Critic Reviews

An across-the-board delight featuring a spot-on ensemble cast that treats the most awkward and embarrassing moments in the rites of passage with affectionate hilarity.

Famuyiwa's dialogue is easygoing and witty, and the warmhearted comic performances mesh beautifully.

A genial story of friendship among three young African-American men that gets far on charm even when the cinema technique falters and stalls.

Feels a little uncertain, as if it's moving from present to past under the demands of a screenplay rather than because it really feels that way. But the growing-up stuff is kind of wonderful.

Exists as a seldom represented American time capsule, and it's all good.

There's charm and insight in the candid depictions of the teenagers' sexual experiences and discussions.

A diverting but uneven nostalgia trip.

A comic, loving, affectionate glimpse of the '80s, its music and fashions, and most of all at that hard-to-find thing called true friendship.

It's an engaging recollection that's more sweet than bittersweet, tempered by an eagerness to please that pulls us into its remembrances of things past.

Tilting between a teen sex comedy and a more sensitive tale about male bonding, The Wood is too anxious to please to quite make up its mind what it is.