There's no such thing as an easy out, or an honest answer, for the children of LA's low-income housing projects. Particularly so in the early 90s, while the embers of the city's race riots still simmered and gang violence reached new levels with every passing day.

_Menace_ doesn't flinch from any of that, depicting a tight-knit crew of conflicted teenagers that's neither heroic nor villainous. These are just kids, albeit kids with access to guns and ski masks, trying to sort out their place in society before the city rips them to pieces. They make bad decisions, as teens are wont to do, but also get caught in the crossfire of forces well beyond their control. Their daily lives are a whirling vortex of drugs, hormones, social influence and class warfare. No wonder they're so confused and cavalier, quick to resort to spontaneous violence. They're frustrated and overlooked, with a lack of guidance and compassion in their lives. Everybody's out to take what's theirs, so they either play the same game or go home empty handed. We can show compassion over the circumstances that produced them without celebrating the casualties of their noisy, adolescent snarls.

That message rings loud and true throughout the film's all-too-brief ninety-odd minutes. It's a boldly honest moment in time, a document of the sources behind such complicated injustice. Some of the acting performances might be wooden and recited, the independent-level production values occasionally transparent, but the raw emotion and brutal honesty is fair compensation. This one’s gonna make you think.