Spike Lee is a director uniquely disinclined to repeat himself, and he’s not really repeating himself with Da 5 Bloods, his first feature-length film made by and for Netflix (which is by no means the way I’d prefer to see it). But he is re-running an experiment. The film is a whole lot of things […]

The claims that BlacKkKlansman represents a renaissance for Spike Lee are at least slightly overheated. After all, even his very great movies are frustrating and flawed (except for Do the Right Thing, which is frustrating and perfect), and even his very bad movies are still interesting for the complexity and intensity of their ideas. There […]

A review requested by Will Beckley, with thanks for donating to the Second Quinquennial Antagony & Ecstasy ACS Fundraiser. 25th Hour is a great curiosity in Spike Lee’s filmography: it feels, to watch it, like an extremely important and personal film to him, in which the director is unloading all his anxiety and anger and […]

Every new Spike Lee joint brings with it the question, was this directed by the good Spike Lee or the bad Spike Lee? And while Miracle at St. Anna was fairly clearly directed by the bad Spike Lee, it’s the best bad film he’s ever directed. Is that circular enough? Anyway, I know you’ve probably […]

I keep coming back to the cinematography. Despite a cache of fine performances and one of the smartest American heist scripts in years, I can’t help but come back to the look of the thing, and how much fun it is – rare indeed is the film whose camera movement is enough to keep me […]