Red Hook Summer

Red Hook Summer, was funny, thought provoking, tugged at your emotions, and made you think...Classic Spike! You felt a sense of nostalgia with the return of characters Mookie (Do the Right Thing) and Nola Darling (now Mother Darling - She's Gotta Have It). The use of colors was wonderful, as usual Spike and his director of photography has a way of bringing the viewer right into the scene both visually and emotionally. I felt like I was living in Red Hook. The third act of the film was one of the most powerful scenes I have viewed in a looooong time...particularly with films of color. The symbolism Spike used just gave me goose bumps. That makes me want to see this film at least another 3 times, just to study the genius of this filmmaker. The overall music used in this film by Judith Hill and Bruce Hornsby was light and warm - a perfect contrast to the set of the film taking place in the projects of Red Hook - where there's much "death" - I suppose that is the irony of life. There was of course a turn at the end, and the music became more hard hitting during the last scenes of the film - the combination of the visuals and the music REALLY brought me emotionally into the "disturbing situation", brought tears to my eyes. 10 stars! And "that's the truth, ruth!"

Gone are the days when Spike Lee "wants to shove blackness down the throats of white audiences" (the vein in which black filmmakers are viewed when they tell the truth in colors other than rose). Though his films are not seen,promoted or viewed with the same verve as his earlier work--like Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing--this has more to do with Hollywood politics more than a falling off in skill. In fact, Spike's finest work, in the eyes of this critic, have been his latest works including The 25th Hour, Chiraq.Old Boy and Miracle at St. Anna.

Red Hook Summer fits comfortably into that pack, Like the aforementioned films, it is more emotion-focused rather than characterized by keen cinematography. It is thought-provoking, rather than a release of anger, as his critics typically accuse him of.

The story centers on a teenage boy (Flik) and his relationship with his preacher grandfather,who hides a horrible secret. The subplot features his interaction with a young female friend--a "thing" centered more on curiosity than romance, and Flik's navigation of an unfamiliar hood far tougher than the one he comes from..

It is a compelling coming of age tale, featuring a wonderful performance by Toni Lysaith as Chazz, a girl unafraid to speak her mind and who is the only one who "gets" Flik. There is none of the syrupy, blossoming love that hamstrings so many other films, just exploration of the burgeoning friendship between two people, who in that simple process discover something different.

I caught this via On Demand and was glad I took a chance on it. Spike deserves better than he gets, and having to fund films via kick starter is definitely sand kicked in the face of one of the great filmmakers, black or white, of this generation.

A middle-class boy from Atlanta is forced to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather in a poor housing project in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Spike Lee wrote and directed this boring tale. This rambling tale gets very tiresome. Did Spike Lee turn anti-religion? The story turns even uglier with a twist that comes out of nowhere. I'm uncertain about what is happening to Spike Lee. After great successes in the 90s and the 2000s, is he on the road to big time experimentation? What is going on? I don't get it. This movie is a mess. Maybe it's some kind of personal project. But even then, I'd expect more skills than he's showing here.

Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer is a picture on par with his first major release, Do the Right Thing, from 1989, which rewarded him with mainstream attention and acclaim from critics and audiences who felt like they were punched in the face with the fist of raw honesty. Throughout his career, Lee has been dedicated to making films with black characters who collectively evade shallow stereotyping and on-set racism, but ones with true humanity and emotions seemingly bleeding from their cold, unhinged bodies.

If you haven't been properly acquainted with one film by Lee, Red Hook Summer is an efficient place to start, but one should wisely begin the adventure at Do the Right Thing, where his true vision and aptitude for writing and directing come into play. This is the closest thing we'll get to a sequel to that masterpiece and I'll take it with no quibbles. If anything. this is a return to form for Lee, who for years was centered on urban dramas with specific characters and a specific agenda. With this picture, he allows the capabilities and the talents of his actors, young and old, to grab the material and freely run with it, creating a fulfilling, spontaneous atmosphere showing not listlessness but an agenda determined to hit on several emotions and character studies. It may be a tad uneven, but it's a film that is so pleasantly written, wonderfully acted, and expertly placed and choreographed that one forgives these flaws and doesn't really notice them long after.

The story is slender, focusing on a young teenager named Flik, wonderfully portrayed by first-timer Jules Brown, who is forced to spend the summer with his grandfather named Enoch Rouse (Clarke Peters), a renowned bishop at the local church in Brooklyn, famous for his fiery sermons and eventful lectures on the word of God and Jesus. Coming from Atlanta, Flik is a kid who took a lot of his privileges for granted, mostly his private school which raised him better than many others he surrounds himself with in Brooklyn, his friends, his relationships, and his iPad 2, which he flashes around like a kid with a McDonald's happy meal toy. Going to Brooklyn with the limited street knowledge he possesses, he is in for a rude awakening but also a faithful (no pun intended) learning experience.

Flik soon learns that living with his grandfather will require a change from his strictly vegan diet, a change in work ethic, and most importantly, a change in the way he views spirituality. Flik is forced to attend his grandfather's sermons, whether he agrees with them or not, but soon realizes that him and the popular New York gang "the Bloods" are the only ones who reject religious beliefs when a church sits practically right next to their housing district.

Just a forewarning; this is not a story of a boy's discovery of the importance of faith and spirituality, but how one boy deals with the dependence on faith and spirituality in the world around him. How he deals with an abrupt change in ethics when forced to live with his grandfather who just found out he exists. And how he begins to respect and admire walking on the different side of the road; something I've preached about since the beginning of my odyssey reviewing films. What Flik is going through as a character is being exposed to a different lifestyle he was willfully ignorant of. He was confined to his small, spoonfed culture in Atlanta, Georgia, and I can't blame his inherent lack of tolerance towards another way of life. What matters is he goes on to accept it and perhaps even admire it.

Flik too befriends a young girl named Chazz Morningstar (Toni Lysaith), an openly feisty woman who questions faith just like her newfound best friend, but seemingly follows it with very loose direction and or guidance. Her homelife is rough, like many youths in the public housing district, her morals jumbled, and her outlook grim and shallow.

There is a twist in the picture, which the film has sort of become infamous for, as it is introduced abruptly and without a clear purpose. This seems to happen with spontaneous films, and being that Lee appears to have thrown a chockablock of ideas into a huge pot to see what works and what doesn't, it's understandably so that one thing doesn't flow well or fails to remain consistent with the remainder of the picture. The shocking thing is how there's only really one uneven element in the entire two hour excursion.

Just like Lee's debut Do the Right Thing, the film has the bright, vibrant, and luscious cinematography, with eye-popping primary colors, and a seamy, humidity-soaked atmosphere relevant to Brooklyn's summer climate. Mix this in with a plethora of great performances (the highlight being Clarke Peters' multi-layered bishop), a finely tuned script, sensitive and alert direction, and a fantastic score, and you have the work of under-appreciated perfection that is Red Hook Summer. Now stir.

NOTE: Spike Lee's character Mookie, the aimless pizza man from Do the Right Thing, makes a few brief cameo appearances, sure to churn a well-warranted smile from someone who appreciates "Spike Lee joints" and cross-film references.

Starring: Clarke Peters, Jules Brown, and Toni Lysaith. Directed by: Spike Lee.

Red Hook Summer definitely fits within Spike Lee's oeuvre, recalling the child's POV-style of storytelling used in Crooklyn and the vivid color palette employed (albeit more effectively) in Do the Right Thing. As other reviewers have no doubt already pointed out, Clarke Peters gives a superb performance, though nobody has yet mentioned Thomas Jefferson Byrd's performance, which I thought was at least on-par with his previous work if not surpassing it. Byrd's drunken prophecies shine transparent with hypocrisy, which is a major theme explored on a deeper level once the film's exterior is peeled back in the final act.

Speaking of which, the final act is undoubtedly the highlight. I can't go into too much detail or I will spoil the story's impact. This sequence carries a lot of the film's weight, but viewers won't know it until it comes. The sermons are also powerful, both on the pulpit and off. It's just all too unfortunate that the lackluster acting of the two primary child stars takes away from an otherwise engaging story. And although I am a fan of much of Lee's work, I will never understand his music choices---oftentimes cheesy songs interfere with what would have been phenomenal left to natural sound... think the father-son reconciliation in the woods in Get on the Bus or some of the moments in Clockers. This is probably a matter of taste, but I can't get over it. I guess I just like the other elements of his style so much that I wish he could do better with the soundtrack (NOT the score---his scores are usually good).

I guess my main point is that Red Hook Summer is worth seeing, despite the extremely low ratings I've seen in various online locales. It's just not Lee's best by any means, but not a failure either. It's just kind of... muddied.