Ever since 1986′s She’s Gotta Have It, Spike Lee has delivered challenging fare to the multiplexes. His breakthrough film Do the Right Thing (1989) announced a major new talent, mixing multi-layered yet abrasive discourse on race relations with an indelible visual sophistication. Brooklyn proved to be fertile ground for Spike Lee, as he set later films Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), and He Got Game (1998) there, as well as located his production company 40 Acres and a Mule in the New York City borough. The themes of class inequality, racism, drugs, and gang violence have all been tackled in Lee’s work. His latest, Red Hook Summer, deals with gentrification head on, bringing to light this current housing trend problem that is rarely addressed in media. While the film definitely retains Spike Lee’s signature, it’s one of the few films in his ouevre to be this uneven and disappointing.

Red Hook Summer is the story of a boy from Atlanta who moves to the projects in Red Hook, Brooklyn to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather. It’s important to note that among all the messy self-indulgence featured in this film, there are sequences of startling power. The righteous anger that is prevalent throughout Lee’s career is present; however, this time it feels unfocused and un-channeled. The script features some of the clunkiest exchanges of dialogue, and indeed some of the worst verbal wordplay ever featured in a Spike Lee film. The overall effect is that it comes off as a rushed first draft, in desperate need of some rewrites. The two lead child actors are done no favors by the script, and it looks like Spike Lee forgot how to write for children. While there are references to Facebook and Apple products, the children’s behavior and interactions come off like they’re living in the 1980s. The actors onscreen are game, but watching them is exhausting and causes irritation and unintended laughter from the audience. The running length, at 129 minutes, feels bloated and could easily lose about 25 minutes.

A re-edit could completely salvage the film, as there are some really amazing scenes and performances in the film. The acting from Clarke Peters as Bishop Eunoch is mesmerizing. The scenes of his sermon possess an electrifying charge, as he tries to be his community’s moral leader and find its spiritual salvation. However, a late revelation about Eunoch’s character drastically changes the tone of the film, and indeed puts into question the central logic of the film—that being, would any mother leave her child alone with this man?

That’s a minor problem compared to the impression one gets after watching Red Hook Summer. While the film delivers some potent imagery and raises some important questions, this is the first film that forced this reviewer to question Lee’s taste (despite being a life-long admirer of his work). There are some scenes that could only be described as amateur, and outright embarrassing. A montage that plays late in the film is very effective, until it comes to the last shot, which is a low-angle of the lead girl character as a badly Photoshopped rainbow appears behind her. This is “eye-avertingly” bad stuff, which does happen a couple other times during this film. While there is some greatness to be found within this film, it is unfortunately buried by a lot of awkward filmmaking that is unforgivable from such a formidable artist like Spike Lee.

Limité Rating: 2/5

Director: Spike Lee

Screenwriter: Spike Lee

Cast: Jules Brown, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Toni Lysaith, Clarke Peters

Site: redhooksummer.com

Release Date: August 10 (NYC), with an expanded release to follow