Argument: Spike Lee is the greatest living American filmmaker. He's excelled in a multitude of genres, including narrative fiction, feature documentary, and long-form documentary. He rarely makes a bad film. He's a polarizing figure, his very involvement in a project spurs critical review and debate.
That argument held more water prior to the abortion that was Miracle at St. Anna.
After Kobe: Doin' Work? All I can think of is a sieve. My adulation of Spike Lee, the once mighty cinematic giant, responsible for Do the Right Thing and The 25th Hour and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and He Got Game and Inside Man and Summer of Sam and Malcom X, has diminished. Perhaps this is just a bump in the road... every great filmmaker has a folly here and there. (Tangential Discussion: Has Barack Obama's ascension to the presidency made Lee's work less relevant?)
So, what's wrong with this Kobe documentary?
The first thing I'd look at, is the angle that Lee decided to study Kobe Bryant from. The documentary follows Bryant through one game --
one regular season game -- during his 2007-08 MVP season. We watch the game, home against the Spurs, as Kobe provides voice over commentary. Lee -- and Bryant -- make a point to highlight that the commentary track was recorded in New York after Kobe dropped 61 points against the Knicks during the following season.
So, what we have, is 80-some minutes of a basketball game, interspersed with some halftime and post-game locker room footage, with Kobe breaking down the game.
Spike, a hint here -- I can watch the same thing, in real time, with Jeff Van Gundy breaking down the game, and enjoy it, because I wouldn't have to listen to Kobe talk for an hour.
The mistake here, is the belief that basketball is what makes Kobe Bryant an interesting figure. It's not. It's what's made him a rich asshole. This is the same Kobe Bryant who won 3 championships in the shadow of Shaq, only to later run him out of town so that he could be the alpha dog in LA: except he hasn't won a championship without Shaq. (And Kobe, sorry to let you in on this, but if you get past the Nugs, Bron Bron is going to freaking destroy you in the finals).
This is the same Kobe Bryant who is reported to be much maligned by his teammates. An asshole. Hey, who does that remind me of? Oh look, it's Bitch Tits! Oh, sorry, I mean A-Rod.
This is the same Kobe Bryant who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room in Denver in 2003. His trial and tribulations overshadowed what was supposed to be the Greatest Basketball Team Ever Assembled -- Kobe, Shaq, GP, and The Mailman, coached by Phil Jackson.
That team lost to Detroit in five games in the finals. Following that, Phil Jackson quit the Lakers, writing a book in which he called Kobe "uncoachable." Shaq and GP were traded away. The Mailman retired.
Look, I'm not saying that the Lakers
would have won the title if Kobe hadn't cum on that girl's face (
that's his thing, you know) -- Malone did have a career-ending injury that hobbled him during the finals... but how about if he didn't tell the cops that Shaq cheats on his wife?
("Bryant stated he should have done what Shaq does. Bryant stated that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything. He stated Shaq has paid up to a million dollars already for situations like this.")
So yeah, let's assume that Kobe wouldn't give anyone the access needed to evaluate him on a personal level. And don't think that's going to ever talk to the cops without a lawyer again. Buf if you're going to make a documentary about Kobe, you need to point the camera at the interesting parts of the man.
Doin' Work is a result of a fundamentally-flawed concept: the belief that watching Kobe give a running audio commentary on his approach to the game of basketball is interesting. It's like watching an hour-plus post-game interview. I don't know if it qualifies as torture, but it certainly qualifies as waterboarding.
