VIDEO 'BAMBOOZLED': A MESSY FILM WITH A TIMELY MESSAGE.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

If ``Bamboozled'' is any indication, it's not easy being Spike Lee.

Arriving in stores Tuesday on DVD and video, the latest from the New York City director is as messy as it is brilliant. One of the most important films of last year, this biting satire about black images in the media produces laughs, but they are uncomfortable ones.

The story involves an African-American, Harvard-educated TV comedy writer, Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), who is under pressure from his white network boss (Michael Rapaport) to produce edgier content. In an attempt to get out of his contract, Delacroix comes up with an idea so controversial he believes that the network will reject it and fire him. Instead the concept - ``Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show,'' in which black entertainers paint themselves in blackface - is embraced by the network, which hires a staff of white writers for the show.

This new-style variety show is set in a watermelon patch and stars two street performers whom Delacroix has found - Manray (Savion Glover), a tap-dancer, and his sidekick, Womack (Tommy Davidson), who are renamed Mantan and Sleep 'n' Eat. Joining the pair are a song-and-dance chorus, the Pickaninnys, which includes versions of Aunt Jemima, Sambo, Rastus and Jungle Bunny. A band called the Alabama Porch Monkeys backs them.

Outrageous enough? What was meant to offend not only becomes accepted but also becomes a smash hit, and people of all races begin to wear blackface masks or paint themselves up like Mantan and Sleep 'n' Eat. Clearly it's a barb aimed at a culture (particularly the white suburban youth culture) that tries to ``put on'' a black hipness by its choice of fashions.

As the show succeeds, Delacroix and his assistant, Sloan (Jada Pinkett Smith), find themselves more and more uncomfortable but going in opposite directions - with Delacroix clinging to his success and Sloan being more repelled.

At one point in the film, Lee cuts to a scene from his own ``Malcolm X'' where Denzel Washington as the Muslim leader tells followers that black people have been led astray. What Lee seems to be saying is that nothing has changed in that respect except the methods.

Delacroix is chided early on by his white boss about not using a racial slur that - despite its negative connotations - is used often in rap music. Delacroix is at first offended by the word, but when the show becomes a hit, uses the word in a skit. Later, audience members, again of all races, use the word to describe themselves. Lee isn't aiming to make this word acceptable; he's asking at what price does this ``entertainment'' come?

Lee seems to be saying many of the shows on network television starring black entertainers are no better than minstrel shows, and a montage at ``Bamboozled's'' end showing the use of blackface and racial stereotyping in film and movies is stinging.

The word ``messy'' is used partly in reference to Lee's narrative techniques. Delacroix, like some of the other characters, is almost a caricature at times, but at others, very human. Which that is seems to depend on what kind of point Lee wants to make. This constant shifting doesn't always work in the film, but the real mess is the complicated racial one Lee has so smartly dissected on screen. ``Bamboozled'' is discomforting, more so because it's funny. Lee should be applauded for this brave film that deserves a wider audience.

AND DON'T FORGET: If you didn't get to catch them in theaters, two small films recently released on video - ``The Tao of Steve'' and ``Girlfight'' - shouldn't be overlooked. Though the stories are quite different, the films have in common terrific performances and compelling stories, which is a lot more than we get from many bigger-budgeted films.

``Tao'' tells the story of an overweight, underachieving ladies man - Dex (Donal Logue) - who lives by a Zen code derived from all the cool Steves in the world, most notably Steve McQueen. But Dex hits a 30s- something crisis when he runs into an old college classmate, Syd (Greer Goodman), at a college reunion. She remembers when he was thin and when his philosophical ramblings didn't sound entirely like bull. A real romance is the farthest thing from Dex's mind, but he can't shake his feelings for Syd. Logue shines, making the Lothario Dex charming and likable - just like the movie.

Michelle Rodriguez recently won an Independent Spirit Award as best newcomer for her role as Diane, the girl in ``Girlfight.'' Rodriguez sizzles in this story of a young woman who escapes from an abusive father and enters into the boxing ring, finding herself in the process. Like ``Tao,'' ``Girlfight'' is a film with modest aims, but sometimes there is a lot to be said for modesty.

``Bamboozled'' (New Line) is priced for rental on video ($107.99) and at $24.98 on DVD, which includes full-length commentary by Lee, deleted scenes, a music video and a documentary on the making of the film. ``The Tao of Steve'' (Columbia) is priced for rental on video ($104.99) and at $24.95 on DVD, which includes cast and crew commentary. ``Girlfight'' (Columbia) is priced for rental on video ($104.99) and at $24.95 on DVD, which includes commentary by the director and a making-of featurette.

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Jada Pinkett Smith and Damon Wayans star in Spike Lee's biting racial satire ``Bamboozled.''