For all Spike Lee's unflagging efforts to assert himself as a director -- not a "black director," a just plain director, and not really a just plain director either, but a very fancy director -- his chief claim on our attention remains the ease and comfort with which he moves in milieus otherwise untravelled on screen. The contemporary jazz scene of Mo' Better Blues may be less "relevant" (or something) than the street scene of Do the Right Thing, but it's certainly no less neglected. If, on the other hand, this milieu helps to make clear that Lee is no propagandist, it also makes clear that he's no documentarist either. The almost improvisatory feel of some of the scenes, notably the backstage and dressing-room scenes, seems quite authentic; and it's nice to see a number of the actors of Do The Right Thing given a chance to play very different roles, and playing them very well. But the main thing one notices about any milieu that Spike Lee enters -- the dominating thing, the dwarfing thing -- is the presence in it of Mr. Director (alias Mr. Wide-Angle Lens, alias Mr. Slow-Motion, alias Mr. Overhead Shot, alias Mr. Ping-Pong Panner, etc., etc.). With Denzel Washington. (1990) — Duncan Shepherd
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