The focused Spike Lee of Do The Right Thing and 25th Hour (as opposed to the scattershot Lee of Bamboozled and She Hate Me) here directs Oliver Twist-does-the-Projects, with Delroy Lindo as the Fagin-esque gang boss and Mekhi Phifer as the sympathetic dealer who's wanted by the cops and hated by his neighbours. Lee regular Terence Blanchard provides the haunting score.
