Remember my rules regarding ranking directorial retrospectives?
And remember how I marathoned — “binged” feels like an understatement, given his prolificacy — Spike Lee’s oeuvre over the summer, which
Like,
lot.
These combo-remembrances could’ve led those whose memories serve them well to ponder: where the fuck is Write All Nite’s Spike Lee retrospective ranking??
Well, the answer is finally here: here they are!
The reason for the holdout: I crossed every ligament — nay, fiber — NAY, atom of my body in the hopes that just one theater in the tri-state area would play his latest, Da 5 Bloods.
Since NYC’s IFC Center just did just that, it’s finally time.
I watched it all, besides Spike’s shorts, his recordings of live theater, and his TV series (feature-length pilots count if they were never picked up for full season orders, as do his miniseries, as do his documentaries technically made for the tube of boobs).
Before we get to it, a housekeeping note: all such retrospective rankings will now live — and be spasmodically updated upon further reflecting and rewatching — on my Letterboxd.
- Do the Right Thing
- Malcolm X
- Bamboozled
- When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
- He Got Game
- Kobe Doin’ Work
- Chi-Raq
- Bad 25
- Crooklyn
- She Hate Me
- Girl 6
- BlacKkKlansman
- Summer of Sam
- Mo’ Better Blues
- School Daze
- 25th Hour
- Da 5 Bloods
- Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
- Jungle Fever
- Clockers
- Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
- Oldboy
- Jim Brown: All American
- Inside Man
- If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise
- 4 Little Girls
- Miracle at St. Anna
- She’s Gotta Have It
- Sucker Free City
- Get on the Bus
- Red Hook Summer
Next up to be given the retrospective ranking treatment: Kelly Reichardt … after IFC, Spike bless them, screens her 2020 First Cow.
I heard Spike is directing a movie about 9/11. That should be a great one.
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