Synopsis
When his mom deposits him at the Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn to spend the summer with the grandfather he’s never met, young Flik may as well have landed on Mars. Fresh from his cushy life in Atlanta, he’s bored and friendless, and his strict grandfather, Enoch, a firebrand preacher, is bent on getting him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Only Chazz, the feisty girl from church, provides a diversion from the drudgery. As hot summer simmers and Sunday mornings brim with Enoch’s operatic sermons, things turn anything but dull as people’s conflicting agendas collide.
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Cast
- Clarke PetersDa Good Bishop Enoch Rouse
- Nate ParkerBox
- Thomas Jefferson ByrdDeacon Zee
- Toni LysaithChazz Morningstar
- Jules BrownFlik Royale
- Heather SimmsSister Sharon Morningstar
- Quincy Tyler BernstineHazel
- De'Adre AzizaColleen Royale
- Kimberly Hebert GregorySister Sweet
- Colman DomingoBlessing Rowe
Recommendations
- 80
Boxoffice Magazine
Red Hook Summer begins as a gentle character comedy and then erupts into a sudden reversal that is possibly the most powerful and disturbing sequence Lee has ever created. It's a film that makes you laugh, weep, rage and gasp, and, love it or hate it, you will definitely talk about it afterward. - 80
Time Out
The new drama, best viewed as a church movie, is a return to the kind of corner-chat indie cinema Lee revolutionized, with an emphasis on a towering performance by The Wire's Clarke Peters as a local bishop inflamed with the Word. - 75
The Playlist
Ultimately, Lee's clarity of vision hasn't been this sharp or unique since before "Crooklyn," and it's thrilling with Red Hook Summer to witness a return to the technique – and most of all, emotional wallop – that even today continues to give his films an enduring life as both entertainment, and enlightenment. - 75
Slant Magazine
The seamless juxtaposition of faith and pain, innocence and guilt, allows the film to transcend Spike Lee's occasional bombastic moments and become a strong examination of internal suffering. - 60
Variety
For those expecting Mookie's mid-career encore to signify a return to Spike Lee's roots, Red Hook Summer instead surprises -- and to some extent delights -- as yet another radically unique entry in the director's iconoclastic oeuvre. - 58
The A.V. Club
The film's 121-minute running time is similarly cause for concern. Lee can be tight and focused as a gun-for-hire, but he's always viewed personal projects as irresistible invitations to self-indulgence and overreaching. Red Hook Summer is no exception. - 50
Village Voice
An alternately evocative and lumbering portrait of a multifaceted community. - 42
Entertainment Weekly
Red Hook Summer has some fantastic gospel numbers, but as drama it's a casserole that never comes together.
