The year is 1977, punk rock is pushing disco out of the limelight and New York is experiencing one of its hottest summers of all time. While the city sizzles, a maniac with a gun is stalking single women through the Italian-American suburbs, taunting newspapers with crazed bulletins - signed "Son Of Sam" that boast about his killings. The city is in panic, and to stop the madness a Mafia figure puts out a contract on Sam, a challenge eagerly accepted by streetwise Joey T and his gang. Joey figures that it must be someone local, someone they know, and when the mob mentality takes over, a witch-hunt ensues.

Already the subject of some controversy for the strength (and length) of some of its scenes, Summer Of Sam is best viewed alongside Lee's other tangentially semi-autobiographical movies - for example, Mo, Better Blues, which played out scenes from Lee's own experience of the jazz life, picked up first-hand through his musician father.

It is interesting to note the fact that jazz legend Terence Blanchard provides the score in Summer Of Sam, making a sharp counterpoint to the tacky chart hits and pounding disco anthems that bring the decade into focus. Damon Wise