Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Summer of Sam (1999)


During the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 the residents of an Italian-American South Bronx neighborhood live in fear and distrust of one another.

Similar to Do the Right Thing Spike Lee again manages to create a social community descending into murderous hysteria, but this time the overlapping dialogues and several disagreeable characters (and Son of Sam is not one of them) are quite annoying.

Halliwell*: "The point of this shapeless ensemble piece seems to be a remark by a black woman that if the killer known as the Son of Sam had been black, there would have been riots in New York. Otherwise, it deals in minor panic and mishaps among stereotypical would-be monsters; but not even the period detail is right."

Maltin**: "Interesting, mostly unpleasant slice of life/period piece goes on much too long...and gets pretty sleazy."


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