“Sucker Free City” (2004)
Spike Lee has traveled out to Saudi Arabia for parts of “Malcolm X,” and Tuscany and Rome for the Italy-set war film “Miracle at St. Ann,” even centered all of “School Daze” in Atlanta, but generally, Lee does not stray far from his beloved Brooklyn. So it’s a rare treat to see Lee venture outside the five boroughs (and his comfort zone) to the unlikely location of San Francisco for the underseen “Sucker Free City.” What was supposed to be the pilot episode for a Showtimes series, “Sucker Free City” (like Lee’s recent would-be series “Da Brick” for HBO) wasn’t picked up by the cable network. And like most pilots, was set to die a quiet death. But Lee decided to submit the episode as a film to the Toronto International Film Festival where the telepilot was accepted and premiered. And while it’s open-ended conclusion does make it clear that there was more to come, “Sucker Free City” does work fairly well as a self-contained entity. Set in the culturally diverse melting pot of San Francisco, the drama looks at three young, low-level criminals who begin to overlap into each other’s territory while the late ‘90s gentrification boom begins to squeeze everyone. Ben Crowley plays a white mailroom worker in a corporate office who steals credit card numbers while his family is priced out of SF’s Mission (his tolerant father is played by John Savage); K-Luv (Anthony Mackie) is a gangster with a growing conscience, and Lincoln (Ken Leung) is a stooge for the Chinese mafia. And while with only one ep to its name it cannot be “The Wire,” its three-pronged look at San Francisco is an engaging tease of what might have come, presciently anticipating how gentrification, class, race and the city’s infrastructure begin to affect all cultures and colors. [B]
“Inside Man” (2006)
Perhaps there is no better year to look at, if you want to sum up the zigzaggery of Lee’s later career, than 2006. ‘Levees’ sees him at his most socially engaged, his most soulful, his most, we guess, archetypally Lee. And yet that same year he turned in “Inside Man,” an inventive heist movie that is the kind of glossy entertainment we might hope for from a mainstream Hollywood stalwart, rather than from this outspoken champion of the independent movement. So in the context of the director’s back catalogue, perhaps this film is most notable for what it’s not — not particularly concerned with race, not polemical, not political, not personal — though his trademark ear for accurately observed New York exchanges is wholly in evidence and lends authenticity and wit to the proceedings (we love, for example, the tiny detail of the woman who, even with a gun in her face, simply refuses to undress for her captors). But if there is something of the artist on autopilot here, it just goes to show how much storytelling talent the guy has to burn, as he gets a clutch of delicious performances from supporting players (Jodie Foster in particular stands out for her arch, self-aware turn as a morally repugnant “fixer”), navigates a tricksy, twisty-turny plot with razor sharp intelligence and quietly forefronts a dynamic between the the good-guy protagonists that is almost subversive in how little mention or consideration is given to their skin color (Denzel Washington and Chiwetel Ejiofor both in charismatic, winning form). So he lets nothing slip, but it still seems like he’s doing what he maybe hadn’t really done for a decade: he’s having fun. It feels like the real ‘inside man’ is Lee himself, in disguise and hidden within the Hollywood establishment, effortlessly beating the big guys at their own game and giggling to himself all the while. We wouldn’t trade this lighthearted trickster for the political, stir-shit-up Lee we know and are provoked by, but if “Inside Man” is an anomaly in his catalogue, it’s the kind of outrageously entertaining anomaly that we can totally live with. Oh, and his final credit in 2006? Directing the pilot for the James Woods show “Shark.” Which, well, huh. [B+] “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” (2006)
One of the worst natural disasters in recent history, an event that reignited passionate discussions about the iniquities between race and class in America, Hurricane Katrina seemed like a subject tailor made for Spike Lee. And indeed, only three months after Hurricane Katrina landed, Lee and his camera were on the ground for what would be the beginning of an extensive series of shoots that would see the filmmakers interview over 100 people including longtime residents, politicians, volunteers, journalists and more. And combined with a sharply observational and critical eye, a deep love of New Orleans and an unwavering sympathy for everyone left scarred by this tragedy, ‘When The Levees Broke’ is simply the most important document and chronicle of everything that happened on August 25th…and after. Running over 4 hours long (and spread over 2 nights during its first airing on HBO), while Lee does touch upon the images and incidents that have become synonomous with Hurricane Katrina — the haunting pleas from those stranded on rooftops, the ugliness of the Superdome, and the callous inaction and indifference from the governement — the director goes far beyond that scope, using firsthand accounts, news footage and much more to capture the outrage, anger, frustration, loss and even hope left in the aftermath. Lee wisely doesn’t insert himself into the narrative, allowing the stories to unfold as they are told by those who experienced it. An epic documentary portrait that is dramatically rich, emotionally potent, but also fueled by a deserved sense of political, historical and social significance, ‘When The Levees Broke’ is a triumph of the genre, and a tremendous piece of reporting. No surprise then that film earned rave reviews and rightfully won three Emmys and a Peabody Award. [A+]
“Miracle at St. Anna” (2008)
Just as Spike Lee had earned audience and critical goodwill from “Inside Man,” that evaporated completely through Disney’s dumping of Lee’s expensive war epic. Based on the novel by James McBride, ‘Miracle’ tells the story of a group of African American jarheads in the segregated Buffalo Soldiers unit in 1944, stranded by their officers in an Italian village. Soon, they receive orders to find and capture a German soldier, a mission with knotty agendas at play that divides them, particularly practical sharpshooter Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke) and hot-blooded Corporal Negron (Laz Alonzo). The story plays out sandwiched between a 1980’s wraparound narrative where one of the soldiers fired upon an existing German, leading the cops to this untold story. Lee treats the material as if it’s the very last war film he’ll ever do, spicing up war clichés with dollops of modern cynicism and magical realism. Though some touches feel genuinely Lee (Walton Goggins plays a racist Captain with zero restraint), it’s impossible to ignore the realities of the war that no one had yet captured, like the seductive German-accented female voice blaring over battleground loudspeakers in an Axis attempt to demoralize black soldiers — were this not a real detail, surely Lee would have been credited with fabricating it. What separates Lee’s story from casual war films, and likely why it was ignored in a way that other films about this era were not, is that Lee’s film is eventually about forgiveness, about the scars of the past erased by the compassion of the present, a rebuttal to Lee’s critics that he preaches division and disharmony, one that most left unheeded. [B+]
“Passing Strange” (2009)
What makes Spike Lee such an enduring, memorable and often fascinating director is his vibrant, bold, red-hot, sometimes unsubtly frustrating filmmaking. Love him or hate him, Lee’s always had a fiery and idiosyncratic voice. Which is what makes projects like “Passing Strange” so deflating. Because “Passing Strange,” the comedic and dramatic Broadway rock musical about a young African American’s artistic journey of self-discovery in Europe, is the brainchild of L.A. singer/songwriter/playwright Stew (né Mark Stewart). Not Spike Lee. And yes, the eclectic metafictional and self-referential “Passing Strange” is funny, engaging and brimming with an all-embracing superabundance of funk, rock, punk, soul and more. It’s a thoughtful, smart and clever play. The downside is that it’s not much of a Spike Lee joint at all. While it’s hard to capture the essence of a live play, musical or concert if you’re not there, Lee, and his myriad cameras, achieve a mean snapshot of this Tony Award-winning musical. It’s an exemplary job that does this wild and funky musical justice. But while its honorable that Spike puts his artistic feelings aside for most of the picture to document this uniquely expressive story, sometimes you’d just prefer Spike Lee to tell one of his own stories. [C+]
