John Singleton: The first director that mattered to me.

My movie fandom kind of grew in stages. Movies were there for me when I was a kid, largely as a background thing, but it wasn't until around 92 that they started to become a major thing in my life.

Then that fandom exploded throughout the middle of the decade. There were plenty of movies responsible for this, plenty of actors and actresses, and a few directors...none more instrumental during this time than John Singleton.

He was the first director who mattered to me. The first director whose name on a film got me excited for that film.

Obviously Boyz N The Hood is iconic. It was a huge hit, it kind of kicked off a string of black-centered films(many of which were also faves of mine at the time), it got Singleton an Oscar nod, it kicked off a bunch of careers. It is unquestionably one of the films of the decade.

I saw it close to a year after it came out, and it was instantly one of my favorites.

Then when his follow up Poetic Justice was coming out, knowing it was his film was what had me excited for it. That film I loved even more. It was probably my favorite movie at that time.

Then I was REALLY obsessed with his next film Higher Learning. It was absolutely my favorite movie. I saw it 5 times in theaters, and this was back before I could drive or even see an R rated movie by myself. Then I watched it over and over on this thing called VHS.

I'm not sure he ever quite hit those peaks again, but after that he made two more absolute classics(Rosewood and Baby Boy), and the great Shaft reboot(the new one coming out doesn't look like it'll come close in quality).

Baby Boy in 2001 was his last real classic. After that he went a little more director for hire. He did 2 Fast 2 Furious, which wasn't bad but was kind of beneath him. I wish he had gotten back into the series once the studio gave a damn about the franchise. And he did Four Brothers, which was a solid movie but also well short of his past work.

He basically just did more producing and TV stuff. The last actual movie he made was that silly Taylor Lautner action movie Abduction, way back in 2011. It's a shame his career went so quiet. He deserved to be up there with the big names, not just black filmmakers, but all of them.

I hope his films get more notice. He seriously made 4 of the most underrated films of all time(Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Rosewood, Baby Boy...no awards, not big hits, not critical darlings). And these films all hold up.