I saw this back when it came out in the theater and really didn't like it. Thing that I remember vividly is that the movie was more than half over before I really had a sense of a POV character. It seemed intentional on the director's part to portray these characters in such a way as to keep them at arms length from me, the audience. There was stuff happening, but I really didn't feel like I was supposed to care.

By the time I get around to figuring out who I should be identifying with, I just don't care anymore about the characters or the movie. I no longer have any goodwill towards the director and his intentions. I feel that, at best, he doesn't care about me, and at worst, he's toying with me.

In general, I've found that I don't like Spike Lee movies. There have been a couple of exceptions like Malcolm X and Inside Man, but in general, there's always at least one (at least one) glaring flaw in his movies that plays out like it did for Summer of Sam and it seems to stem from a gargantuan ego. It's not simply that Spike Lee has something to teach (or preach) in his stories, it's that he comes across like he thinks he's better than me, smarter than me, doing this for my own good, like he's a stuck-up professor and I should feel privileged to be in his class.

When he can subjugate his ego and just make a movie (as with Inside Man) or the subject is undeniably bigger than his ego or he has actual reverence for (Malcolm X), he seems to be able to just tell a story, but those moments are far too rare in his output.

box
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Just looking out of the window
Watching the asphalt grow
Thinking how it all looks hand-me-down