Red Hook Summer

I saw Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer" today and found it...interesting.  My stepmother had seen it a few days ago and recommended it and I'd wanted to see it myself, so I finally did.  I know the Red Hook part of Brooklyn, but not well.  Back when I had a car, I'd drive through it on my way to Ikea.  I thought the insights on gentrification in Brooklyn were great.  I read an interview with Spike in New York Magazine where he wondered where gentrification was going to end in Brooklyn.  He wondered if people would go out to Coney Island and, after that, into the Atlantic Ocean.  I was surprised to see new housing going up in Red Hook (as shown in the movie) right across the street from the projects.  And I'm sure that housing won't be/isn't affordable housing either. 

One of the things I liked about "Red Hook Summer" was that it discussed the migration of black Americans from the South to the North and back to the South again.  This movement within the black community is so interesting to me.

Red Hook Summer was about 40 minutes too long and some of the acting wasn't that great.  (And I won't spoil it for others by revealing the big conflict that develops later in the movie.)  But, in spite of these minor complaints, I thought it was one of Spike's better films.