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

generated

a

bevy

of

thoughts?

Like,

a

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.

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Malcolm X
3. Bamboozled
4. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
5. He Got Game
6. Kobe Doin’ Work
7. Chi-Raq
8. Bad 25
9. Crooklyn 
10. She Hate Me
11. Girl 6
12. BlacKkKlansman
13. Summer of Sam
14. Mo’ Better Blues
15. School Daze
16. 25th Hour
17. Da 5 Bloods
18. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
19. Jungle Fever
20. Clockers 
21. Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
22. Oldboy
23. Jim Brown: All American
24. Inside Man
25. If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise
26. 4 Little Girls
27. Miracle at St. Anna
28. She’s Gotta Have It
29. Sucker Free City
30. Get on the Bus
31. Red Hook Summer

Next up to be given the retrospective ranking treatment: Kelly Reichardt … after IFC, Spike bless them, screens her 2020 First Cow.