On the surface, The Butler might seem like an awfully conservative film. It certainly takes the form of one of those safe historical epics that Hollywood loves to put out around Oscar time – its rush through eighty years of history is a little reminiscent of the reactionary Forrest Gump. But as a movie that…
It’s difficult for a guy like me to write about “the street.” Having grown up upper-middle class in Westchester County, New York, I pretty much know “the street” only through the movies, and I could quickly make a fool out of myself here. But I’m gonna give it a try because it’s a social construct…
To create 42, the new biopic about Jackie Robinson that topped the box office this past weekend, writer/director Brian Helgeland fashioned the true and emotionally explosive story of a milestone in the struggle for racial equality – the integration of baseball – into a film certain to offend absolutely no one. Any story about the…
With “Red Hook Summer,” it is clear that Spike Lee is back. Back in Brooklyn, back in the sweltering summer heat, back with stories about black America that no one else is telling. “Red Hook Summer” is not a perfect film, not by any means. But it does what we used to expect a Spike…
Director Spike Lee has not released a film during the Obama presidency. This was the man who helmed groundbreaking, commercially successful films on race like “Jungle Fever,” “Malcolm X,” and “Do the Right Thing.” When he arrived on the scene with 1986’s “She’s Gotta Have It,” he was hailed as a brave new voice in…
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