JOHN SINGLETON GROWS UP AND RETURNS 'HOME'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Writer-director John Singleton returns to the vicinity of his first (some would say only) triumph, ``Boyz N the Hood,'' for his newest South Central opus, ``Baby Boy.''

It's one of the most impressive homecomings in movie history.

Singleton has not only matured greatly over the intervening decade, but he has, almost out of nowhere, developed a unique style and attitude of presenting relationship conflict. ``Baby Boy'' is a hilariously well- observed character comedy, yet practically every scene in it - between lovers, family members, friends, enemies and rivals - is issue-specific serious, sometimes deadly so.

Starting audaciously with a special-effects shot of a grown man still blissfully ensconced in his mother's womb, the film never gets out of your face with a down-and-dirty examination of its central theme: the price some young African-American men (and the women who love them) pay for deferring the responsibilities of maturity well into their adult lives. The cost presented here is wrackingly emotional, potentially violent (though gangsta brutality takes a backseat to psychic conflict here) and, refreshingly, being the butt of a seemingly unending parade of farcical embarrassment.

We first encounter 20-year-old Jody (singer-model-VJ Tyrese Gibson, making an astonishingly textured movie debut in an incredibly demanding role) as he sympathetically drives his ``baby mama'' Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) home from an abortion - then borrows her car to go have a liaison with Peanut (Tamara LaSeon Bass), the young mother of his other infant. By the time he arrives at the home of a slightly older, attractive woman, Juanita (A.J. Johnson), we've all but written off this jerk - until we learn that this is where Jody lives, and Juanita is his mother.

Mama's boy though her son is, Juanita would like nothing more than to see him move in with one of his girlfriends - and, while he's at it, get a job. When her new boyfriend, Melvin (a good-as-he's-ever-been Ving Rhames), a more-or-less reformed ex-convict, tries to impart gruff, fatherly advice (when he doesn't want to kill him) to the resentful Jody, home stops being the refuge from responsibility it once was.

Over a series of charged conversations with Yvette, Juanita, Melvin and his trouble-prone best friend Sweetpea (Omar Gooding), we discover that Jody is a fundamentally loving sort (to a fault), kind of interested in acting like a man (if clueless about the methodology) and genuinely in love with Yvette and his two children (despite his funny ways of showing it).

It takes an increasingly dire set of reversals - reduced to tooling around on a bicycle that the kids on his block can outrace, enduring the site of Melvin scrambling eggs naked, facing up to goofy-but-dangerous parolee Rodney (played well by rapper Snoop Dogg), who moves in on Yvette following his release - to stir Jody out of his chronic-smoking, model car- building lifestyle into something more like living.

This blockhead pilgrim's progress is often a scream, but the marvel of Singleton's approach is that every step of it rings witheringly true. The filmmaker also shrewdly sustains a commitment to make every character in the film strong-willed, sympathetic and ridiculous in his or her own unique way, in about equal measure. This is human comedy of a very high caliber.

Of course, some may not think it's so funny. The dialogue is raw, the sex is stirring (when it's not purposely going for comic outlandishness), and the treatment of women can be misinterpreted as misogynistic - although the film is ultimately an ode to responsible heterosexuality. But in a time when Hollywood is terrified of doing anything non-PG, let alone non-PC, the brash boldness of Singleton's presentation is a resounding testimonial to the glory of truly adult cinema.

One only wishes that ``Baby Boy'' had gone a little bit further by resolving a few pertinent, unanswered questions regarding Jody's coming- of-age. But that's a minor complaint about a movie that's, if you'll pardon the expression, fecund with insight, artistry and the courage to express it all in a most original manner.

``BABY BOY''

(Rated R: sex, nudity, violence, language, drug use)

The stars: Tyrese Gibson, Taraji P. Henson, A.J. Johnson, Ving Rhames, Omar Gooding, Snoop Dogg.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by John Singleton. Produced by Singleton and Dwight Williams. Released by Columbia Pictures.

Running time: Two hours, nine minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three and one half stars

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Girlfriend Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) is also one of the ``baby mamas'' of Jody (Tyrese Gibson) in John Singleton's ``Baby Boy.''