Just watched this on Netflix so this may be a bit outdated. Anyway, I was born and raised in Brooklyn and generally enjoy Spike Lee's movies. Yes, he can be a bit cliché in the messages but what Spike does best is give the viewer spectacular cinematography. I also watch mostly documentaries, and as someone who works in urban education I'm drawn to movies that are set in realistic environments. I'm also a huge fan of Clarke Peters since The Wire. With that said, I was excited to see the movie and expected to be impressed. Yeahhh...not so much! Here are my issues with this movie:
I was highly disappointed in the main actors as their performances were often overly-dramatic and they delivered extremely stereotypical lines that, at times, made me roll my eyes or raise my eyebrows in a moment of sarcasm. When 'Chazz" pronounced "liked" as "likedd-edd-ed," I found that so unbelievable. Wasn't she supposed to be a girl who grew up in the church listening to sermons and proper English? Didn't make sense why she would sound so ignorant. She was overall very extra and inauthentic. "Flik's" character came across as whiny and unemotional as I was unmoved by his performance. The "thug", played by Nate Parker, was also unconvincing. Casting wise, the only plus was Clarke Peters (a real actor) who gave an emotionally charged performance. Also, the script was heavy on delivering subliminal messages about life for many individuals living in any urban or struggling area. While I happen to think there was validity in those messages, it started feeling redundant by the middle of the movie. Not to mention it took forty minutes into the movie before we got to the thick of the plot.
Bottom line is, there was a decent movie hidden somewhere among all the preachy, whiny, and clichéd dialogue-- if you can stand the bad acting!
I was highly disappointed in the main actors as their performances were often overly-dramatic and they delivered extremely stereotypical lines that, at times, made me roll my eyes or raise my eyebrows in a moment of sarcasm. When 'Chazz" pronounced "liked" as "likedd-edd-ed," I found that so unbelievable. Wasn't she supposed to be a girl who grew up in the church listening to sermons and proper English? Didn't make sense why she would sound so ignorant. She was overall very extra and inauthentic. "Flik's" character came across as whiny and unemotional as I was unmoved by his performance. The "thug", played by Nate Parker, was also unconvincing. Casting wise, the only plus was Clarke Peters (a real actor) who gave an emotionally charged performance. Also, the script was heavy on delivering subliminal messages about life for many individuals living in any urban or struggling area. While I happen to think there was validity in those messages, it started feeling redundant by the middle of the movie. Not to mention it took forty minutes into the movie before we got to the thick of the plot.
Bottom line is, there was a decent movie hidden somewhere among all the preachy, whiny, and clichéd dialogue-- if you can stand the bad acting!