I was uncomfortable with the way that this film portrays female characters. Every female in the movie, from 14 year girls on up to 50 year old women, is portrayed one-dimensionally as a predator preying on the film's starring gang of young teenage boys. I understand throwing in one or two characters like this perhaps to make some kind of point about the way that teenage girls have internalized their own intense sexualization by contemporary society, but ALL of the female characters? I found this very problematic and sad for young women especially. It gave me the sense that the movie was turning these boys into victim heroes at the expense of women (along with all the other race and class forces arrayed against the boys). I am sure that the girls growing up in the South Central neighborhood where these boys hail from are going through as many or more struggles as the boys. A truly "authentic portrayal" will represent that, instead of portraying women of all classes as predatory, promiscuous creatures without any other facets to their characters.
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