New Jersey Drive

In his second feature (after the low-budget, promising, but overly familiar Laws of Gravity), Nick Gomez acquires a much bigger budget, Spike Lee as executive producer, and an even more familiar pool of moves and stances copied from other movies, although this time he’s working in a black rather than an Italian American milieu. His story, derived from reporter Michel Marriott’s investigation of a scandal within the Newark police department, is about two joyriding car thieves and their tangles with the police. On one level, this is a bracing, scary account of police brutality; on another, it’s a black street-crime drama that we’ve all seen before. With Sharron Corley, Gabriel Casseus, Donald Adeosun Faison, Gwen McGee, and Saul Stein. (JR)

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