Red Hook Summer review

My favorite Spike Lee movie, besides Malcolm X, is Crooklyn. I honestly thought Red Hook Summer was going to be a movie in that vein. Well, I was wrong. Lee takes you to church and then he makes you think long and hard about what you believe and who you trust. Initially, I thought this was a Spike Lee movie that Tyler Perry fans could enjoy as well. Yeah, not so much. This movie is the latest in Lee's chronicles of Brooklyn series, which includes She's Gotta Have It, Crooklyn, He Got Game, Do The Right Thing and Clockers. So, you know there's a Spike Lee twist in this movie. Here's the synopsis: Flik Royale, a sullen young boy from middle-class Atlanta who has come to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather, Bishop Enoch Rouse, in the housing projects of Red Hook. Having never met before, things quickly get off on the wrong foot as Bishop Enoch relentlessly attempts to convert Flik into a follower of Jesus Christ. Between his grandfather’s constant preaching and the culture shock of inner-city life, Flik’s summer appears to be a total disaster--until he meets Chazz Morningstar, a pretty girl his age, who shows Flik the brighter side of Brooklyn. Through her love and the love of his grandfather, Flik begins to realize that the world is a lot bigger, and perhaps a lot better, than he’d ever imagined. Here's why you should go see it: There's comedy. Thomas Byrd Jefferson plays the role of a drunk Deacon who can't stand the fact that folks didn't buy Apple stock when he told them to. There's sadness. Flik and Bishop Enoch have never met and just when it looks as if their relationship is about to develop into something good, BAM! Spike Lee makes sure it's never going to happen that way. There's a youthful zest. Flik and Chazz run through Brooklyn making you yearn for never ending summer days and humid summer nights. Here's what I wished had been explained: Why did Bishop Enoch and his daughter fall out? And if she hadn't talked to her father in so many years, why did she send her son to spend the summer with him? Red Hook Summer is Spike Lee's baby, he financed this movie and has been working his ass off to get it seen. You should definitely go check it out. It's not Lee's best, but it's still better than 95 percent of the black movies that have been pumped out in the last three years.