I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but generational self-righteousness has once more intruded into our public consciousness. I love how seriously these two comedies take that perspective. Possibly the scriptwriter had spent too much time under California’s notoriously harsh laws.īoth here and in Friday Ice Cube’s character spends a good amount of time being lectured by his elders on how Kids Today don’t know how to act, don’t have respect for the eternal verities, e.g.

There’s a subplot about a stolen ATM and an ex(ish)-criminal kid considering the straight life, the climax of which relies on Illinois having a three-strikes law, something I don’t think it ever actually enacted. And Ice Cube is at the center of it all, making every line and situation feel completely real and lived-in. Cedric the Entertainer is masterful as Eddie, a trolly oldhead Eve is fantastic as Teri, a tough chick with a soft heart Keith David is a slithering, purring, glinting villain, a fancy lowlife who wants to buy the barbershop and turn it into a strip club.

Over the course of a long day he learns the true meaning of the barbershop as a place where the community (black men especially, but not exclusively) can feel truly at home and free. A married man with a baby on the way would rather chase get-rich-quick schemes than try to save the failing barbershop his father left him. Visit Season Finale: Eric Charles May and Donna Seaman.Barbershop is just so much fun. Your browser does not support inline iframes. Bedrock Faith, the 2021 One Book, One Chicago selection, is his first novel. In addition to his Post reporting, his nonfiction has appeared in Sport Literate, the Chicago Tribune, and the personal essay anthology Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck. A Chicago native and former reporter for the Washington Post, his fiction has appeared in the magazines Fish Stories, F, and Criminal Class. Eric Charles May, author of Bedrock Faith, joins Booklist Editor Donna Seaman for a conversation about his writing, the book, and Chicago as a character.Įric Charles May is an associate professor in the Fiction Writing program at Columbia College Chicago. Celebrate the season finale of One Book, One Chicago’s 20th year with a very special conversation.

Bedrock faith by eric charles may