Colman Domingo Set the Screen on Fire in Spike Lee’s Widely Forgotten Cult Favorite

Most working character actors never get close to breaking into the mainstream, but then again, most actors are not Colman Domingo. He was once firmly ensconced in the territory of “that guy,” popping up in small roles in films like Lincoln or Selma or having a five-episode run in a cult classic show like The Knick. But now he’s a two-time Academy Award nominee for his work in Rustin and Sing Sing, a truly in-demand force who continues to dazzle audiences with his impressive magnetism and considerate tenderness. If you look at the arc of his career and wonder where his promise really started to show, I would say look at Red Hook Summer, an extremely underseen Spike Lee joint that features Domingo in a small but vital role that bursts off of the screen with how explosive his performance is.

What Is ‘Red Hook Summer’ About?

Image via Variance Films

In Red Hook Summer, a young boy named Flik (Jules Brown) spends the summer with his religious grandfather, the preacher Enoch (Clarke Peters), and learns valuable lessons about community, respecting the word of the Bible, as well as the importance of supporting his family. He learns the hard way how to love somebody that you don’t really like that much as he and his grandfather frequently butt heads over their different lifestyles. What seems like a simple morality lesson becomes massively complicated by the arrival of Blessing Rowe (Domingo), a regular visitor to Enoch’s church, who usually sits quietly in the back and doesn’t make his presence known. However, during what was originally just another of Enoch’s sermons, when Enoch calls upon his parishioners to stand forward to confess their true feelings, Blessing steps up to drop a staggering bombshell that fundamentally changes the fabric of the narrative and gives Colman Domingo his first chance to truly leave an impression, and it’s a blistering one.

Colman Domingo’s Character Permanently Alters the Narrative of ‘Red Hook Summer’

Blessing initially seems to be gracious and appreciative of Enoch’s time as a preacher and speaks as if the two have a wonderful history together. But the more he talks, the more his genteel composure melts away into agonized rage, as he alleges that Enoch sexually abused him as a child, using his power as a religious mentor figure against young Blessing. He lambasts Enoch as a hypocrite and damns his soul to Hell, even trying to physically assault Enoch before he’s carried kicking and screaming out of the church by the other churchgoers, eventually calming down once he reaches the exit. That seems to be the end of this traumatic episode, except no, because Blessing swiftly runs back inside to try to piledrive Enoch in front of everybody, and then he’s finally thrown out of the church for good. It’s a harrowing sequence, one of such emotional importance that Spike chooses the moment when Blessing initially walks down the church aisle to be when he implements his trademark shot where an actor seems to be floating while moving, a shot used to similar effect in films like Da 5 Bloods or Inside Man.

Colman Domingo Gives a Huge Performance In a Small Role

While directed with the same heated verve that Spike Lee shot the iconic climax of Do the Right Thing with, it’s Colman Domingo’s ferocious and soulful performance that really gets your blood boiling. The way he switches from calm and benevolent to nauseatingly infuriated to depleted and confused is nothing short of mesmerizing, especially since Spike almost always shoots him in tight close-ups. Domingo continuously dances on the razor’s edge between respectable restraint and total histrionic annihilation, and the ever-tightening tension between those two polarities is what drives the unstoppable engine of his energy. Domingo is more than worthy of being a member of the Spike Lee Hall of Fame of Impassioned Speeches, right alongside Edward Norton‘s post-9/11 time capsule screed of hatred in 25th Hour or any of Denzel Washington‘s monologues in Malcolm X.

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At this point in his career, Colman Domingo had never had a role that truly let him own a scene, even though he’d previously worked in an earlier Spike Lee film, Miracle at St. Anna, in a minor walk-on role. We now know that he’s the kind of actor who always makes you sit up straighter and lean closer to make sure you catch every little nuance in what he’s doing. I, for one, will never forget how terrifying he felt in Zola, and how he was able to suggest so much history just in how he changes his accent at certain moments. All artists are on their own journey to find their way to greater success and figure out what their particular strengths are, and Domingo’s brief appearance in Red Hook Summer is a bracing precursor to the bravura displays he’s regularly giving us, and I hope that streak continues with the likes of The Running Man and whatever Steven Spielberg‘s highly anticipated UFO film will be called.

Red Hook Summer

Release Date

August 10, 2012

Runtime

125 minutes

Writers

James McBride

Cast

  • Da Good Bishop Enoch Rouse

  • Thomas Jefferson Byrd

    Deacon Zee

  • Toni Lysaith

    Chazz Morningstar

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