Summer of Sam

Summer of Sam (1999) was the first Spike Lee film with a predominantly white cast, and its subject is not a serial killer but the paranoia of a neighbourhood. Summer 1977, the Bronx. The killer known as Son of Sam is shooting couples across New York and the city has locked itself down. The film does not put him at the centre. It follows the residents of an Italian American neighbourhood: the blackout, the heat, disco, punk, and steadily growing fear. What actually happens on that block is that people start compiling their own list of suspects. Who has long hair, who goes out late, who dresses strangely. Ritchie is targeted because he is a punk and looks different. What Lee is describing is not the murders but a frightened community picking someone out of its own ranks. When it was released the victims' families objected, saying the events had been turned into entertainment. Lee rejected this and argued the film is about the city, not the killer. John Leguizamo and Adrien Brody do some of the best work of their careers. Brody's punk is the most alive thing in it. It runs 142 minutes and it is long and unruly. Good for: Spike Lee, seventies New York, and period drama. Less good for: violence, sex and language are heavy, the running time is long, and the film does not tell a straight story.