Has anyone else seen this pic yet? I hadn't intended to, but a Barry Pepper fan suggested it to me and we saw it this weekend. Neither of us were sure of what to make of it in the end -- it's angular, insular and not altogether engaging, and relies more heavily on film school tricks than I might have expected from Spike Lee. However, I haven't seen many of his films, so this may be the norm.
Good acting from all involved, although none of them are asked to do much. Then again, maybe that's the sign of good acting -- to take underwritten supporting characters, or chliche-riddled characters, and make them seem more than one-dimensional. Regardless, the only character I "felt" anything for was Edward Norton's, who is also the only one I get the feeling we're supposed to care about. Everyone else exists as a placeholder, so we can have someone else's story to watch while giving Norton time to travel from point A to point B.
It's a love letter to America, and New York in particular, while also exposing the hypocrisy and drawbacks of living in America's greatest city. Yet if I was supposed to come away with a reverential love of either NYC or America, I didn't. If I was supposed to realize I shouldn't waste the few opportunities I encounter in life, I did, but any Afterschool Special could have taught me that. If I just saw a Spike Lee film with a deep, powerful message with Academy Award hopes... well, maybe I have different ideas of what "deep, powerful" and "Academy Award hopes" mean.
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