25th Hour

In the wake of 9/11 New York City, a thoughtful and personable coke dealer (Edward Norton) sits along the river with his recently rescued pup and ponders his last day of freedom and the limited choices they present as he must report to prison the following day. In the meantime, he ties up loose ends with his alcoholic father (Brian Cox) and loving but suspicious girlfriend (Rosario Dawson) and catches up with loyal but troubled childhood pals (Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman). From a novel and screenplay by David Benioff, Spike Lee’s 25^th Hour is an operatic, involving, and powerfully acted work with Norton giving one of his finest performances and a noted, central “mirror” sequence a particular highlight. As for the detractions, Dawson seems out of her league amongst the other players and Cox’s narrative fantasy finale is way too much.

*** ½ out ****

She's Gotta Have It

An individualistic female feebly attempts to balance her love life consisting of three disparate, possessive suitors. Spike Lee's black and white debut feature feels free and breezy for awhile, but grows tiresome and ultimately resembles little more than an early Jarmusch knockoff. It's occasionally funny, with dialogue that leaves a lot to be desired spoken by inept though appealing performers (aside from Lee himself who would have been better off casting someone else). The film is interjected with too many stupid interludes, including a jarring color dance sequence, which indicates there wasn't enough material for a feature, and the material probably would have worked better as a short anyhow.

** 1/2 out of *****

Summer of Sam

As David Berkowitz targets brunettes throughout the New York boroughs in the sweltering summer of ’77, a Bronx neighborhood is whipped into a frenzy and mob rule begins to reign while a hairdresser (John Leguizamo) believing he was marginally spared from the killings begins experiencing guilt over his own infidelities while a friend (Adrian Brody) who has recently adopted a punk lifestyle becomes a target. With Summer of Sam Spike Lee tries to accomplish way too much, all the while saying and exploring very little in an overlong hodgepodge. The film works best when played in minor key, as a slice of life picture, the kind of area where Lee excels Best. Leguizamo is a standout in a large cast.

** 1/2 out of ****

Chi-Raq

After another child is killed by a stray bullet in the onslaught of gun violence in Chicago, a local women's group encourages females the city over to withhold sex from their counterparts until the gang warfare has subsided. A modern updating of Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata, Spike Lee's Chi-Raq is all over the map and wrought in the worst ways, approaching so bad its good territory which is made all the more insufferable by its good intentions and unrealistic aims. Angela Bassett and John Cusack are strong in support.

* 1/2 out of ****

He Got Game

A prisoner (Denzel Washington) currently serving out a manslaughter rap for the accidental death of his wife is given a proposal from the warden: during a week's furlough, convince his estranged son (Ray Allen), the nation's top recruiting hoops prospect, to sign with the governor's favorite college and earn himself an early parole. He Got Game is overlong, obvious, and made with the same explicit racism that mars many of Spike Lee's films. The movie tries to cover too much thematically without conveying much of anything, Allen, at the time a sensation with the Milwaukee Bucks, is an impossibly bad actor, and the ending is anticlimactic. In its defense, the picture is well filmed with several powerful scenes and the Aaron Copland soundtrack is a really nice touch.  Also, it contains what I personally found to be one of the truly fine and nuanced performances from Washington's career.

** 1/2 out of ****

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

A black anthropologist summering on Martha's Vineyard rescues a visitor from suicide, but becomes fascinated, and quickly possessed, by the ancient artifact brought to him by his friend. Soon, he is drinking blood and romanticizing his mate's estranged wife. Spike Lee's Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is pious, pretentious (daresay prejudiced) dreck, not too mention boring and woefully acted with a dreadful Bruce Horsnby score and a gnawing soundtrack to boot. The film is a remake of a 1973 Bill Gunn blaxploitation Ganja and Hess, unseen by me, so I can't measure up the two, but I can wish that instead of pursuing woeful remakes (while making fans pay his films production cost at that) Spike returns to the well, in which their is considerable substance, and finds another way to remember how to make a quality movie.

1/2 * out of ****

Do the Right Thing

On the hottest day of the year, racial tensions boil over in the predominantly black Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood with Sal's, the Italian owned pizzeria, serving as the epicenter of the conflagration. Spike Lee's heralded and controversial film is thought provoking, generally well made, self-indulgent, and with its exaggerated performances and hyper-stylized treatment, had probably dated the day after its release. It features Ernest Dickerson's excellent photography and fine performances from Danny Aiello and Ossie Davis. With Do the Right Thing, there are so many conflicting ideologies on hand and Lee and many of his supporters would have you believe he paints a completely fair and honest picture, but I can't see how its deliberately inflammatory finale, which has divided audiences to this day, can be seen as anything besides a call to violence, and senseless violence at that.

*** out of ****

Clockers

A crack peddler (Mekhi Phifer) operating out of a Brooklyn Housing Project no longer has the stomach for the life but is torn due to loyalty towards the menacing drug lord/father father (Delroy Lindo) who oversees his operation. When he becomes a suspect in a murder investigation that also targets his straight laced brother (Isaiah Washington), he doesn't know whether to trust the homicide detective (Harvey Keitel) who seems to show a genuine concern for his well being. From a novel and screenplay by Richard Price, Spike Lee's Clockers is an intelligent, rollicking, thought provoking film which unravels just slightly towards the end but is still a full blooded original (which makes you question its absence from recent movie conversations). Phifer throws himself into the lead role, which makes it excusable when he occasionally struggles to hit the right notes, Keitel turns in one of his finest performances and Lindo is potent and absolutely petrifying in a great turn.

Red Hook Summer

A single mother from suburban Atlanta drops her preadolescent son off at her estranged father's (Clarke Peters) sparse Brooklyn apartment where the young lad is forced to surrender his iPad and other middle class possessions and contend with the sermonizing of his ministerial grandfather. Red Hook Summer is a personal and probably somewhat autobiographical film from Spike Lee, who was given assistance on the screenplay by James McBride, which seems like it intended to capture the spirit of his earlier films (Lee's Mookie from Do the Right Thing even shows up sporadically to deliver pizza). I enjoyed some of how it was filmed, the unique color hues are appealing, but the film is so matter of fact and and the acting so amateurish (aside from Peters, who excels) that it is hard to take everything at face value. There is also a major revelation followed by a complete tonal shift which doesn't help matters either. 

Inside Man

A wily bank robber has concocted the perfect heist and always seems to be one step ahead of the NYPD. With a scandalized detective trying to get a handle on the situation, a tangential development foments involving a power broker and the seemingly magnanimous owner of the bank. Spike Lee's "Inside Man" is a flavorful tribute to his hometown that contains many references to great and gritty New York films. The film is energetic and engaging and moves at a brisk pace even though it does tend towards overlength. Clive Owen is excellent as the clever criminal but I found Denzel Washington's character to be obnoxious and totally useless to the plot's resolve, even though the filmmakers wish you to believe otherwise. Also, it seems unwise to cast Jodie Foster as the power broker who brings little to the part and Christopher Plummer, though effective, is playing his stock character as the head of the bank. "Inside Man" succeeds as a bank heist/cop flick on the most basic level but never does anything to soar to the levels of the films it emulates such as "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Serpico".