This mess of a film seems like the work not of the accomplished Spike Lee but of some new director just out of film school, who wants to imitate Scorcese (from the Mean Streets milieu down to the bumper's eye shot of a cruising car right out of "Taxi Driver") while throwing in every theme he can think of, and randomly trying out exotic tricks with camera and lighting. It starts out as the story of serial killer "Son of Sam," but soon switches to a group of Italian-American characters living in Brooklyn at the time the killings took place. These characters may or may not be stereotypes, but for sure none of them is very interesting. Lee cuts back and forth among the Italian-Americans and their various problems and every so often goes back to the Son of Sam story, without bothering to make any connections (did Lee have anything in mind?). The scenes are without a unifying style or look. The acting is generally good, especially Adrien Brody and Mira Sorvino. But it is wasted in a story that fails to gain the audience's sympathy or interest. Even the steamy sex scenes fail to involve. Footnote: Lee should not encourage his actors to improvise. They seem to think that when portraying lowlife characters, the goal of improvisation is to use the word "f**k" as frequently and in as many parts of speech as possible.
Review of Summer of Sam
