Spike Lee's America, By David Sterrit

Friday 01 February 2013 20:00 GMT

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Though he comes to praise Lee's oeuvre, Sterrit is even-handed with both critics and director.

Do The Right Thing (1989), a racial comedy set in the ghetto of Bedford-Stuyvescent, was slated for "populist clichés", but Sterrit responds, "this criticism has its own prejudicial tinge."

While reminding us of achievements in the biopic (Malcolm X), thriller (Inside Man) and documentary (When the Levees Broke), Sterrit complains that Lee's 2008 war movie Miracle at St Anna was "unconvincing".

He concludes that his forthcoming remake of a Korean thriller (Oldboy) is "heartening".

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