Verão em Red Hook

Don't even pay attention to the rating on this movie. It was good. Some might say the movie is not worth watching after the first few minutes, but I would challenge them to watch the movie a bit longer. This movie was very well written, it was classic Spike Lee style (but written better than some of his old movies), and it even had a surprise twist (which I won't divulge). This movie is not like one of those gospel stage plays or even some of the movies that you would find on Netflix. This is much better. A person needs to really give this movie the 2 hours it deserves and have a good time. It may make you cry (when the secret comes out), but this movie is not a waster. It certainly deserved a better rating than it received. Please give it a chance, and you will not be disappointed.

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.

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.

...Clarke Peters (Freemon from HBO's "The Wire") should get an Oscar nomination for this. His performance is at once over-the-top and understated as a Brooklyn pastor who seemingly is a righteous pillar of a community that continues to wane under material violence and generational malaise. However this 'man-of-black-jesus' is hiding a terrifying secret that lifts what is at first another half-cliché movie about coming-of-age into unexpected darker and deeper territory. It makes "Red Hook Summer" into a risky, uncomfortable film and a film quite necessary in this day and age when institutions will blanket even the sickest of monsters to save their own public rep (I won't get more specific, but the contemporary story I'm alluding to concerns a man who's last name rhymes with 'Sam Clusky'). Aside from Peters, the film is worth watching for the loving touches Spike Lee brings to the setting. The music (by Bruce Hornsby), design and photography perfectly capture Brooklyn in the summertime in the same way "Crooklyn" did. Although Lee's approach, which here resembles Cassavettes at times, will upset some due to the obvious shot-on-the-fly-digital look and the after-mentioned below-par performances of the child actors.

Red Hook Summer (2012) is a drama movie co-written and directed by Spike Lee and it tells the story of a young boy learning about life when he stays with his preacher grandfather. This movie was a first time watch for and I really enjoyed the movie up until the point I didn't like it at the end.

Positives for Red Hook Summer (2012): The story of this movie is one I would expect from Spike Lee as there are some deeply compelling things about the journey for our main character. The performances from the cast are great from Clarke Peters, Nate Parker, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Toni Lysaith and Jules Brown. I really enjoyed the mentor-student relationship between Clarke Peters and Nate Parker as we get to see them connect while they working at the local church. There are themes that feel in line with how Spike Lee likes to tell in his stories. Every conversation has a reason behind it and they lead to some nice revelations that are interesting on paper. And finally, the pacing of the movie is really good and the story is more focused than the last Spike Lee movie I watched.

Negatives for Red Hook Summer (2012): There is a major plot twist towards the end of the movie that caught me off guard and it undermines everything I was watching prior to the story and it makes the story not as good as it was. I was also shocked that there are no repercussions for this major event in the sorry and it was just dumb.

Overall, Red Hook Summer (2012) is a fantastic drama movie from Spike Lee and it was among my favorite movies from the man until the plot twist which brought things down for me, but I would still recommend this movie to fans of Spike Lee and they might get more than I initially did.