The Daily Gamecock

‘Red Hook’ trades budget for authenticity

Spike Lee turns production flaws into strange positives in story Read More

 

The film opens with Flik, played by Jules Brown, a 13-year-old African-American boy from Atlanta, riding through Red Hook, New York, in a taxi with his mother (De’Adre Aziza) and filming the neighborhood with his iPad 2.

Without explanation, his mother drops him off for the summer with his grandfather, whom he’s never met. His grandfather, Da Good Bishop Enoch Rouse (Clarke Peters), is a preacher at a small, rundown Baptist church. He is a devout holy man who seems to spend his every waking moment praising God.

Flik’s lack of religious upbringing prompts his grandfather to spend the summer filling him with all the spirit he’s been missing. The young man quickly realizes he will not be having the summer vacation he was hoping for. Instead of using his iPad to make videos, he will have to spread the good word with his grandfather by handing out leaflets on street corners. He is also forced to go to all of the church services, watching his grandfather shout and sing, which embarrasses him to no end, especially when he is encouraged to profess his faith in front of everyone.

The film creates a real sense of community during the scenes in which Enoch is preaching a joyous and almost exhausting service in front of the few members in the congregation. Enoch also drags Flik along with him so he won’t fall in with the gang members led by Box (Nate Parker).

Flik soon finds a girl his age, Chazz (Toni Lysaith), the daughter of one of the church members. At first, the two do not get along. She is abrasive, loudly browbeating him while waving her finger in the air with a dismissive attitude. He doesn’t want a lecture from her. But with so few people his age around, they end up becoming friends, bonding by causing trouble and defying the adults.

Director Spike Lee is not mocking the overly zealous preacher, a wonderful character with awful hair, played with gusto by Peters (probably best known as Det. Lester Freamon on HBO’s “The Wire”). Instead he is comparing the old-fashioned Bible thumper with the youth that have no faith and, as the older generation feel, no morality.

Lee seems to say the two need to meet in the middle somewhere. Without giving away the ending of the film, something from Enoch’s past comes to light that completely alters the way others see him. His transgressions clearly illustrate how misusing religion can push people away from faith. On the other hand, the gang members tell Enoch that they don’t need religion in their lives.

But of course, they need more guidance of some kind in their lives. Enoch and the gang members have a key scene toward the end of the film where the two sides clash.

Lee made this film on his own terms, shooting it with a digital camera and financing it himself. It is low-budget with no big-name stars.

Flik records some of the characters with his iPad, and Lee uses that footage throughout the film. In a way, Flik is an adolescent version of Lee.

By stripping down the budget and shooting the film quickly (in just 18 days), Lee is capturing New York and its inhabitants in a way he hasn’t since his early films such as “She Gotta Have It” (1986) and “Do the Right Thing” (1989). There are a few shots throughout the film captured with 8mm cameras, which more closely resemble the grainy look of the films in Lee’s past, especially when compared to his current digital camerawork and Flik’s iPad footage.

The movie’s flaws add to it in a strange way. The 121-minute film is raw and at times rambling, and scenes begin and end without a strong narrative thread always connecting them together.

Sometimes the young actors seem to be reciting Spike Lee dialogue and not talking as normal teenagers would. And yet all of this is what makes the film a “Spike Lee Joint.”


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