Angela Bassett

Reva Styles has less room to be complicated than the young men around her, but Angela Bassett makes her conviction count. In John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood (1991), she gives us reason to want more of someone the writing keeps too narrowly defined. We were frustrated by that restriction, because Bassett makes Reva worth listening to. The film earns its feeling, and its concentration on fathers and sons makes sense. It also establishes a recurring frustration with Bassett's work: the part can be much less interesting than the actor.

Her early film roles were soon followed by the chance to carry a film. After playing Betty Shabazz in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992), she took the lead as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). That breakthrough involved intensive physical and vocal preparation. The work matters because her Turner has dignity without seeming untouched by the hardship she endures.

As Ramonda in Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Bassett brings feeling to a figure whose authority might otherwise be enough to get the job done. The sequel gives her a larger part, and the emotional weight justifies it. Still, authority alone is too small an assignment for her.

Boyz n the Hood remains a useful place to see both her value and the limits of casting her well. Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube are rightly central to our enthusiasm for the film, but its women deserve fuller lives. That imbalance cannot be solved by asking an actor to be more forceful. We want scripts that let Bassett be uncertain, difficult or wrong, as readily as they ask her to be resilient. Start with Singleton's film, and notice who we are still wishing had been given another scene.