a spike lee joint

i didn't expect much of bamboozled going into it, and i wasn't disappointed. i wouldn't call it a bad film, it's just as subtle as a bag of hammers. there are some great performances (by mos def, jada pinkett-smith, savion glover, and a few others), and the photography is amazing (especially considering much of it was shot on consumer-grade dv cameras). the plot just sort of lurches along, and there were points where i wondered if i had nodded off and missed some scenes that would make it all more coherent. (and spike really needed someone on the commentary track with him to provide a little more fuel for conversation. there are points where the only commentary is him repeating some key lines spoken by one of the characters.)