Book review - "That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It" by Spike Lee and Kaleem Aftab

Enthralling recap of Lee's career - it's not really by Lee, its by Aftab with lots of Lee co-operation, and Aftab does a very good job. (In fact it's really unfair to Aftab to call this an autobiography). It's sympathetic but not sycophantic - the chief criticisms of the director are addressed, such as his poor depiction of female characters (Lee's wife gives him a hard time about it), some of his dud films (few have nice things to say about Girl 6), the allegations of anti-Semitism, his head in the sand attitude to use of sweatshops by Nike. There are a few places you go "all right calm down" - like going on for three paragraphs about the failure of Four Little Girls to win the Oscar for best doco, or over quoting excuses for Lee's films that underperformed at the box office (studio marketing is blamed again and again and again). But it's an enthralling read - Lee's story is inspirational, not just getting his career up and going, but sticking to it, diversifying (merchanise, videos, commercials), never giving up. You have to be single minded to make it as a filmmaker, which is why so many filmmakers are boorish wankers, including Lee, but look at the scoreboard as they say and the films hold up (well, until Malcolm X that is - after that his record gets a little wonkier). The book ends around the time Lee was to make Inside Man - it's a shame a new edition couldn't be made to incorporate this as it was Lee's biggest hit in Yonks.