This is what Spike does best: capturing a moment in time, and looking deeply into the human condition. Ignore those whining that it's "not about the Son of Sam." Yeah. That's why it's not _called_ "Son of Sam".
What it is, is an extremely well-done vignette of New York City, and the world in general, in 1977 -- a period when "Sam Hysteria" gripped that city, and the rest of us watched obsessively from afar.
Along the way Spike gives us another "Sam": a man with a sexual compulsion he can't control, complete with the pseudo-religious angst typical of such personalities. This is a fantastic technique. I won't spoil anything for other viewers, but you'll see how Spike juxtaposes these two characters in the film.
Other classic Spike themes are here: bigotry, intolerance, hatred of anybody different, the universality of all of this regardless of "race" or community, the stupid callowness of youth, the dumb brutality of the uneducated, and the quiet existence of fundamentally decent people in the midst of it all.
For those complaining about the Plato's Retreat scene, welcome to the 70s, mofo. Sex was invented in the 1970s; we were sure of it. I'm not saying everybody (or even many) did that Plato stuff, but we were told everybody was doing it. And one thing is certain: everybody was talking about it. Everybody. All the time. So it was part of the era. It would have been a serious oversight not to include it in a film that purports to capture the feel of that city at that time.
If you remember the media furor over those killings; the saturation-covered moral and physical rot of NYC in the 70s; and the golden age of KC and the Sunshine Band, this movie will be a visit home.
And if you like complex, unflinching, insightful films, you just might learn something.
What it is, is an extremely well-done vignette of New York City, and the world in general, in 1977 -- a period when "Sam Hysteria" gripped that city, and the rest of us watched obsessively from afar.
Along the way Spike gives us another "Sam": a man with a sexual compulsion he can't control, complete with the pseudo-religious angst typical of such personalities. This is a fantastic technique. I won't spoil anything for other viewers, but you'll see how Spike juxtaposes these two characters in the film.
Other classic Spike themes are here: bigotry, intolerance, hatred of anybody different, the universality of all of this regardless of "race" or community, the stupid callowness of youth, the dumb brutality of the uneducated, and the quiet existence of fundamentally decent people in the midst of it all.
For those complaining about the Plato's Retreat scene, welcome to the 70s, mofo. Sex was invented in the 1970s; we were sure of it. I'm not saying everybody (or even many) did that Plato stuff, but we were told everybody was doing it. And one thing is certain: everybody was talking about it. Everybody. All the time. So it was part of the era. It would have been a serious oversight not to include it in a film that purports to capture the feel of that city at that time.
If you remember the media furor over those killings; the saturation-covered moral and physical rot of NYC in the 70s; and the golden age of KC and the Sunshine Band, this movie will be a visit home.
And if you like complex, unflinching, insightful films, you just might learn something.