Spike Lee Movies
While African-American filmmakers have been a staple of the cinematic landscape since the pioneering work of Oscar Micheaux during the '20s, none have had the same cultural or artistic impact as Spike Lee. As a writer, director, actor, producer, author, and entrepreneur, Lee has revolutionized the role of black talent in Hollywood, tearing away decades of stereotypes and marginalized portrayals to establish a new arena for African-American voices to be heard. His movies -- a series of outspoken and provocative socio-political critiques informed by an unwavering commitment toward challenging cultural assumptions not only about race but also class and gender identity -- both solidified his own standing as one of contemporary cinema's most influential figures and furthered the careers of actors including Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett, and Laurence Fishburne. Along the way, Lee even cleared a path for up-and-coming black filmmakers such as John Singleton, Matty Rich, Darnell Martin, Ernest Dickerson (Lee's one-time cinematographer), and Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes.Born Shelton Jackson Lee in Atlanta, GA, on March 20, 1957, he was raised in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. The son of jazz musician Bill Lee, his first love was sports; an obsessive fan of the New York Knicks basketball club, his initial goal was to become a major-league baseball player. Only while attending Atlanta's prestigious Morehouse College did Lee's affection for film begin to surface, and while earning a degree in mass communications he returned to New York to make his first movie, 1977's Last Hustle in Brooklyn, a portrait of the area's Black and Puerto Rican communities shot with a Super-8 camera during the height of the disco craze. Upon graduating from Morehouse, he enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, earning his Master of Fine Arts Degree in film production. His senior feature, 1982's Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, was the first student effort ever showcased in Lincoln Center's "New Directors, New Films" series, and also garnered the Student Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The success of Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop encouraged Lee to hire representation at the William Morris Agency, but when no studio contracts were forthcoming, he began exploring alternate means of independent financing. After a series of setbacks, he managed to secure 125,000 dollars to produce the stylish and sexy 1986 comedy She's Gotta Have It, which took the Prix de Jeunesse award at Cannes and earned close to 9 million dollars at the box office. Hollywood soon came calling, and in 1988, he released his major studio debut School Daze; however, it was his third film, 1989's Do the Right Thing, which launched Lee to the forefront of the American filmmaking community. A provocative, insightful meditation on simmering racial tension, it was among the year's most controversial and talked-about films and went on to net an Oscar nomination for "Best Screenplay" (although not a nod for "Best Picture," a slight in and of itself the subject of much outcry).
The jazz world was the subject of '90s Mo' Better Blues, which opened to lukewarm press; however, with his next effort, the following year's Jungle Fever, Lee was again at the center of controversy over the picture's subject matter, interracial romance. Upon the movie's completion, he began work on his long-awaited dream project, 1992's Malcolm X. Shot at various points across the globe (including Mecca), the three-hour biopic of the slain civil-rights leader reached theaters in its intended form only after celebrities including Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, and Prince helped defray financing costs in the wake of Warner Bros.' mandate that Lee trim the film's running time by half an hour. After so many politically charged pictures, Lee next shot the change-of-pace Crooklyn, a relatively light serio-comedy based largely on his own experiences growing up in Brooklyn in the early '70s and written in tandem with his sisters Joie and Cinqué.
Next up was 1995's Clockers, a highly regarded urban crime drama based on the novel by Richard Price. In 1996, Lee released two very different features. The first, Girl 6, looked at the world of a young actress forced to accept work as a phone-sex operator, while the other, Get on the Bus, paid tribute to the historic Million Man March on its one-year anniversary, with financing courtesy of figures including Danny Glover, Wesley Snipes, and Johnny Cochran. While a long-planned biography of baseball great Jackie Robinson continued to languish in limbo, in 1997, Lee did realize another dream with 4 Little Girls, a documentary about the racially motivated bombing of a Birmingham, AL, church that killed four pre-teens in 1963. Upon signing a three-year, first-look production contract with Columbia, he then began work on He Got Game, a study of the politics of high-school basketball starring his frequent leading man Denzel Washington. The film opened to mixed reviews, which did little to diminish the anticipation surrounding Lee's next film, Summer of Sam. Set in Brooklyn during the long, hot summer of 1977 when serial killer David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz terrorized the city, the film looks at the murders through the eyes of various borough inhabitants, played in part by Adrien Brody, Jennifer Esposito, Mira Sorvino, and John Leguizamo. The film generated mixed responses, eliciting the love-it or hate-it reactions so common among critics when reviewing Lee's work. The director's subsequent project, Bamboozled (2000), incurred a similar reaction: an excoriating satire on the images of blacks in (predominately white) popular culture. The film won over a number of critics even as it alienated others, yet it was another testament to Lee's status as one of the most complex and divisive filmmakers of both the late 20th century and the early 21st century.
In the following years Lee would tackle a quartet of more personal projects with A Huey P. Newton Story, Come Rain or Come Shine, Jim Brown: All-American, and a ten-minute segment of Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet before again turning to feature films with The 25th Hour. A rare film for Lee in that it basically eschewed his usual topic of racial issues for a rather straightforward adaptation of David Benioff's popular novel, The 25th Hour. The film found Lee branching off to surprising effect, even if it didn't score a direct hit at the box office. After stepping behind the camera to direct the Showtime gang drama Sucker Free City in 2004, Lee moved back into feature territory with the 2004 comedy drama She Hate Me.
In addition to his primary work as a filmmaker, Lee has also written a number of books about filmmaking, as well as the 1997 Best Seat in the House: A Basketball Memoir, which documented his high-profile obsession with the Knicks. To support his idealistic brand of moviemaking, Lee also turned to outside sources of income. Most profitable was a retail outlet, dubbed "Spike's Joint," which sold apparel related to his films -- during 1992, gear from Malcolm X was a widespread fashion statement among the nation's youth. Additionally, he directed a number of commercials, most famously a series of Nike spots in which he appeared (in the guise of his She's Gotta Have It character, Mars Blackmon) alongside basketball superstar Michael Jordan, as well as music videos for the likes of Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, and Prince. To aid aspiring filmmakers, Lee also founded the 40 Acres and Mule Film Institute on the campus of Brooklyn's Long Island University. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
A man has one day to put his life in order before a long stretch in prison in this drama directed by Spike Lee. Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) is a man who came from a working class family in New York. Monty's best friends Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) went on to distinguished careers as, respectively, a high school teacher and a bonds trader, but Monty took a different path and began dealing drugs. While Monty's trade has made him plenty of money, it hasn't brought him much respect from his family and friends, and while Jacob and Slaughtery have stayed in touch, Monty's lifestyle has led them to keep their distance. One night, Monty is relaxing at home with his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson) when the police show up; Monty is arrested, and after a trial he's sentenced to seven years in prison. On his last day of freedom before he goes to jail, Monty tries to make amends with his father (Brian Cox) and goes out on the town with Jacob and Slaughtery. With both of his friends facing emotional crises of their own, Monty finds himself wondering where his life took a wrong turn and if there's any way left to redeem himself. Along the way, Monty begins to suspect that Naturelle may have turned him in, and he has to deal with Kostya Novotny (Tony Siragusa), an ill-tempered drug supplier who has unfinished business with him. 25th Hour was scripted by David Benioff, who adapted the story from his novel of the same name. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, (more)
New York City may be the city that never sleeps, but that means some people have to stay awake all night to look after the folks whose days begin after the sun goes down; this made-for-premium-cable drama looks at a group of cabbies trying to get by while working the night shift. The Lady Luck Cab Company is a taxi service run by Box (Sarita Choudhury), who inherited the failing business from her late father and is struggling to keep it afloat against long economic odds as Lady Luck's drivers work long shifts in some of the Big Apple's less picturesque neighborhoods. Hershey (Danny Glover), one of Lady Luck's drivers, was once a professional boxer, but when his athletic career went south, so did his wife, and now he drives a hack while trying to romance George (Pam Grier), a good-looking waitress who likes Hershey, but is frustrated with his schedule, which rarely allows him a night off. This is bad news for Hershey, since Ralph (Paul Calderon), a regular at the diner where George works, has been making a play for her as well. Another driver, Salgado (Michelle Rodriguez), is a short-fused Latin American woman who is frequently the victim of sexual harassment from her customers, which makes her all the more difficult to be around. Jose (Bobby Cannavale) thinks he's hit the jackpot when he discovers a briefcase full of cash has been left in his cab, though he has reason to believe it's stolen. And Rasha (Sergej Trifunovic), a refugee from Bosnia, is still tormented by the violence that cost his family their lives, and has trouble concentrating on his driving, leading him into more than one auto accident. While the drivers deal with their individual dilemmas, all of them are suddenly wary of their customers, thanks to reports of a serial killer preying on New York's cab drivers. Produced for the Showtime premium cable network, 3 A.M. was screened at the Sundance Film Festival prior to its broadcast debut, where it earned an enthusiastic reception. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Glover, Pam Grier, (more)
Director Spike Lee made his first feature-length documentary with this powerful story of the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, AL, in 1963, which took the lives of four girls, ages 11 through 14. The shocking incident received national press attention and became a rallying point in the ongoing struggle for civil rights, but while Lee's film examines the crime, the perpetrators, and the long struggle to bring them to justice, it also offers a close look at the four girls themselves as their friends and families recall, in moving detail, who they were and how they lived. A variety of civil rights activists, politicians, journalists, and lawyers are interviewed onscreen, including Walter Cronkite and a brief but disturbing meeting with former Alabama governor George Wallace. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2008
Director Olivier Jahan offers an glimpse into The Director's Fortnight, a sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival conceived by a group of filmmakers known as the Société des Réalisateurs de Films who sought to counter the academism of the main part of the world-renowned festival. Pierre-Henri Deleau, the one-time artistic director of the Société des Réalisateurs de Films, and as his successor Olivier Père take movie lovers behind the scenes as the dedicated group of filmmakers prepare for the 2007 Director's Fortnight. Archive footage, film clips, and interviews with over two-dozen directors offer a comprehensive look at forty years of cinematic rebellion. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Spike Lee directed this made-for-cable adaptation of Roger Guenveur Smith's one-man show about the life and times of Huey P. Newton, who as one of the founders and key strategists of the Black Panther Party was among the most respected and feared figures in the Black Power movement of the late '60s and early '70s. A Huey P. Newton Story combines footage of Smith's play being performed before a live audience (featuring Smith, a member of Spike Lee's stock company, in the title role) with newsreel clips of Newton and his contemporaries at the height of their notoriety. A Huey P. Newton Story had its world premiere on the Black Starz premium cable network on June 18, 2001; the film was later shown on the PBS and African Heritage networks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Guenveur Smith
- 2000
Seven short films from up-and-coming African-American filmmakers are collected on this video release. Breakdown stars Vanessa Williams as a traumatized witness to a shooting at a bus station. A Gut Feeling follows two police offers out on an unexpectedly eventful call; Spike Lee served as executive producer for this short. A prominent lawyer is haunted by his past in the film Kings. Breakfast at Ben's tells the story of a man who worked his way out of poverty, and now wants to do something for the community he left behind. The Gift concerns an artist who has lost his sight, but is faced a new set of anxieties when he's told surgery might be able to restore his vision. Hip Hop: The New World Order takes a look at the global impact of rap and hip-hop music, and includes interviews with Chuck D. from Public Enemy and members of the Roots. And True is a comedic short subject that inspired the Budweiser "Whassup?" commercials. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2005
Omnibus films attained renewed popularity during the 1990s and 2000s; this particular seven-episode film-a-sketch arrived during that period, and involved several top-tiered international filmmakers including John Woo, Spike Lee, Ridley Scott, Emir Kusturica and three others. Each helmer was asked to shoot a segment of between 16-18 minutes in length, for UNICEF, on the subject of exploited and/or underprivileged children around the world. The package opens with "Tanza," helmed by Algerian novelist-cum-filmmaker Mehdi Charef and shot in Burkina Faso. It concerns the 12-year-old female title character - an adolescent freedom fighter - who trollops through the countryside accompanied by young male guerilla fighters who spout off deliberately nonsensical English-language dialogue. Kusturica takes the reins for the second segment, "Blue Gypsy," an overtly comical episode in the vein of Time of the Gypsies about a precocious young boy who makes the split from his alcoholic father and thieving family and goes to live in a juvenile detention center, finding it preferable to home. The third episode, helmed by co-producer Stefano Veneruso and entitled "Ciro," recalls neorealismo with its Naples-set tale of a young boy unloved and systematically neglected by his mother, who resorts to spending time with other neglected children and stealing watches, and then gets caught in the direst of ways. The fourth segment, Spike Lee's delicately-handled "Jesus Children of America," stars Hannah Hodson as Blanca, a young Brooklynite ostracized by her peers because her parents are junkies; when she learns of her HIV-positive status, her world crumbles. For the 5th episode, "Bilu and Joao," Brazilian director Katia Lund casts child actors Francisco Anawake de Freitas and Vera Fernandes as two impoverished tykes whose days involve walking around the outskirts of Sao Paulo and pulling a wooden cart, into which they pile aluminum and paper - but do so joyously, with the courage and grace of two individuals delighting in subhuman work despite the direst of circumstances. For the sixth segment, "Jonathan," Ridley Scott teams up to co-direct with daughter Jordan Scott; the episode stars David Thewlis (Naked) as an emotionally-traumatized war photographer who encounters a band of Eastern European orphans. And the closer, John Woo's "Song Song and Little Cat," studies the contrast between the lives of two young Asian girls from polar opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum: Oi Ruyi is Little Cat, an abjectly impoverished child discovered in the garbage, during infancy, by a homeless man; she grows up helping her discoverer forage for victuals until he dies, leaving her aimless and bereft. Woo cuts between her story and that of Song Song, a wealthy and pampered little girl whose story is equally tragic in its own way, as her parents are undergoing a bitter divorce. Though this film, as indicated, enlisted the support of at least two major Hollywood directors (Scott and Lee) it did encounter extreme difficulty securing U.S. theatrical and ancillary distribution, which effectively kept it out of North America in the years that immediately followed its global release. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Bila, Elysee Rounamba, (more)
The Beatles' early days as a struggling bar band are depicted in this fact-based drama, which tells the little-known story of original member Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff). A close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe acts as the band's original bassist, accompanying them on their early gigs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. The friendship becomes strained, however, when Sutcliffe falls in love with a German art student and starts to question his commitment to the band. With Sutcliffe's story taking center stage, the stories of the more famous Beatles largely fade into the background. The exception is John Lennon, thanks to a fierce performance by Ian Hart, who had previously portrayed the musician in the more intimate and provocative The Hours and the Times. While Backbeat does provide a new perspective on the band's beginning, and numerous opportunities for a group of modern rock musicians to recreate the band's energetic early performances, it never makes Sutcliffe's story seem more than a footnote to musical history. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheryl Lee, Stephen Dorff, (more)
Writer and director Spike Lee casts his satiric gaze on racism in American television and how America's racist past still impacts the present in this biting comedy. Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) is an astute, Harvard-educated African-American writer working for an independent television network who is assigned to brainstorm a new show for the African-American audience. Delacroix is the only black writer on the network's staff, and the longer he works under Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), the loudmouthed executive in charge of programming, the more he's convinced he's made a mistake. Wanting to be fired, Delacroix writes a pilot he imagines is so offensive no network would ever dare to air it: "The ManTan Minstrel Show," in which dancer Man Ray (Savion Glover) and comedian Womack (Tommy Davidson) portray two shiftless dunderheads, ManTan and Sleep 'N Eat -- who are to be played in blackface. To Delacroix's surprise, Dunwitty gives the idea the go-ahead, and to his shock, the show is soon a massive hit. Delacroix is now stuck trying to explain his show to the African-American community, who are generally not amused, especially Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith), his assistant on the staff, who has become involved with Man Ray. In order to give Bamboozled a look that would suit its setting in the world of network television, Spike Lee and cinematographer Ellen Kuras shot the entire film using digital video equipment. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, (more)
Based on Richard Price's grim best-seller, and directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay co-written with Price, Clockers takes the structure of a police procedural to build a chilling portrait of despair, hope, and the unanswered problem of black-on-black crime in an urban housing project. The film's haunting themes are vividly visualized during the opening credits, which run over police photos of dead young black men, shot and sprawled on sidewalks, in streets, and hanging over fences. Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a 19-year-old African-American "clocker" -- the lowest link on the drug dealing chain -- who hangs around park benches and street corners selling small amounts of druges at all hours of the day. Strike drinks chocolate milk to soothe an ulcer and plays with model trains in his apartment, dreaming of a way out of his dead-end life. Drug kingpin Rodney (Delroy Lindo) asks Strike to kill another clocker, Darryl, for skimming money, saying that this will be Strike's ticket to a higher post in Rodney's organization. Darryl is indeed shot, and suspicion immediately falls on Strike, but a weary cop named Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) thinks there's more to the case. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, (more)
Spike Lee and his siblings Cinque Lee and Joie Lee co-wrote this nostalgic but unglamorized look at a family growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s, inspired by their own childhood. Woody Carmichael (Delroy Lindo) is a jazz musician whose career is in a slump; he once made a good living as a session musician, but he has moved away from it to devote himself to more serious music, a choice that has not worked out well from a financial standpoint. His wife Carolyn (Alfre Woodard) works as a school teacher to keep food on the table. The Carmichaels have five children, a bright and introspective daughter named Troy (Zelda Harris) and four sons with a habit of causing trouble, and they all share an apartment in a brownstone in Brooklyn. Crooklyn follows the Carmichaels as the kids learn the funny and painful lessons of growing up, Mom and Dad balance their love for each other against the financial and personal difficulties of the creative life, and they all try to get along with the often eccentric neighbors on their block. Crooklyn's soundtrack is enlivened by classic 70s R&B hits, including selections by Sly and the Family Stone, The Jackson Five, Curtis Mayfield, The Staple Singers, and The Chambers Brothers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, (more)
- 1994
In this politically- and racially-themed satire, Bruford Jackson Jr. (Eriq LaSalle) is an African-American advertising man working for a major agency who has been assigned to campaigns selling Mumblin' Jack Malt Liquor and General Otis' Fried Chicken (complete with the Confederate flag on the bucket) to the black community. Bruford swallows his misgivings and goes along with his employer's wishes for the sake of his high-paying job. One day, Bruford is visited by the D.R.O.P. Squad (D.R.O.P. standing for "Deprogramming and Restoration Of Pride"). The Squad leader, Rocky Seavers (Vondie Curtis-Hall), uses extreme but non-violent psychological methods to teach African-Americans who are helping to destroy their community the error of their ways. However, his partner Garvey (Ving Rhames) has started to wonder if non-violence is really the best way to deal with the enemies of the Black community. Drop Squad was executive produced by Spike Lee, who also makes a cameo appearance endorsing the new "Gospel-Pak" of General Otis' Fried Chicken (complete with bible verses on the napkins). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eriq La Salle, Vondie Curtis-Hall, (more)
Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY. Three businesses dominate the block: a storefront radio station, where a smooth-talkin' deejay (Samuel L. Jackson) spins the platters that matter; a convenience store owned by a Korean couple; and Sal's Famous Pizzeria, the only white-operated business in the neighborhood. Sal (Danny Aiello) serves up slices with his two sons, genial Vito (Richard Edson) and angry, racist Pino (John Turturro). Sal has one black employee, Mookie (Spike Lee), who wants to "get paid" but lacks ambition. His sister Jade (Joie Lee, Spike's sister), who has a greater sense of purpose and a "real" job, wants Mookie to start dealing with his responsibilities, most notably his son with girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez). Two of Mookie's best friends are Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), a monolith of a man who rarely speaks, preferring to blast Public Enemy's rap song Fight The Power on his massive boom box; and Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), nicknamed for his coke-bottle glasses and habit of losing his cool. When Buggin' Out notes that Sal's "Wall of Fame," a photo gallery of famous Italian-Americans, includes no people of color, he eventually demands a neighborhood boycott, on a day when tensions are already running high, that incurs tragic consequences. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Aiello, Spike Lee, (more)
- 2006
A documentary produced for the Turner Classic Movies cable station, Edge of Outside surveys the careers of various filmmakers who have attempted to bring their uncompromised visions to the screen. Interspersing clips of classic films, the filmmakers take a look at the careers of such famous iconoclasts as Sam Peckinpah, Orson Welles, John Cassavetes, and Stanley Kubrick. The filmmakers interview other filmmakers and critics like Martin Scorsese, Arthur Penn, Peter Falk, Peter Biskind, and Ed Burns. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1995
This documentary examines the first films of some top Hollywood directors, featuring interviews with the filmmakers and clips of their early student films, as well as some of their blockbuster hits. The program explores how each director learned from early mistakes, and seeks to illuminate the personalities and motivations of these successful "auteur" directors. Volume one covers Roger Corman, Taylor Hackford, Spike Lee, Paul Mazursky, Oliver Stone, and Robert Zemeckis. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- Add Fishbone: The Reality of My Surroundings to QueueAdd Fishbone: The Reality of My Surroundings to top of Queue
This is a collection of Fishbone's music videos, including "Modern Industry," "Party at Ground Zero," "Freddie's Dead," and "Sunless Saturday." It is directed by Spike Lee. ~ All Movie Guide
Released one year to the day after the 1995 Million Man March, in which a million African-American men marched peacefully in Washington, D.C. in a bid for greater unity and understanding, Spike Lee's Get On the Bus follows a group of black men who take a charter bus from Los Angeles to the rally in the nation's capital and watches as they interact and air their personal issues and concerns. George (Charles S. Dutton) is the organizer of the trip and de facto leader of the group. Evan Thomas (Thomas Jefferson Byrd) is a truck driver who travels to the march with his son (De'Aundre Bonds) chained to his belt by court order after the boy was arrested for petty theft. Kyle (Isaiah Washington) and Randall (Harry Lennix) are gay lovers who take no small amount of abuse from their fellow passengers. Gary (Roger Guenveur Smith) is the product of a mixed-race marriage who could pass for white but sees himself as black; he's also a cop, which does little to endear him to his peers. Flip (Andre Braugher) is an actor who seems more concerned with getting his next film role than the larger issues of the march. Jamal (Gabriel Casseus) is a good-natured young Muslim trying to lead a righteous life to make up for his violent past as a gang member. A film student (Hill Harper) is capturing the trip on videotape, and Jeremiah (Ossie Davis) sits in the back, reflecting on the struggles of African-Americans in the past and present. Financed by a private group of 15 black American men (among them Will Smith and Wesley Snipes), Get On the Bus speaks less of a single political goal than of the need for black men to set aside their differences to work for their common good. While the film falls short of openly criticizing Million Man March organizer Louis Farrakhan, it does present debate about Farrakhan's ideals and statements, ultimately coming to the conclusion that whoever brought this group together is less important than the fact that they came together in peace and brotherhood. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Belzer, Ossie Davis, (more)
- 1994
This film is part of a past PBS television series that featured young people solving mysteries. The popular series was acclaimed for its educational value, as it taught children the skills of cooperation, reading, writing, logic, deduction, and problem solving. In this episode, renowned film director Spike Lee helps the kids solve a thorny mystery and write their own comic strip to enter in a contest. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
Spike Lee directed this comedy-drama about a woman who falls into a career in phone sex. An African-American woman (Theresa Randle) who aspires to a career as an actress endures a number of dispiriting jobs (handing out leaflets and working as a coat check girl) before reaching the end of her rope at an audition with Q.T. (Quentin Tarantino), a sleazy movie director. Q.T. claims that he wants to offer her a role in his next film -- but since the role requires nudity, she will have to show him her breasts first. After firing her agent, the actress is strapped for cash and is offered a job enacting sexual fantasies for men over the phone. Dubbed "Girl 6" by her employers, the actress is treated with respect by her boss (Jennifer Lewis) and is well-liked by her co-workers. However, she has a hard time emotionally distancing herself from her work, and she finds herself becoming infatuated with Bob (Peter Berg), one of her regular callers, going so far as to set up a meeting with him. As she deals in other people's fantasies for a living, Girl 6 begins retreating into her own world of make-believe, where she can be a sexy screen siren or a butt-kicking blaxploitation star. Meanwhile, her former fiancé (Isaiah Washington), who scrapes by as a shoplifter, desperately wants her to give him another chance, and her next door neighbor, a baseball card collector named Jimmy (Spike Lee), keeps pestering her that she ought to be doing something more positive with her life. Girl 6's supporting cast includes Madonna as one of Girl 6's supervisors, John Turturro as her agent, and Debi Mazar as one of the other phone-sex girls; the film also features an original song score by Prince. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Theresa Randle, Isaiah Washington, (more)
A black family gets a first-hand look at the trials and tribulations of upward mobility and suburban segregation in this pointed comedy. In 1973, Tom (Danny Glover) is an African-American attorney who is determined to raise himself up by his own bootstraps from his position near the bottom of the totem pole at a law firm. Tom takes on a case no one else is willing to touch -- defending a confessed arsonist whose crime claimed the lives of two teenagers -- and when he manages to score a surprising legal victory for his client, Tom is given a promotion and he moves his family to a new home in the suburbs. However, Tom and his wife Mabel (Whoopi Goldberg) discover they're only the second black household to move into the neighborhood (the first was a woman who struck it rich in the lottery), and housewife Mabel soon learns her neighbors aren't especially open to the notion of ethnic diversity in their community. Good Fences was directed by former cinematographer Ernest Dickerson and produced in part by his frequent collaborator Spike Lee; the film was screened in competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, (more)
Denzel Washington and writer-director Spike Lee team for the third time with this contemporary basketball drama focusing on a promising athlete, the son of a convict-father. Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) has been in prison for six years when tough prison-warden Wyatt (Ned Beatty) tells him that he's getting a temporary parole with the promise of a commuted sentence. However, there's a trade-off -- Jake must talk his son, Jesus Shuttlesworth (NBA star Ray Allen of the Milwaukee Bucks), the top-ranked high-school basketball player in the country, into signing with the governor's alma mater, Big State. A flashback makes it clear that Jesus' mother (Lonette McKee was accidentally killed by Jake during a violent family fight. After Jake went to prison, the resentful Jesus was left alone to raise his sister Mary (Zelda Harris). Now several colleges are offering Jesus scholarships, and montages satirize the manner in which young athletes are wooed by educators and coaches across the country. However, Jake will soon be back behind bars if he can't get Jesus to sign with Big State within the week. Meanwhile, the greed of other family members begins to surface. John Turturro is seen in a cameo as Coach Billy Sunday, and several real-life coaches can also be spotted in this movie. Music by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) with songs by Public Enemy. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, (more)
This documentary about the aspirations of high-school basketball players from inner city Chicago won awards from the Sundance film festival, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Academy Award (Oscar) for best editing. Two young men are followed during their entire high-school career, beginning with their participation in playground games and ending with their being recruited by colleges. The obstacles these young men face include parental drug addiction, family poverty, and inner-city violence, as well as the usual obstacles that arise in competition, including physical injuries. While each aspires to leave the ghetto, there are many reasons to suppose they may not be able to, despite each beating the odds against them by winning college scholarships. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Gates, Arthur Agee, (more)
- 2005
Melvin Van Peebles created a new style of African-American filmmaking in 1971, when on a shoestring budget he made Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, a violent action picture about a sex-show stud on the run from the police that below the surface served as a call for revolution in the black community. But Sweet Sweetback was hardly Van Peebles' first or only bold achievement in the arts. After brief careers piloting cable cars in San Francisco and flying fighter planes in the Korean War, Van Peebles moved to Paris, where he wrote five novels, became a regular contributor to an anarchist journal, and directed his first feature film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass. On the strength of its critical acclaim, Van Peebles returned to America and made his first (and only) major studio film, Watermelon Man, which helped him gather the money and connections it took to make Sweet Sweetback. Alongside these cinematic triumphs, Van Peebles launched a recording career in the late '60s, making literate but streetwise albums that paved the way for rap and hip-hop, and staged a series of hit Broadway plays including Don't Play Us Cheap and Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. In the 1980s, Van Peebles switched careers and became a successful Wall Street options trader, and watched his son Mario Van Peebles become a star. (Mario would also go on to make a film about his dad's adventures making Sweet Sweetback, entitled Baadasssss!) How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) is a documentary made with Van Peebles' participation that looks back at his multi-faceted career and the brilliant, uncompromising man behind it all. The film includes interviews with a number of Van Peebles' colleagues and admirers, including Spike Lee, Gil Scott-Heron, Gordon Parks, and Elvis Mitchell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Hehmeyer
The volatile showdown between a determined cop and a perfectionist bank robber is sent spiraling toward disaster when a scheming power broker steps in to take control of the situation in this hair-raising heist flick directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster. Dalton Russell (Owen) is a bank robber with a difference. In his quest to execute the perfect heist, Dalton has taken every possible factor into consideration. Dalton's uncanny ability of staying one step ahead of the law thwarts even-tempered Detective Keith Frazier's (Washington) best efforts. But there's another factor at play. The bank president (Christopher Plummer) has requested the services of high-profile negotiator Madeline White (Foster). Despite her commendable track record, Madeline is something of a wild card, and before the day is over, this bank robbery will go down in history as one of the most elaborate heists ever executed. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, (more)
- 2010
Spike Lee returns to big-budget thriller territory with this sequel to 2006's blockbuster hit Inside Man. Hotel Rwanda's Terry George provides the screenplay, with Brian Grazer onboard to produce. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
