Delayed Reaction: Jungle Fever

The Pitch: It's a Spike Lee movie, so you know what that means in term of style, but this will focus on relationships, of course giving special focus to racially mixed couples.

How I Came Into It: I haven't seen a lot of Spike Lee's movies. Most recently, I saw Do the Right Thing which is toward the top of the list of movies that are critically adored that I just don't get. I actually forgot that Jungle Fever was a Spike Lee movie at all until it started. I'm quite eager to see what other people see in his work.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) As the movie settled in, I really liked the rotating discussions about race and relationships that the characters were all having. It got me thinking, which I believe is the point of the movie. I'm starting to get a feel for Lee's style and I could sense more of the mechanisms at work than I did in Do the Right Thing, which means that I may be getting closer to cracking his code.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: So, does Lee make movies awful intentionally? I don't get it. Snipe's character cheating on his wife made little sense. His white bosses were lacking any subtlety. Pretty much every moment until Snipes' wife learns about his affair is as unauthentic as anything I've ever seen...which may be the point, I think. All of that happens in order to lead to a larger discussion of race and relationships, so maybe he doesn't care about the specifics of how it comes about. Why did he spend so much time on it then? Ugh, I can't figure it out.
One other thing I want to note, and this could be due to the specific recording I watched, but whoever did the sound mixing for that should never work again. The music was constantly drowning out the dialogue. I think it was the worst when Flipper and Angie are first bonding late night at the office and the score was blaring.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend