The Hollywood Reporter: Risky Business

Feeling...spiky?

By Steven Zeitchik

Maybe it's the recent move to studio pictures like "Inside Man" and "Miracle at St. Anna," or just the general stylized intensity of his work, but we'd sort of forgotten how strong a documentarian Spike Lee really is. At Silverdocs, where we spent a dizzing few days taking in all manner of nonfiction novelty and nobility, we also caught a Q&A Lee gave after he received the Charles Guggenheim award, the fest's equivalent of a lifetime achievement prize.

We'd forgotten, for instance, how startling "When the Levees Broke" and "Four Little Girls" really are -- no other doc director working today can combine testimony, images and a sense of historical urgency in quite the same way. But the one that really brought it all back is his 2002 Showtime short "We Wuz Robbed." The quick cuts between the various Gore staffers describing that fateful 2000 election night was as artful and jolting as HBO's recent "Recount," the Danny Strong docudrama that was solid but which took a lot more years and film to basically tell the same story.

Unfortunately, not all of Lee's work resonated. Auds watched a ten-minute promo reel of "St. Anna," and the movie just didn't compel in the same way. It had the urgency, but a it too much of it, ladling on the melodrama in a way that certain wartime pictures do. It's going to be very interesting to see if Lee's indie-feature skills translate  to a big wartime epic the way they did in a bank-heist movie like "Inside Man."

Lee also revealed some good bits about upcoming projects. Get ready for the year-in-the-life Michael Jordan docu at Cannes and the day-in-the-life Kobe pic on ABC/ESPN at the start of the '08 season  (if only there were some Knick players worthy of a day-in-the-life-docu; heck, we'd settle for ten seconds).

And speaking of drama, the director is one of those interview subjects that makes people in the audience pity the interviewer-- in this case the Denver Post's Lisa Kennedy -- at least until said questioner realizes that a)his orneriness is no reflection on you b)you may as well stay on the topics close to his heart because those are the only ones he's going to talk about anyway. Kennedy didn't get anywhere with subjects like the difference between helmng fiction and docs. But Lee was by his standards downright gregarious  when he got onto Barack Obama and a certain other black filmmaker.

After saying "there's no if" on Obama and he was already making his hotel reservations for the inauguration, Lee said, "It changes everything, so its going to be BB and AB, Before Obama and After Obama. Some folks need to get used this because they're still clinging."

And then he took a dig at Tyler Perry for what he apparently feels is, er, derivative, filmmaking. After saying Lee couldn't make a Martin Luther King film because "I can't do everything - I've got to leave something for Tyler Perry" he then added an extra poke, in what may be the world's first crypto-poetic dig, that he'd been in Perry territory long before the playwright-turned-brand. "I made the movie. (It was called) 'Bamboozled.' Coonie buffoonery."

Now that's nonfiction gold.

Mo' Better Spike

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After reading Leslie Simmons' Risky Biz posting covering Spike Lee's Behind the Lens acceptance speech March 26 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, we dug up the video of Spike giving his take on the role of African-Americans in Hollywood. From the dearth of African-American-made films in the overseas market to the upcoming presidential race, Spike tells it like it is.

[Editor's note: Comments on this blog post are no longer being published.]

Do the Fright Thing

By Leslie Simmons

Spike Lee did what Spike Lee does best Wednesday night: push the envelope.

The filmmaker was honored with Chrysler's sixth annual Behind the Lens award at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel ballroom, and after an evening of tributes from actors -- many of whom, like including Rosie Perez, Savion Glover and Laurence Fishburne, have Lee to thank for their career -- and stirring performances by trumpeter Terence Blanchard, Lee gave a thank you speech that quickly tuned into much more.

He started with financing difficulties for indie films. "I took my ass on a plane to Europe and got the financing for this film," Lee said of his latest joint, the World War II drama "Miracle of St. Anna." "So, as Malcolm (X) said, the struggle is far from over."

Lee later introduced his Italian producing partners in the film, Luigi Musini and Marco Valerio Pugini, who were sitting far back in the corner.

"Don't get the wrong idea with them being in the corner," he joked. "When I was disgusted about not getting the financing for James Brown or the L.A. riots, I went to Italy."

Those two projects, he pointed out, had budgets of less than $60 million, below the price tag for many films these days.

After doing a bad Italian impression of the two producers telling him they'll help finance the film, Lee said, "It's a miracle this film got made."

Lee continued on what he called his "little tirade," addressing the African-American industryites in the audience and telling them it didn't matter what kind of car they drove or how big their houses are, "we're way behind in film," adding "None of them look like you. The only black guy I see is the brother man at the security gate."

He joked that the studios are "sneaking black faces" into the board room to make it look like they're integrated, but what they're really doing is plucking blue-collar workers and dressing them up for the meeting. "Then you leave and they kick their asses back to the mail room," he quipped.

James Brown? James Brown

At the AFI lunch on Friday, Spike Lee (whose Inside Man was named one of the ten best films of 2006) confessed that two actors who WILL NOT star as James Brown in his planned biopic are Jamie Foxx, who showed off his musical chops in Ray and Dreamgirls, and that film's Eddie Murphy. Hmmm. I couldn't get him say who he is considering...

James Brown Casting Poll

Who should play James Brown? IGN asks the question, now that Spike Lee is prepping a movie about the recently departed Godfather of Soul.

So who could sing, dance, and inhabit this formidable character?

I vote for Eddie Murphy or Jamie Foxx. The other names:

Samuel L. Jackson
Derek Luke
Geoffrey Wright
Terrence Howard
Mos Def
Andre Benjamin
Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Who'd we leave out?

Spike Lee's "Levees" on YouTube in 26 clips

Spike Lee's four-hour Katrina doc "When the Levees Broke" has shown up on YouTube in 26 parts. BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin notes:

This documentary was incredible, masterly, historically important work, and I know many who don't subscribe to HBO want to see it. The very moment HBO makes it available on DVD or purchaseable digital video download, I will eagerly be there with credit card in hand. I wish they'd done so already. (via BB)

— posted by Sheigh

Update: I just talked to a spokeswoman for HBO docs who said she doesn't know when a "Levees" DVD will be available, "Maybe later this year or next year." She noted that there are lots of tricky rights and clearance issues with the movie.

The situation reminds me of Downhill Battle's "call to download" the 1987 PBS series "Eyes on the Prize" which has been tied up in clearance hell for years now. We wrote about the Downhill Battle effort in early 2005 in the story Eyes' campaign spurs new civil disobedience.

Update 2: HBO had the "Levees" clips removed from YouTube on Friday (9/15). Try Googlevideo.

 

Spike Lee Blasts Bush in Venice

When Uni released Inside Man this spring, the studio seemed to keep the heist thriller's politically outspoken director well away from the promotional effort. Instead, the emphasis was on the charms of Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster.

But with a political doc to promote, Lee can say whatever he wants, and he's back in characteristic form. While at the Venice Film Festival presenting the European premiere of "When the Levees Broke: A Requeim in Four Acts," Lee took direct aim at the incompetence of George Bush and his administration:

"(Bush) returned to New Orleans on August 29 to do a couple of lame, bogus photo opportunities to say that New Orleans is being rebuilt, that it's on the way back. Do not believe this. Much of New Orleans looks like it did the day after Katrina hit," said Lee. Full story. [posted by Sheigh]

Spike Lee Does New Orleans

You can count on one thing: Brooklyn filmmaker Spike Lee is NEVER dull. That's partly because he's fearless, opinionated and outspoken—to a fault. He's also an excellent documentary filmmaker. He took a crew to New Orleans to examine the conditions post-Katrina: When the Levees Broke airs August 21-22 on HBO. I'll be watching. Salon's Cynthia Joyce weighs in; so does Texas critic Joe Leydon. And New York Magazine can't get enough of the city's angriest auteur.
[Photo by Charlie Varley]

Inside Lee's Inside Man

Sheigh looks into Spike Lee's videogame commentary in "Inside Man" and talks to Lee's long-time composer Terence Blanchard about the score and his use of a Bollywood song to open and close the movie.

Spike Lee's Game

I was there at the very beginning. Thanks to my old NYU chum John Pierson (Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes), I got to see an early screening of "She's Gotta Have It," which I loved, and wrote up for my first "Risky Business" column, in L.A. Weekly. I did Spike cover stories for Mother Jones and EW, hung out with him in Cannes when he was robbed of the Palme d'Or for "Do the Right Thing," and wrote a later column on 25th Hour for New York Magazine. I can't get enough of this guy. Caryn James recommends checking out Lee's early films, and she's right: they're great. Somewhere along the line, though, Spike made the same mistake Oliver Stone did; he was fearless about giving good political quotes. This stuff stuck to him and made a lot of people stop tuning into his movies. You'll notice that "Inside Man" is not being sold as "A Spike Lee Joint." I've always argued that Spike should work with movie stars, too, which he does to good effect here. If this thoroughly entertaining New York movie does some business, maybe we'll see that Jackie Robinson biopic Spike has wanted to make for so long. ADD: Dave Hudson at greencinedaily rounds up several Inside Man stories and reviews, and writes:

Spike Lee is not only one of the more interesting directors around precisely because his track record is so mixed (I can barely abide straight-A filmmakers), but he's also one of those rare celebs who can make an interview almost as engaging to read as his films are to watch (you'll remember Sara Vilkomerson's in the New York Observer). signandsight translates a bit from Hanns-Georg Rodek's interview for Die Welt. Here, Lee talks more about his next feature, written by Budd Schulberg, about the Max Schmeling-Joe Louis face-off: "Schulberg sat in the audience of the second Schmeling/Louis fight in 1938. Terence Howard, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Hustle & Flow will play Louis, and Hugh Jackson will play Schmeling. Now I'm working on the financing... It's going to be an epic: Hitler, Goebbels, Roosevelt, Mussolini, Lena Horne. Ever heard of David Lean? I'm telling you: epic. Three hours at least! Bigger than Malcolm X!" One can imagine that, given Jodie Foster's on-again, off-again efforts to make her Leni Riefenstahl biopic, she and Lee might have had quite a lot to talk about in the run-up to shooting Inside Man. For one thing, both plan to make their films in Berlin. But that's not all signandsight's got on this one: There's also a translation of Katja Nicodemus's interview with Lee for Die Zeit and, it turns out, that film is really very much on his mind. He asks her who might play Max Schmeling's wife.

Pro and Con: Inside Man Reviews

The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter loves Inside Man, which earned a 76 on Metacritic:

A deft, tense pure thriller with great star turns and brilliant directing, it began as an extremely well-crafted screenplay by Russell Gewirtz, whose first script (not merely written, but sold and produced) this was. The result is what might be called "professionally entertaining," like the glossier extravaganzas of the big studio decades: full of attractive people, smart dialogue, vigorous reimaginings of classic situations, surprises and final satisfaction. No surprise, then, that it's a total mainstream job, fronted by Brian Grazer's Imagine Films and apparently first set to be directed by Mr. Middlebrow himself, Ron Howard.

Lee brings something, however, that Howard has notably lacked over his career: incredible camera energy. Throughout the movie, the camera is almost a character. It drifts through, penetrating the action, floating up and down stairs, circling antagonists in the many hostile (but always amusing) confrontations. The movie is exceptionally comfortable in its in-your-face dynamics: Lee may be at his best when people are shouting at each other, or deploying other forms of verbal aggression, trying to manipulate this way and that, groping for leverage, trying to avoid getting pinned. Everybody's a con!

While Rick Groen of The Toronto Globe and Mail thinks the movie starts off well, then takes a bad turn:

Yes, even past the midway point, it's all working — it's taut, it's funny, it's trenchant, it's stylish.

And then it isn't. "I don't think he's in a rush," says the held-up cop of the holed-up robber, but he might as well be speaking of the movie's entire last act. A lassitude creeps in, the logic sprouts holes, the plot thins, the climax stutters, the resolution coughs. The magic is gone, but not forgotten. At least you walk out knowing that Inside Man doubles as an inside job, a mainstream Hollywood picture pungently laced with a Spike Lee joint. And the toke is sweet while it lasts.

Spike Lee Talks Inside Man and Katrina

One thing you can count on with Spike Lee: he's never dull. What's great about this NY Observer interview is that it captures how funny he is. Spike is clearly having a blast in Michael Moore territory as he chases after subjects for his upcoming Katrina documentary slated to air on HBO in August. (He's also paranoid about the government's role in the failing of the New Orleans levees.) And no, Spike will NEVER vote for Condoleeza Rice.

Spike's Inside Man Trailer

Spike Lee's new movie is up.