I went into Red Hook Summer thinking that I was going to get a slice of summer life from a child’s perspective in Brooklyn like Spike Lee’s Crooklyn. The majority of Red Hook Summer meanders. A middle class Georgia vegetarian boy visits his storefront preacher grandfather in the projects for the first time. Red Hook Summer lovingly focuses on the neighborhood characters: a local girl who becomes a good friend, various church ladies, Mookie from Do the Right Thing, gentrifiers, the drunk deacon obsessed with the stock market. There is the obligatory threat from dealers on the corner. The church is preparing for a big reunion, and the grandfather hopes that it brings some financial blessings so the church can get some much-needed repairs. No one shoots with such vibrant color as Lee.
There is a rhythm that lulls you into a routine that made me think that I was watching a coming of age film. Randomly parts of the film made me compare it to The Visit. The mother flew all the way from Georgia just to drop her son off at her father’s house with the meter running on a cab parked on the corner so she is obviously more protective, but equally as distant from her father as the family in The Visit. She communicates with her son using modern technology. It felt like there was something missing, but I had no idea what it was.

SPOILERS FOR RED HOOK SUMMER AND SPIKE LEE’S OLDBOY

During the church reunion, it is suddenly revealed that the grandfather abused a child in his congregation, which is why he left Georgia and moved to NY. Red Hook Summer’s perspective shifts from the grandson’s point of view to the grandfather after he explains to his grandson what he did, how he is better through Jesus and infers that he is chemically castrated. He goes to church to pray, is beaten by the drug dealers, who were former congregants, but not abused (missed narrative opportunity) then as the grandfather walks home, his former congregants either say that they will pray for him, spit on him or verbally abuse him. These scenes are the most powerful in Red Hook Summer and evoked the stations of Christ. Lee seems to depict the grandfather as unfairly persecuted after only doing good in Red Hook and genuinely believes in the character’s claims of repentance. By refusing to tell the cops, the grandfather turns the other cheek.
If I’m being generous, Red Hook Summer reveals that Lee is a Christian who truly believes that God can even cure pedophiles. As a Christian, I believe God can do anything and save anyone, but I also understand that even an allegedly cured pedophile should flee temptation and never be permitted to be alone with or even near kids. When the Catholic priest child abuse scandal broke out, I immediately thought of Mark 9:42, Jesus said, “If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.”
After watching Oldboy and Red Hook Summer, I’m disturbed at Lee’s depictions of child abuse. At least in Red Hook Summer, the victim clearly objects, and the abuser is shown as grooming and exploiting his victim as opposed to the enthusiastic consensual parent child relationship in Oldboy. Unfortunately Lee also seems to think of the grandfather as a genuine servant-like Christ figure who serves the community instead of as someone who runs away from responsibility, passively aggressively bullies his congregants and perverts his authority. Lee does not seem to understand that sexual abusers have high recidivism rates and treat their victims like potato chips-abusers never have just one, and even the ones that want to change should not be left alone with children. By taking the grandfather’s account at face value, Red Hook Summer inadvertently promotes the kind of thinking that led to the Catholic priest child abuse scandal.
The narrative never explains why a protective mother who clearly didn’t like her father would leave her child alone with her pedophile brother. Based on the congregations’ reaction, the narrative never explains why one of them didn’t intervene and demand that the grandson stay with them.
Lee makes a mistake by abruptly shifting from the grandson’s point of view to the grandfather’s point of view, and Red Hook Summer is two movies in one-a childhood summer story and a struggle with redemption story. Red Hook Summer should have always been shot from the grandfather’s perspective. Lee could have still lulled us into a complacent soothing calm then shocked us. Lee was aiming for Ackerman by showing the daily routine then disrupting it, but we only saw the child’s daily routine. Red Hook Summer would have been more powerful if we saw the grandfather’s ordinary life free, then adjusting to living with someone again and then after he is outted as a pedophile.
Red Hook Summer needed much more research into sexual abuse and discipline before shooting though I applaud the ambitious skill that it takes to shoot a movie in NYC in three weeks. I applaud Lee’s artistry, hope and love, but Red Hook Summer is still more misfire than hit.