The Wood

In this thoughtful but flat coming-of-age comedy-drama, Roland (Diggs) has gone AWOL with a bout of wedding day jitters. His oldest friends Mike (Epps) and Slim (Jones) are despatched to find him and deliver him up the aisle. In the ensuing tour of ex-girlfriends and old neighbourhood haunts, the best men get their man, prompting the three to reminisce about their middle class '80s adolescence in suburban Inglewood. The film's opening and the playground dare - a spot of bum pinching - which brings the three together don't bode well for the sexual politics, so it comes as something of a surprise to see the boys' scruples quietly putting paid to a wager as to who will lose his virginity first.