Synopsis
This documentary follows the 2002 mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey, in which a City Councilman, Cory Booker, attempted to unseat longtime mayor Sharpe James.
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Cast
- Cory BookerSelf
- Sharpe JamesSelf
- Spike LeeSelf
- Al SharptonSelf
- Cornel WestSelf
Recommendations
- 100
The New Yorker
In brief, Marshall Curry, the young director of Street Fight, has hit the documentary jackpot: the movie will become the inescapable referent for media coverage of the new campaign. And rightly so. - 91
Christian Science Monitor
As one of Booker's supporters notes, it's a sad day when academic success is used to denigrate an African-American. - 90
L.A. Weekly
This is classical activist filmmaking of the first order, a movie with the power to turn hearts, change minds and, just maybe, right the wayward course of an entire city. - 90
Salon
It's an electrifying, suspenseful film, full of street-level political drama. - 88
TV Guide Magazine
It's a fascinating film, simultaneously enthralling, infuriating and guaranteed to make viewers ask how such a perversion of the political process could be taking place in America. - 80
Variety
Curry's courage in the face of police harassment and what seems a very real threat of something worse is amazing. - 80
Los Angeles Times
The story that first-time feature filmmaker Curry tells is extremely compelling, but where he really scores is in addressing politics and race in a way that allows events to speak for themselves. - 75
New York Daily News
Newark Mayor Sharpe James is the kind of politician that Tony Soprano would be happy to own.
