Movie review - "Black KKKlansman" (2018) ****

Angry, passionate, funny, very entertaining. A true outlandish story - I'm not sure how accurate but it feels true ish in part because as the film makes very aware many of the issues of the time are faced today.

John David Washington is fine in the lead as are Adam Driver and Laura Harrier in support (she's got a big affro and spouts a lot of lines about the cause rather than play a character, but then she is a female character in a Spike Lee movie) but the film is stolen by the colorful support: Topher Grace is David Duke, Jasper Paakkonen as a racist, Ashlie Atkinson as an overweight racist, Corey Hawkins as a nationalist.

It's directed with passion and vigor - the parallels drawn with modern times are very effective.

Book review - "This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me" by Norman Jewison (2005)

A tale of one man's journey from success to success - Jewison was born into a relatively poor family but it was in Canada; he joined the navy and went to university and decided to go into showbiz. He moved to England and broke in there, then worked in the early days of Canadian TV then in New York. Handling Judy Garland for a TV special (he managed to sweet talk Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin into supporting her) got him a reputation as someone who could deal with stars - he received an offer from Tony Curtis to do Forty Pounds of Trouble which led to a contract with Universal: two comedies with Doris Day, one with Dick Van Dyke (his first flop), then changing gears with The Cincinnati Kid and hitting a golden streak: The Russians Are Coming, In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair, stumbling with Gaily Gaily but then doing Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, Rollerball and so on.

It was truly one of the great careers - plenty of critical acclaim and box office hits, lots of power. His personal life seems to have been tranquil - met a girl, married, had kids, kids turned up fine.  Had a little bit of tall poppy syndrome from Canada but not a lot; a few flops but not that many; no production disasters. He dealt with some temperamental stars and seemed to be able to cope with all of them, even Garland and Steve McQueen.

He reveals himself to be the director who dealt with a sobbing star who had inadvertently killed her dog via giving her a lamb chop - a tale told by William Goldman in his memoirs (not told particularly well here - Jewison is a solid rather than top level writer) - the star was Doris Day. (So was Doris Day having an affair at the time? Goldman said the star was.)

He had/has solid liberal, humanistic beliefs which saw him make film like In the Heat of the Night and try to make Malcolm X before being booted off the latter to make way for Spike Lee.

Obviously a decent man, hardworking and talented, with great instincts for casting and story.

I was hoping for a little more gossip. Sylvester Stallone was a bit of an egomaniac on FIST and rewrote Joe Eszterhas. McQueen could be a baby but lobbied hard for the role in The Thomas Crown Affair. The screenwriter of Thomas Crown sounds like a character. But an enjoyable book.

Script revie - "Black KKKlansman" by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee,

Passionate. Angry. Relevant. Funny. A surprisingly large amount of typos in the edition I read. The main female role - a black activist, is, like most of Lee's female characters, not very well drawn. The lead guy is better, but still a bit bland - in part I'm guessing because he's still alive. The support characters are good. Lots of rich, twisted humour. Very relevant - the parallels to Trump etc are put in but it works better as a result.

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.

Movie review - "School Daze" (1988) ** 1/2

Spike Lee's second film didn't see him back down from any risks - a musical drama at a black college might seem like a relatively commercial option but Lee refuses to pander to the audience. It's a weird sort of movie - there is meaty drama stuff there, the fight against apathy on campuses, racial differences between blacks - but this goes in fits and starts rather than a solid story. There are musical interludes, which seem inserted erratically. The first one is an MGM homage of girls dancing in a beauty salon which lacks something (the right sort of sound design or something) and the easy going jazz throughout the movie seems to help cause a lack of energy. But the more contemporary numbers have a lot more energy, especially in the second half - there are some interesting dance ones from the guys, and a climactic one where everyone dances in swimsuits and Lee films lots of shots of wiggling arses. The plot involves Laurence Fishburne (a little old to play a college student) trying to get the college to divest its interests from South Africa. There's a kind of yucky plot twist where Fishburne's nemesis gets his girlfriend to sleep with a guy. Interesting ending where Fishburne yells at everyone to "wake up. Many of the cast later went on to A Diff'rent World.

Movie review - "Inside Man" (2006) ***1/2

One of those movies I really enjoyed with a few late minute twists that make you go "ooh"... then around two hours later something clicks and you go "hang on". One or two obvious plot contrivances - why keep it in the vault? - and some less obvious - how does he get out? - but this is mostly a lot of fun. Denzel Washington is a slightly bent cop outwitted by Clive Owen; it's great to see Jodie Foster playing a bitch. 

The hostages behave very selfishly and whiningly - it's Spike Lee's city so I guess he knows what he's talking about. Visual flourishes and social commentary work well. I know the Sikh is hard done by - but how about being a little less selfish? The female characters aren't the best - they're either bitches (Jodie Foster, the Albanian ex-wife), or sex figures (the big boobed robber, Denzel's girlfriend). Tremendous music score from Terence Blanchard.