Inside Man

Spike Lee's strongest, sharpest film since SUMMER OF SAM (1999) takes a clever but gimmicky script by first-time screenwriter Russell Gewirtz and wreaths it in the nostalgic grit of classic New York crime movies like DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975) and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974). And if the twists and turns of Gewirtz's tale of a bank robbery that isn't what it seems and the hostage negotiator who won't let go until he figures out what it is are pure commercial tomfoolery, Lee slyly undermines them by polishing vignettes rooted in the day-to-day dynamics of race, money and cultural power in New York to a brittle shine. NYPD Detective Keith Frazier (Den...