Hate

A bitter melange of Scorsese, Godard and Spike Lee, HATE tries to bridge the gap between European art film and American pop, and succeeds to a surprising extent. This second feature from young Mathieu Kassovitz (his first was released here in 1994 under the title CAFE AU LAIT) is set in a public housing project outside Paris, where a trio of angry young men -- an Arab (Said Taghmaoui), a Jew (Vincent Cassel) and a black (Hubert Kounde) -- drift, dance, brood, flirt with violence and chatter ceaselessly in gutter French. Exquisitely shot, culturally savvy and intermittently thrilling, it easily transcends the American ghetto pictures it emulates.