Name: Retro Film Review: Jason's Lyric (1994)
Item: Jason's Lyric
Rating: 60
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Originality is probably the most important characteristic of any filmmaker that aspires for greatness. Without it the films rely on formulas and cliches and start looking indistinguishable from each other. That happens even with the titles characterised by certain level of social and political consciousness, and the good example might be given by 1990s films that chronicled life of black youths in urban America and often looked too similar to John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood. In his 1994 debut Jason's Lyric director Doug McHenry tries somewhat different approach.

The plot of this movie is set in Houston's black neighbourhood and tells the story of two brothers. The older Jason (played by Allen Payne) is intelligent, and responsible hard-+ working young man who rejects promotion from his television repair shop only in order to take care of his mother Gloria (played by Suzzanne Douglass). The other person Jason takes care of is his younger brother Joshua (played by Bookeem Woodbine), whose life revolves around petty crime and substance abuse. Jason's life begins to change after he meets beautiful girl Lyric (played by Jada Pinkett) and starts romantic relationship with her. This opens new horizons for Jason and he begins to contemplate moving out of the ghetto and starting a new life. But the concern for his brother and memories of tragic childhood incident involving his drunken father Maddog (played by Forest Whitaker) is going to stop him until it is too late.

The most important thing about Jason's Lyric is the script by Bobby Smith Jr., which almost turns romance into major plot element. This is quite an interesting approach, especially for the often misogynist black ghetto sub-genre. Unfortunately, the idea to have romantic black ghetto film is compromised from the start, as soon as the character of Lyric becomes related to the all-too-familiar world of gangs, violence and local drug lords and the story ends in rather predictable way for this kind of movies. Another idea - to give some biblical overtones to the script via Cain vs. Abel story - is also compromised with the heavy-handed approach. However, the film is saved with excellent acting (especially great Forest Whitaker in small but significant role) and good direction. All in all, Jason's Lyric represents failed yet refreshing experiment that nevertheless can be seen as a decent film of its own.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on July 10th 2001)