Short Review: Clockers (1995)

Watched Clockers last night. The inspiration for The Wire (season 1 in particular) is easy to see, but since the novel had the misfortune of being adapted by Spike Lee (with his nigh-pathological aversion to subtlety in full force), the film is pretty well ruined by random bouts of soapbox editorializing, distracting skin-deep stylistic flourishes, campy overacting galore, and a fucking awful score that undermines nearly every scene. (Like, imagine if 80% of The Wire‘s scenes were accompanied by either a terrible soap opera soundtrack that didn’t even match what was happening onscreen, or licensed R&B music played during violent scenes for an in-your-face “ironic” contrast that wears out its welcome about 15 seconds into the opening credits. Yeah.)

Should’ve just read the book.