Oprah plays a mother watching her babies survive a war zone called home.
The devastating story of brothers Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers, children of the Chicago ghetto, is powerfully told here by a Wall Street Journal reporter who first met the boys in 1985 when they were 10 and 7, respectively. Their family includes a mother, a frequently absent father, an older brother, and younger triplets. We witness the horrors of growing up in an ill-maintained housing project tyrannized by drug gangs and where murders and shootings frequently occur.
Acting
Oprah's raw, restrained turn as LaJoe.
Writing
Alex Kotlowitz adaptation preserves documentary urgency.
Direction
Addison refuses to aestheticize suffering.
Director
Anita W. Addison
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Kotlowitz's 1991 book that forced national conversation on Henry Horner Homes; helped shape 90s 'poverty tour' journalism. SPOILER: FREE
Real Lafayette and Pharoah attended the premiere; Oprah quietly paid for their education afterward. SPOILER: LIGHT
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