Spike Lee's films range from undeniable masterworks (
Do the Right Thing,
Inside Man) to flawed but intriguing efforts (
Summer of Sam,
Clockers) to outright failures (
Miracle at St. Anna,
Malcolm X). This drama, about a 13-year-old boy from suburban Atlanta (Jules Brown) who spends a summer in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood with his preacher grandfather (Clarke Peters of
The Wire), falls into the middle category: its sights and sounds evoke Lee's best New York stories, and there are some noteworthy performances, particularly from Peters as the charismatic holy man with a dark past. But Lee's typically paradoxical statements on race and religion muddle the narrative, and his old stylistic tricks—saturated color schemes, characters addressing the camera—aren't exactly inspired.
By
Drew Hunt