Joe's Bed Stuy Barbershop, which you can see (for now) thanks to the wonder of youtube, is imperfect yet surely one of the most assured "student" films of its time. Really, there are quotes around "student" as, simply put, I am sure if one watches this not knowing it was the Thesis project of the one and only Spike Lee (the first "Joint" and already a 40 Acres and a Mule production), like if it aired in some Independent art house theater, I doubt many would question it as a legitimate (albeit low budget) gritty crime drama production.
It's a slim slice of Neo-Noir about Zachariah Homer, average guy working as a barber who gets under the thumb of a downright and *very* cool as a cucumber kind of gangster (Tommy Redmond, a different role by a mile than what he'd do for Lee a few years later in She's Gotta Have It but no less engaging, overcoming a clichéd personality through downplaying it all), and how easily people can be corrupted by the promise of protection and money.
I'd almost say you wouldnt feel crazy to call it a failed TV pilot given the length. My first impression is to say this simply has... swagger - and Lee and Dickerson know how to make the Brooklyn streets overloaded with personality and grit and vivacity. While you can't necessarily overlook some of the scenes that feel a little less substantial - the 2nd tier story with the social worker who frets and tells her man to not get involved with the Numbers, and I wonder if this would have benefitted from black and white stock over color - there's so much that is naturally involving because of Lee's attention and emphasis on memorable attitude, a community in flux, but not in a direction that is too self consciously cool, if that makes sense.
In brief, a strong, modest example of style and substance coming together, and of course it helps more than a bit that Lee has his exceptional father on the score.
