Miracle at St. Anna (Spike Lee, 2008)

[kaujot]

Spike is coming off a little Kanye West-ish.

[fiddlesticks]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd stand in line to see "Motherfucking Driving Miss Daisy."

[domino harvey]

You know what I like about Spike Lee? He's not bitter.

[knives]

Oh I'm sure he feels his life is a privliged one and appreciates what success and fame he can come by.

[avner]

This movie looks amazing judging from the trailer. Looking foward to it, regardless of what american critics have to say. But that's coz' I think She Hate Me is a great movie, for example.

Spike's comments however are becoming incresingly predictable and tired in their aim to stir up controversy. Never liked him as a public figure and what he has to say.

Always loved in as a filmmaker, so as long as he makes good pictures, no problemo.

[Jeff]

Spanked by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, New York.

[tavernier]

Spike: "You white reviewers just don't get it."

Wait until Armond finishes him off.

[domino harvey]

Isn't it more likely that Armond White will decide he likes Spike Lee now that he's finally made a masterpiece

[tavernier]

with AW, you never know.

[lacritfan]

Here's what I'm hoping come Oscar time :

• 1. Milk gets a bunch of nominations, including one for Sean Penn. M@StA gets one for sound.
  2. Spike - Hollywood honors a movie about gay people but not the African American soldiers who fought for the freedom gay people have.
  3. Sean Penn - Spike should just shut his mouth. Also his criticism of Eastwood was as stupid as when Chris Rock didn't know who Jude Law was.
  4. Chris Rock - It was a joke you dumb muthafucka!
  5. Spike - Sean Penn is a racist.
  6. Mickey Rourke shows up with his now fiance Evan Rachel Wood - Hey everybody, what's going on?
  7. Entertainment Weekly puts out an issue about WTF couples and has a graph where Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie only rate a 4 but Mickey and ERW are a 9.

[Grand Illusion]

Here's what I'm hoping come Oscar time :

• 1. Milk gets a bunch of nominations, including one for Sean Penn. M@StA gets one for sound.

Your acronym spells "Masta." Fantastic.

[domino harvey]

Here's what I'm hoping come Oscar time :

• 1. Milk gets a bunch of nominations, including one for Sean Penn. M@StA gets one for sound.

Your acronym spells "Masta." Fantastic.

Oh my God =D>

[kaujot]

Post of the year.

[AWA]

He adds, "Nobody is watching motherfucking Driving Miss Daisy today. Do The Right Thing is being taught in classes at major universities and high schools all over the world. That's how you're supposed to test art. Does the work stand up?"

Man, if he didn't just make the case of why he shouldn't care if he wins an Oscar or not. I wonder if he realized that after saying it, that he made Do The Right Thing and people are still considering it a serious, important piece of filmmaking is far more valuable than some effing Oscar.

[Svevan]

Seriously. What does Spike Lee not have now that an Oscar would give him? What would mainstream acceptance afford him that his "angry black artist" image has not?

[John Cope]

Wasn't someone asking about this?

[tavernier]

Even I didn't think he'd mention fucking Spielberg in the opening paragraph.

[swo17]

And the title. And at least once in each of five out of nine paragraphs.

[domino harvey]

That was a smokescreen for Lee’s ongoing Spielberg rivalry (as in his Malcolm X scene disparaging E.T.)

This is just a new level of Armondance

[Orphic Lycidas]

That was a smokescreen for Lee’s ongoing Spielberg rivalry (as in his Malcolm X scene disparaging E.T.)

The film Malcolm X has a scene disparaging E.T.? I've seen the former film a number of times and I haven't the foggiest idea what that can possibly mean.

[swo17]

You must have forgotten to watch the film with a giant E.T. poster on the wall behind your TV.

[domino harvey]

I had a chuckle at White putting an exclamation point after "WTF" in the middle of the sentence-- he just got one-upped by teenage girls

[Morbii]

Even I didn't think he'd mention fucking Spielberg in the opening paragraph.

Much less the actual title and headline

[tavernier]

I usually skip the titles of AW's reviews so I can get to the meat of his argument that much quicker.

[exte]

Ebert gave it three stars, albeit begrudgingly:

In a sense, the scenes I complain about are evidence of Lee's stature as an artist. In a time of studios and many filmmakers who play it safe and right down the middle, Lee has a vision and sticks to it. The scenes I object to are not evidence of any special perception I have. They're the kind of scenes many studio chiefs from the dawn of film might have singled out, in the interest of making the film shorter and faster. But they're important to Lee, who must have defended them. And it's important to me that he did. When you see one of his films, you're seeing one of his films. And "Miracle at St. Anna" contains richness, anger, history, sentiment, fantasy, reality, violence and life. Maybe too much. Better than too little.