Spike Lee
La 25a Ora

There was a time when every movie with Edward Norton as a protagonist was a must-watch and undeniably interesting. After the surprising debut with "Primal Fear," he delivered a series of memorable performances in "The People vs. Larry Flynt," "Rounders," "American History X," "Fight Club," "The Score," and "Red Dragon" in just a few years.

Then came "25th Hour," which tells the story of Monty's last day of freedom, a drug dealer who has been sentenced to 7 years in prison.
Monty made mistakes; he could have chosen another path, but he chose the easier one. A path that inevitably leads him to confront himself, as each of us must, because Monty could be me, could be you, could be a friend of yours. And then there's the mirror monologue, where Monty rails against New York and its inhabitants. The anger and despair he feels inside are what we feel when we lash out at others, but in the end, those F*** yous are really aimed at himself. Monty is ready to recite his Mea Culpa. The final scene is beautiful, the 25th hour, the illusion of a happy ending, the return to reality.
And it's precisely New York that is one of the film's strengths, a metropolis wounded by the September 11 attacks. One particular sequence is truly powerful: a cynical Barry Pepper and an naive Philip Seymour Hoffman have a great dialogue in an apartment right behind Ground Zero, with its ashes.
"25th Hour" is an emotional, intense film, probably Spike Lee's most mature work, which deviates from his previous films, especially the earlier ones, heavily focused on the theme of racism ("Do the Right Thing" and "Clockers" in my opinion the best); here the director reaches his peak of authorship.
Among the co-stars, definitely praise-worthy is an incredible Barry Pepper, a brilliant and beautiful Rosario Dawson, and the usual Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Curiosity: the screenwriter, who is also the author of the novel from which the film is adapted, went on to become one of the creators of the TV series "Game of Thrones" a few years later, a completely different genre, yet always of high quality.