“25th Hour” is a New York movie, made for New Yorkers, by New Yorkers. But what else can one expect from director Spike Lee, a man who truly is New York?

In this film, there is a scene reminiscent of one in Lee’s 1989 film “Do The Right Thing,” where almost every single silly stereotype of an urban population is exclaimed directly into the audience’s face. But in a post-Sept. 11 world, these connotations take on completely new meanings, and Lee lets us know why.

-Ed Norton plays Monty Brogan, a recently busted drug dealer with one last night until he’s sent to prison for seven years. When he gets out, he knows nothing will be the same.

During the film, we are treated to a few subplots, one sort-of mystery as Monty tries to figure out just who ratted him out to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Among those suspected is his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson) who comes off loving and sexy, but we share Monty’s suspicions about her possible ulterior motives.

The film’s best moments are in the interactions between Monty’s best friends. Francis (Barry Pepper) is an egocentric, skirt-chasing Wall Street broker and Jakob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a conservative, emotionally jailed man passing himself off as a liberal, headstrong teacher. The energetic dialogue between these two characters hasn’t been seen in a movie since Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.”

The difference between the two young directors is that Lee takes much more of a realistic approach to his work than Tarantino. We believe that these characters really talk like this, these people could really exist.

Lee is maturing as a director. He and cinematographers Rodrigo Prieto and Joe Williams know when to use camera tricks to accentuate escalating points in the plot. Their use of rich, saturated blues and lusty reds in the club scene show their ability to create mood without saying a word.

This film stands apart from Lee’s other work, and it just may be his finest yet. He succeeds by not making us feel too sorry for Monty; we know that he is guilty, and deserves to be punished. Instead of preaching a message to us, he simply tells the story of a man trying to get the best out of every hour of the last day of his life. This truly is a remarkable picture – absolutely flawless.