"Sucker Free City" (2004) written by Alex Tse (Watchmen) and directed by Spike Lee, shows the intersection of the lives of a young Anglo office worker, Nick Wade (Ben Crowley) whose family has been pushed out of the San Francisco Mission District to the tough black neighborhood of Hunter's Point with a young black gangster entrepreneur there, Keith (Anthony Mackie, who starred in Lee's "She Hate Me") and a young Chinatown gangster, Lincoln Ma (Ken Leung),  has a Latino homeboy to represent the fourth racial-ethnic group in The City (as we like to capitalize it: "Sucker Free" is an alternate meaning for the acronym SF).

The connections are surprising in satisfying, unarbitrary ways, and it is notable that the Chinese youth is the only one who has sex scenes in that Asian American males are frequently desexualized on screen, and missing altogether in many black perspectives of race being dichotomous in US society. Interestingly, the black youth exhibited less resentment (and was less moody) than the white and the Chinese youths.

The exploitation is intraracial as are the two murders (though one is an inter-racial collaboration). The culture clashes and generational differences in perspective seem plausible/accurate to me. Some of the dialogue does not. There is a surfeit of "street language" in the Hunter's Point scenes, and "motherf__ker" seems to have been taken into Chinatown Cantonese, along with bootlegged rap records.

As Leon, Malieek Straughter is as scary and even more violent and psychotic than "Mouse" in the "Easy Rawlins" series of Walter Mosley (of which, alas, only "Devil in a Blue Dress" has been filmed with Don Cheadle playing Mouse). Keith is capable of whatever violence seems to be called for, like Jimmy Lee in "Election 2" and shares Jimmy's particular line of business as well as businesslike attitude. Also similarly soft-spoken and handsome. (Stringer Bell on "The Wire" is an African American analog to Keith.)

For me the worst part is Nick's father, Anderson, played by John Savage. Although it is an agit-prop clueless liberal role, it does provide some humor of the "God takes care of fools" variety. Alas, Kathy Baker as Anderson's wife and Nick's father has nothing with which to work to develop a character. The older Chinese characters (George Cheung and James Hong) are also cardboard stock characters, as in a cameo is Jim Brown (about whom Lee made a documentary).

I thought that the reds and yellows in the scenes in the Mission District were way oversaturated along with the reds in the Chinatown ones, with Hunter's Point being less obtrusively blued. The in high-definition digital video photography is that of César Charlone (City of God, The Constant Gardner).

Lee's usual composer Terence Blanchard provides moody music that is less obtrusive than in some other collaborations.

I think that Showtime made a bad decision not following up on this pilot (partly Showtime's management changed and partly the deal fell through because Spike Lee would not commit to directing episodes beyond this pilot). And I think that Spike Lee is a very accomplished director who has a substantial body of work both in documentaries and fiction features. ("Inside Man", to take one instance, seems quite underrated, as does "Clockers," though "Do the Right Thing" may be a bit overrated, and Lee has made some not-at-all-good movies, too.)

There is a short Showtime promo in which the three young actors sing the praises of working with Spike Lee, and filmographies for them (these are longer than I'd have thought), and trailers for four other Showtime projects (more indication that Showtime should have picked up SFC!).

©2009, Stephen O. Murray

My epinions about other Spike Lee movies:

School Daze (1988)
A Huey P. Newton Story (2001)
Jim Brown: All American (2002)

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age