IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched on Amazon Video
The slang term "clockers" refers to those drug dealers in Brooklyn who work around the clock to get their wares to the party crowd and addicts. One of them, who seems to have risen high in the favour of drug lord Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), is Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer). It is fascinating to see how he coordinates the operations of the sales in the group so that the business runs smoothly, but any police check finds him and his colleagues drug-free from the park bench where they are known to wait for customers. But Strike is plagued by so many things, including his competitor Darryl Adams (Steve White). He also suffers from a stomach ulcer, and the fact that he wants to use 12-year-old Tyrone "Shorty" Jeeter (Peewee Love) as an unsuspicious errand boy proves to be a serious mistake, because both his mother Iris (Regina Taylor) and the African-American police officer André (Keith David) unmistakably stand in the way.
"Clockers" is a complex film with a running time of over 2 hours and all too many role characters and their relationships to each other, an almost epic structure. The film was not a success in the cinema and was also first assigned to the film style in the context of the Neo Noir of the 90s in 2003. The film uses a different language than that of the classic film noir of the 40s and 50s. And yet it is the language of its central characters that also makes Spike Lee's film a delight for the connoisseur of narrative cinema. Richard Price, author of the novel of the same name and co-author of the screenplay, was born in Brooklyn, Spike Lee grew up there.
"Clockers" is a film about the tensions within the African-American community and also those between it and the white police officers, some of whom act like zookeepers and know how to talk about their fellow New Yorkers, living or dead, with a cynicism that leaves one speechless. Nevertheless, Lee also tries not to portray his law enforcement officers in the same way, although Detective Larry Mazilli (John Turturro), counterpart to the law-abiding and justice-driven Police Detective Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel), is clearly too pale. The camera work of Malik Hassan Sayeed, who was 26 years young at the time, is a pleasure i terms of his visual language, which is particularly captivating in the night scenes.
In the end, I recommend "Clockers" because it brings its very own dramaturgy to bear in the canon of African-American neo-noir, and does so successfully. The film has a firm place in Spike Lee's canon of works and convinced me even 27 years after it was made.
IronWatcher liked these reviews
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_c0315b8f-970f-4e4e-ace8-c791133adf97" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-c0315b8f-970f-4e4e-ace8-c791133adf97'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div -tile300x250 -alignleft -bottommargin'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'med_rect_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-c0315b8f-970f-4e4e-ace8-c791133adf97'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-c0315b8f-970f-4e4e-ace8-c791133adf97'));
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_804eb857-39ea-4dd9-be96-3b66ed697c73" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-804eb857-39ea-4dd9-be96-3b66ed697c73'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'sky_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-804eb857-39ea-4dd9-be96-3b66ed697c73'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-804eb857-39ea-4dd9-be96-3b66ed697c73'));
