Pass Over

In response to the other reviews, yes this is a stage play. It really doesn't feel like it though. It takes place on one set, and you can clearly see one of the cameras at certain points, but I don't see how that can make this worth two or three stars. Besides that, this play tells you how so many people feel, and why they feel that way. If you are conservative, you probably aren't even considering watching a Spike Lee joint, but if you are opened to hearing a story that many people go through, I think you'll learn quite a lot. There are some cuts to the audience that show you that these characters are based on real events that happen to so many black people. It'll make you laugh, cry, and think. I would recommend to many. As a film student, I admire this work. The actors (especially Julian Parker - WOW) are great at keeping you engaged, and there are other surprises that will keep you wondering what will happen next. I began it by playing it in the background of playing on my phone, but put it down pretty quickly.

The hypocrisies of this play are baffling. The deranged "protagonists?" decide to commit assisted suicides and are saved by the police officer, who they then dare to kill them, which he refuses to do, but then the message is that all white people want to kill black people? And when Moses is killed by a murderer, that is the antagonist, the one that did what they were going to do and had concluded was the only way to 'be free'? Everything about this is contradictory to its own message, and not in a nuanced manner that creates discussion, in a paranoia fueling, hate inducing manner which is capped off with the entirely unnecessary religious intolerance plugged into a throw away line. The vitriol is nonstop, flowing from the mouths and pens of writers with incredibly limited vocabularies. Even the characters point out diegetically the unrealistically unbalanced use of a particular ethnic slur.

Spike Lee only shot the performance, it's not directed or written by him. So that takes out half the low scores here, which don't even discuss the content. Pass Over a powerful, funny tragedy, taking the basic setup and some of the absurdity of Waiting for Godot, and applying it to the eternal hellish limbo of two struggling young black man. Spending their lives on an anonymous Chicago block, they're unable to escape the nightly police violence and 'pass over' into the peaceful existence they dream of. The cast is superb all-round, and even considering it is predominantly a document of the play, there are in fact some affecting and apt editing decisions made by Lee throughout.

This is not a movie. It's a bad theater play. The actors's performance is ok, but don't expect a storyline, nor good photography, or good music. And it's neither inspiring nor entertaining.

(No spoliers) Spike Lee movies are either fantastic 5 stars, or mediocre 1-2 stars, never in between. He has quite the resume, and most of his films are hits. Well, sorry to say but this one is a failure. The opening scene is promising. There's imagery and sound that is classic Spike Lee and I got a very good feeling the first couple minutes. But then it turns in to a filmed stage play that I kept waiting to end and the real movie get started, maybe follow the main characters through their lives. "Oh these guys are aspiring actors, let's see what happens in real life." Nope. The play IS the movie. To add insult to injury, the entire film just focuses on the two main characters who talk a lot of super unrealistic dialogue. Imagine if Woody Allen wrote the most stereotypically bad movie possible, like offensive parody bad. This would be it. I struggled to make it half way through the film and I just couldn't take it anymore. It's a 1 star movie. I gave an extra star for a certain level of creativity that may appeal to some dumb people the same way Woody Allen movies do (never appealed to me), the acting of the two main characters isn't necessarily bad, they did what they could with it, and it is an entire feature film with a cast of only four actors. Not easy to pull off, obviously, because even Spike Lee sure couldn't.