This is a long overdue review, being that I had the pleasure of seeing this film when it was first released.
"Clockers" is an urban tale about Strike (Mekhi Phifer), a drug dealer running a crew on the benches of his New York City Housing projects, who unconsciously has a desire to live a righteous life but doesn't see anyway out of the drug game. Strike's desire is further complicated when the local kingpin (Delroy Lindo) he works for gives him the task of killing another one of his own dealers who turns up dead soon after. Now Det. Rocco (Harvey Keitel) is adamant in finding out who killed the drug dealer. His veteran detective's intuition points him at Strike as the shooter.
Strike's brother Victor (Isiah Washington), a hardworking, God fearing, law abiding husband and father of two, confesses to the murder, which seems like a ploy to get Strike off the hook to Rocco and his intuition.
During Rocco's persistent scrutiny of Strike, there is an engaging subplot that shows Strike trying to be a big brother to a fatherless young boy in his projects, a boy that obviously admires the conflicted drug dealer. On the other hand, the boy's mother doesn't share her son's admiration for Strike while Andre the Giant (Keith David), once a mentor to Strike, threatens him to stay away from the young boy as well.
However, Rocco's dogged determination to catch Strike spirals the investigation way out of control, to the point of no return.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I cringed at the colorful clothes wore by the young Brooklyn boys, but that was a minor flaw overshadowed by the complex characters, riveting performances and the interesting plot. Strike's seamless character arc was a difficult journey. Everyone seems to end up in a win/lose situation that doesn't give us any answers to the drug problem in urban America or a solution for urbanites' damaging glorification of gun violence.
The drug dealing scenes were excellent. Spike Lee either used real crack addicts for these scenes or the greatest actors ever that can play crack addicts flawlessly.
The ending could be perceived as anticlimactic but it all works well for a satisfying, motion picture experience.
I was unimpressed by the camera-work and the cinematography, particularly the reversal film look of the movie. The cinematographer should have kept the look clean instead of grainy.
The performances weren't without flaws, with some that seemed over-the-top (Spike Lee's style) or muted, like the young boy that idolized Strike.
However, Mekhi Phifer, making his motion picture debut, was like a tour de force, bringing the New York City street attitude and slang to the big screen rarely seen in film and television while leaving out the trained thespian, unauthentic feel that undermines any actor's portrayal of street kids from the N.Y.C. Keitel, Turturro, David and Lindo were all excellent, rounding out the supporting cast.
This is a great film if you're looking for something urban and gritty, driven by a murder mystery against the backdrop of 1990's Brooklyn, before the gentrification. It's definitely one of Spike Lee's top five best films in my humble opinion.
"Clockers" is an urban tale about Strike (Mekhi Phifer), a drug dealer running a crew on the benches of his New York City Housing projects, who unconsciously has a desire to live a righteous life but doesn't see anyway out of the drug game. Strike's desire is further complicated when the local kingpin (Delroy Lindo) he works for gives him the task of killing another one of his own dealers who turns up dead soon after. Now Det. Rocco (Harvey Keitel) is adamant in finding out who killed the drug dealer. His veteran detective's intuition points him at Strike as the shooter.
Strike's brother Victor (Isiah Washington), a hardworking, God fearing, law abiding husband and father of two, confesses to the murder, which seems like a ploy to get Strike off the hook to Rocco and his intuition.
During Rocco's persistent scrutiny of Strike, there is an engaging subplot that shows Strike trying to be a big brother to a fatherless young boy in his projects, a boy that obviously admires the conflicted drug dealer. On the other hand, the boy's mother doesn't share her son's admiration for Strike while Andre the Giant (Keith David), once a mentor to Strike, threatens him to stay away from the young boy as well.
However, Rocco's dogged determination to catch Strike spirals the investigation way out of control, to the point of no return.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I cringed at the colorful clothes wore by the young Brooklyn boys, but that was a minor flaw overshadowed by the complex characters, riveting performances and the interesting plot. Strike's seamless character arc was a difficult journey. Everyone seems to end up in a win/lose situation that doesn't give us any answers to the drug problem in urban America or a solution for urbanites' damaging glorification of gun violence.
The drug dealing scenes were excellent. Spike Lee either used real crack addicts for these scenes or the greatest actors ever that can play crack addicts flawlessly.
The ending could be perceived as anticlimactic but it all works well for a satisfying, motion picture experience.
I was unimpressed by the camera-work and the cinematography, particularly the reversal film look of the movie. The cinematographer should have kept the look clean instead of grainy.
The performances weren't without flaws, with some that seemed over-the-top (Spike Lee's style) or muted, like the young boy that idolized Strike.
However, Mekhi Phifer, making his motion picture debut, was like a tour de force, bringing the New York City street attitude and slang to the big screen rarely seen in film and television while leaving out the trained thespian, unauthentic feel that undermines any actor's portrayal of street kids from the N.Y.C. Keitel, Turturro, David and Lindo were all excellent, rounding out the supporting cast.
This is a great film if you're looking for something urban and gritty, driven by a murder mystery against the backdrop of 1990's Brooklyn, before the gentrification. It's definitely one of Spike Lee's top five best films in my humble opinion.