Shaft
Directed by John Singleton
- action
- adventure
- crime
- thriller
The story
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.
What it’s like
Gritty late-nineties New York rendered in warm, saturated grain: sodium streetlight amber, smoky bar interiors, the orange-and-teal glow of nightclubs and the cool blue of police precincts, with a camera that prowls handheld through crowded sidewalks and then settles into confident wide compositions. The soundtrack is the signature here, a funk-and-soul score by David Arnold and Isaac Hayes-era grooves layered with hip-hop, so the city feels like it has a pulse you can dance to even when the scene is tense. Vibe: swaggering, street-smart, sardonic, a little sleazy in the best way. It moves briskly, with a lot of sharp dialogue and bruising set pieces, and its violence is frequent and sometimes brutal, including shootings and beatings, with some profanity, drug content and sexual innuendo, but more stylized than lingering. Shaft's emotional core is a hardened cop and his estranged nephew-adjacent family ties, slowly reconciling with the cost of loyalty. It suits a Friday night with friends or a loud, fun rewatch, and it's for people who want a cocky, music-driven urban crime story with attitude to spare, not something gentle.
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