While in Virginia visiting with family, I took the time to see Spike Lee's latest release - "Inside Man." Wow! What a pleasure it is to be able to observe an artist at work as he matures, broadens and finds an audience without compromising his artisitc integrity. With "Inside Man," Lee boldly steps outside the genre ghetto to which he had heretofore confined himself and crosses over to produce a movie full of NYC attitude and plenty of entertainment value.
As a director, Lee manages to coax from Denzel Washington, Jody Foster and Christopher Plummer some of their best work in a long while. As the plot twists and turns, nuggets of social commentary are dropped like so many breadcrumbs from the hands of Hansel and Gretel. Cell phone abusers, anti-Arab racists, New York cabbies, violent video game makers and players, corrupt politicians and an egregiously disingenuous banker posing as a humanitarian all fall victim to Lee's deft scalpel. The well crafted screen play reminds me of some of the best of David Mamet's work.
This is a movie I am certain to see again, because I am sure that I missed some of those nuggets that Lee dropped as he lead us through the woods.
Two enthusiastic thumbs up.
Al
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