Red Hook Summer (2012)

Director: Spike Lee

 There are very few well-known black filmmakers working in Hollywood, or even the independent scene, in America who actually take on serious issues that affect the black community. Spike Lee is really the only one I can think of who has achieved some success. There are many who want Lee to diversify and take on other subjects, but I cherish his films because there is no one doing what he's doing. Lee's new film is just another example. Red Hook Summer is vintage Spike Lee. It's an independent film set in Brooklyn taking on issues like race, religion, poverty, and gentrification. It's style is spontaneous, improvisatory, and almost television commercial-like at times. His style makes his serious themes easy and even fun to digest, and that's why he's such a beloved filmmaker.

The film is about a low-income community that is being over-run with middle class white Americans. It's a community of people that have gotten the short straw for their whole lives and there's no hope for their future. In a community such as this you'd think the local church has a large congregations, but this is not true. Clarke Peters (from The Wire) plays the local reverend and in between his fiery topical sermons that lay out Lee's ideas, we see him trying to increase the congregation and struggle to get people to attend his church. Religion is usually the main source of hope for low-income and poverty-stricken people, so it is a bit befuddling at first he has such a hard time. But by the end of the movie, due to a late twist that is honestly a little too unexpected, you know why the church is having such a hard time. I don't want to spoil it, but I think the film raises a great point with the events of the third act, though I think the first two thirds of the movie are a little meandering and don't lead in at all to the third act. The movie isn't the most focused, the most thought-out movie, but a lot of effort went into creating a spontaneous feel that reflects real life and also actually taking on important issues that affect a specific community.

Grade: B