Spike Lee directs Denzel Washington, Jeffery Wright and ASAP Rocky in this New York music mogul remake of Akira Kurosawa’s kidnapping classic.

I hate to call him out on this but I reckon Spike knows as much about contemporary rap as I do. A joyous jazzy riff on the original. More a psychological drama than a thriller… though there is an exhilarating middle act set piece. The performances are wildly indulgent, especially from our A-List titan. Denzel deserves to let loose once in a while… okay… twice in a while with Gladiator II. One of the themes is how a successful black man has to be many different types of man. So don’t expect too much consistency from scene to scene. Loved the smothering Howard Drossin score, loved Matthew Libatique’s visual celebration of New York, loved the cheeky cameos from talented folk Spike gave their first big break to. Personally I just instantly chimed with this. I think it is the best thing he has done since his renaissance. Since Inside Man. Fuck consistency or genre logic. It is a late career auteur blast. One for them that is really one for me. The only thing that would have worked for me better would be if Spike himself played the Jeffrey Wright role. We wanna see Mookie and Malcolm riffing.

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Perfect Double Bill: Inside Man (2006)