards

• Best Actor (Theatrical) — Sean Nelson (nominated)
• Best Actress (Theatrical) — Malinda Williams (nominated)
• Best Director (Theatrical) — Rick Famuyiwa (nominated)
• Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted) — Rick Famuyiwa, Todd Boyd (nominated)

2000 NAACP Image Awards

• Outstanding Motion Picture (nominated)

2001 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards

• Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures — Joe, Jolyon Skinner: I Wanna Know (winner)

[edit] Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released on July 13, 1999 by Jive Records featuring rap and R&B music. The soundtrack found great success, peaking at #16 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and was certified gold by the RIAA on August 25, 1999.

[edit] References

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800019704/info

[edit] External links

• The Wood at Allmovie
• The Wood at the Internet Movie Database
• The Wood at Rotten Tomatoes

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