Menace II Society (25th Anniversary Screening)

Presented in collaboration with the Queens Hip Hop Festival

Dirs. Allen and Albert Hughes. 1993, 97 mins. 35mm. With Tyrin Turner, Samuel L. Jackson, Larenz Tate, Jada Pinkett Smith, Charles Dutton. Immersed in poverty and violence in the Los Angeles projects, eighteen-year-old Caine Lawson (Turner) wants a different kind of life. With the help of a mentoring teacher (Dutton) and his supportive girlfriend (Pinkett Smith), Caine plans to leave the neighborhood for good. But thanks to a series of escalating and tragic events, he is caught in a deepening moral trap defined by loyalty and retribution, making escape seem more and more elusive. The first film from The Hughes Brothers, Menace II Society was a sensation at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and remains an uncompromising and revelatory touchstone of 1990s American independent cinema.

“Fierce, violent, and searing in its observation, the film makes previous excursions seem like a stroll through the park.”—Leonard Klady, Variety.

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for children under 3 and Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum (see gallery hours). View the Museum’s ticketing policy here. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.