Jungle Fever

MOVIE #1,944 • SCORE 8/10 • 09.04.24
SERIES: SPIKE LEE DIRECTOR FOCUS

I know these are important movies but some of the scenes where they get into the issues don't seem to hold up. It's like every character is speaking directly in Spike Lee's voice, shouting at each other without listening. This worked when it was amped up to the nth degree in Do the Right Thing (which also has a superior story). Weirdly, in this film, the scenes with the Italian characters feel much more natural and real. It’s a fairly minor complaint as there’s more here to like than not.

I think this works best when viewed as a companion piece to DTRT: it’s set in the same universe (sort of — the same cops/actors appear in both). It's frustrating, because outside of a few scenes and a sloppy, melodramatic climax + WTF freeze-frame ending (see below), this film is almost its equal. The Ernest Dickerson cinematography, especially in the blue-lit comically huge crack den, is top-notch and the performances (featuring some big names in small roles, like Tim Robbins, Brad Dourif and Michael Imperioli, Spike staples like Wesley Snipes, John Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson and Giancarlo Esposito, and not to mention, Halle Berry and Queen Latifah in their big-screen debuts) are all great.

This could be a simple issue of Spike just trying to pack in too much plot, but part of my problem here (and with Spike in general) is that, going into this series, I never thought of him as a messy filmmaker, which he absolutely is. So I'm dealing with a little cognitive dissonance, as I normally enjoy or at least really appreciate messy movies.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,943 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,945 ⫸

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Jungle Fever is a 1991 American romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Spike Lee. Starring Lee, Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Lonette McKee, John Turturro, Frank Vincent, Tim Robbins, Brad Dourif, Giancarlo Esposito, Debi Mazar, Michael Imperioli, Anthony Quinn, and Halle Berry and Queen Latifah in their film debuts, Jungle Fever explores the beginning and end of an extramarital interracial relationship against the urban backdrop of the streets of New York City in the early 1990s. The film received positive reviews, with particular praise for Samuel L. Jackson's performance, and was also commercially successful. It was released on June 7, 1991.