House Party

An American comedy that takes place over one night. Kid is at high school. His father is raising him alone and is strict with him. There is a party that night. Play's parents are out of town and the house is empty. Kid is not allowed to go. He got into a fight at school and his father has grounded him. He goes anyway. From there the film runs across one night. A walk, a police car, a party, a dance contest and an escape. Three people are after him. The bullies from school are trying to find him and keep turning up through the night. Two policemen are circling as well. They stop young men in the neighbourhood for no reason, and the film shows this not as a joke but as it is. There are two girls at the party. A question of choice arises between Sidney and Sharane, and that is the narrative's second line. The dance is the centre. Kid and Play dance against each other and the scene is shot unbroken, in a wide frame. What the narrative is interested in is not the party but the neighbourhood: while describing a night out it also brings the police, class difference and home life into frame. The father's line is unexpectedly serious. He is angry but has a reason, and it opens in the last scene. The music is the spine. Hip hop records of the period play throughout, and the pair in the leads are a real recording duo. The source is a short the director made at university. Reginald Hudlin shot the same idea as a student short and the feature grew from it. Christopher Reid, Christopher Martin, Robin Harris and Martin Lawrence are in the cast. Reginald Hudlin wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes American youth comedy of the early 1990s and hip hop culture. Who it is not for: anyone looking for structure; the narrative moves in episodes and some of the jokes have aged.