Let me first say that this film is fantastic.
Spike Lee manages to tell a very important story about "growing" in America.
Like the majority of Spike Lee's films, the "25th hr" is set in (present day) N.Y.C. . This film deals with living and growing in an America that lives with the wool pulled over it's eyes, and from the perspectives of the individual characters the wool is being removed for them.
The central character "Monty", is a drug dealer living a charmed life in N.Y.C. . He is just as much a business man as his father-a bar owner/retired fireman, his best friends-a school teacher, and a Wall Street Investor. It is unsure what his girlfriend does for a living,but she does provide Monty with an emotional stability that is the actual center of his obviously upwardly mobile yet wholesome life.
The film takes us into Monty's life on his last day of freedom,before he is due to report to a Federal Prison for drug dealing. Like Clockers, the film explores the options that we have in our lives in the middle of mounting personal tradgedies.
It also juxtaposes the microcosm into the macrocosm-this is where N.Y.C. rounds out the cast as a giant mirror to Monty's protagonist.
Go see it.
I saw it. I enjoyed it. The cinematography was excellent...yes Spike still employs his moving sidewalk effect and it is still effective. The score by Terrence Blanchard was subtle and strong, and also a relief because the music doesn't steer your emotions like most hollywood movies,as much as compliment the story that is being told (old school like a mother).
I snuck into "Gangs of New York" afterward and was mildly impressed with it,but the student has surpassed the teacher as far as painting a picture and telling a story to moviegoers.
For some reason I was thinking that 25th hour is like a David Mamet/Spike Lee vibe. But it's actually a very comfortable and mature Spike Lee who isn't afraid or reactionary about living without the wool over his eyes.

s.blak
get in the water and shut up