Gettin’ Lined Up

September 17, 2002

After getting nothing but good word of mouth for a weekend, I found myself checking out Barbershop, a great movie about a shop on the downside of Chicago. I’m not going to get too much into plot, because it’s not really important. I won’t even talk about how funny it is, although it is really, really funny.

The thing that struck me about Barbershop was how perfectly it captured the vibe of a neighborhood shop. All the characters seem like stereotypes at first, but they get filled out immediately with little excess. Every character seems like someone you know or once knew, or better yet, wish you knew. I’m sure the crew had a fun time filming, because that joy infects the film, and it’s hard not to crack a smile.

The film reminded me too much of growing up, of stoop conversations and killing time with neighborhood folks. I used to go to this barbershop, occasionally, over on Crenshaw and MLK, and I never once got my hair cut. I was there because my friend hung out there (it was downstairs from his mom’s shop). Guys would talk, play dominoes and a crazy dude would always bust in trying to sell something. And like clockwork, every Sunday morning at 11:00am, everyone, and I mean everyone, would stop dead and watch Soul Train on Channel 5 and stare at that one chick that was way finer than all the other ones on Soul Train. Yeah, you know the one. One time, we even busted a Soul Train line.

Man. I need a haircut.

Posted in Moving Pictures