3) School Daze (1988) Lee's second feature film, School Daze, follows a young Laurence Fishburne and future Do The Right Thing star Giancarlo Esposito through their life at a HBCU in this musical/comedy based on Lee's own experiences as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta. The movie has only a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that score can be largely ignored; especially in the early parts of his career, white critics failed to understand and properly read Lee's films. One notable exception? Legendary writer Roger Ebert, who called School Daze, "one of the most honest and revealing movies I've ever seen about modern middle-class Black life in America." Watching School Daze today is an interesting viewpoint into a time and experience that was uniquely Lee's. In a a lot of ways, School Daze feels like a spiritual precursor to Justin Simien's Dear White People, which was both a film and a Netflix original series. Stream School Daze on Netflix See the original post on Youtube YouTube Movies@Youtube
4) Inside Man (2006) Lee took the helm of Inside Man in 2006, proving one again that there's no genre he can't handle. With Lee behind the camera, Inside Man manages to take a movie you've seen probably 100 times (the heist! the investigation! the hostages!) and turns it inside out. Lee mediates here on racism, profiling, and identity, but never loses track of his gripping central story. Plus, he re-teams with Denzel Washington in the lead rolea match known to work some magic. Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, and Willem Dafoe are among the other impressive members of Inside Man's cast. Stream Inside Man on Netflix See the original post on Youtube YouTube Movies@Youtube
5) Get on the Bus (1996) One of Lee's more widely-praised films, Get on the Bus is the story of 18 African-American men who got on a coach bus in Los Angeles, riding it all the way to the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, D.C. The real demonstration wound up gathering 850,000 Black men, and Lee's film, released in 1996 on the march's 1-year anniversary, folds in a touching and funny fictional tale. Some of the cast include Ossie Davis (Do The Right Thing), Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), and Wendell Pierce (The Wire). Stream Get on the Bus on Netflix See the original post on Youtube @Youtube
6) Rodney King (2017) Lee directed this filming of a one-man show about Rodney King from Roger Guenveur Smith (Smiley in Do The Right Thing) for Netflix in 2017. While this isn't a story written by Lee, you can still read his energy and ideas through the camera work. Smith's one-man depiction of King's storyhow he was brutalized by police officers who were eventually acquitted from criminal charge, inciting riots in 1992is once again a timely one in 2020. Stream Rodney King on Netflix See the original post on Youtube Netflix@Youtube
7) Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2015) When we said Spike Lee can do any genre, we really meant it. In Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Lee proves that he can even tell a horror story; this one is about an anthropologist who gets stabbed by an ancient dagger and becomes a vampire. Not what you expected, probably! But like every other Spike Lee Joint, this one will make you think. A pre-Mr. Robot and Bohemian Rhapsody Rami Malek also stars. Stream Da Sweet Blood of Jesus on Hulu See the original post on Youtube Movieclips Trailers@Youtube
8) The Original Kings of Comedy (2000) Think of The Original Kings of Comedy as Spike Lee's version of Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense. Like Demme did with David Byrne and the Talking Heads, Lee knows here to simply sit back behind the camera and let the comedians lead the way. The titular Kings, here, are Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and the late Bernie Mac, and the film's mission is to showcase those four talents in a way that invokes older comedy films featuring the likes of Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor. Stream The Original Kings of Comedy on Hulu See the original post on Youtube Paramount Movies@Youtube
9) He Got Game (1998) Another team-up from the dream team! Lee and Washington collaborate again here in a story about Jake Shuttlesworth (Washington), in prison for killing his wifebut with the opportunity to reduce his sentence if he can get his son, Jesus Shuttlesworth, the top-ranked basketball recruit in the nation, to play for the governor's alma mater. It's one of the most interesting movies of the '90snot only because it's a great piece of cinema (and spoiler: it is), but because the actor playing Jesus Shuttlesworth isn't much of an actor at allhe's NBA legend Ray Allen. Stream He Got Game on HBO Max or HBO Go See the original post on Youtube GoDVDz@Youtube
10) BLACKkKLANSMAN (2018) Lee proved he hasn't lost any semblance of a step when he made BLACKkKLANSMAN in 2018, telling the true life story of a Black detective named Ron Stallworth (John David WashingtonDenzel's son) and his plan to infiltrate and expose the KKK. Adam Driver earned his first Oscar nomination in a supporting role as Stallworth's partner and the "face" of the undercover operation. Somehow, Lee had never won an Oscar until 2019but BLACKkKLANSMAN changed that, when he took home the trophy for Best Adapted Screenplay, giving us all the incredible sight of Lee jumping with joy into Samuel L. Jackson's arms as he won . Stream BLACKkKLANSMAN on HBO Max or HBO Go See the original post on Youtube Focus Features@Youtube
11) 4 Little Girls (1997) An HBO documentary that aired in 1997, 4 Little Girls finds Lee re-examining a 1963 bombing of a Black church in Alabama, a heinous crime that killed four young girls who were simply there for a day of Sunday school. The crime captivated the nation at the time, and proved to be a defining, inflection point of a moment in the 1960s quest for civil rights and ongoing search for equality. Stream 4 Little Girls on HBO Max or HBO Go See the original post on Youtube Bobby Rivers@Youtube
12) Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth (2013) The reformation of Mike Tyson's image has never been as clear as in this Lee-directed filming of his one-man Broadway show. Tyson talks about everything and everything you've ever wanted to know about him here, and, quite frankly, has a natural charisma. We included Tyson's book on our list of best sports books , and this HBO special works as a wonderful companion piece to that. Stream Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth on HBO Max or HBO Go See the original post on Youtube fight dot news@Youtube
13) When The Levees Broke (2006) A year after the disaster that ravaged the city of New Orleans, Lee made When The Levees Br0ke for HBO, a four-part docuseries telling the stories of those most impacted and affected by the damage of Hurricane Katrina. Within the documentary, Lee also looks deeper than the surface level, examining the roles that race and class played in the areas most affected by the Louisiana disaster. Stream When The Levees Broke on HBO Max or HBO Go See the original post on Youtube Subcomandante Marcos@Youtube
14) If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010) If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise can been seen as the spiritual sequel to Lee's When The Levees Broke; it follows a similar beat to his previous New Orleans documentary, looking closer at the ground level of New Orleans five years after the city was ravaged by the damage and impact of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in a two-part documentary. Stream If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise on HBO Max and HBO Go See the original post on Youtube HBODocs@Youtube
15) Jerrod Carmichael: Love at the Store You can think of this Lee-directed special from comedian Jerrod Carmichael (who's starred in movies like Neighbors and led NBC's The Carmichael Show) in the same genre as the Mike Tyson, Rodney King, and Kings of Comedy projects; restrained, laid back, and letting the subject do the majority of the heavy lifting. Lee's presence is felt through his camera work and stylistic choices, but your opinion on this special is going to make or break with how much you like Carmichael's dry, observational humor (and, honestly, you should like it a lotbecause he's hilarious). Stream Jerrod Carmichael: Love at the Store Here See the original post on Youtube HBO@Youtube
16) Red Hook Summer (2012) As Spike Lee's career evolved, his work reached more and more different genres; just on this list we've seen thriller, comedy, noir, documentary, and more. Which is why 2012's Red Hook Summer was such a nice return to basics for Lee: it goes back to his earliest formtelling small, intimate stories based in Brooklyn. Red Hook Summer, in turn, tells the story of a young boy from Atlanta who heads up to New York to spend a Brooklyn summer with his grandfather (Clarke Peters, who Lee reteams with on Da 5 Bloods) in the Red Hook projects. Lee himself considers this film part of his 'Chronicles of Brooklyn; series, which also includes She's Gotta Have It, Do The Right Thing, Crooklyn, Clockers, and He Got Game. Stream Red Hook Summer on Amazon Prime Video See the original post on Youtube Movieclips Trailers@Youtube
17) Chi-Raq (2016) Lee continued to challenge himself when he made Chi-Raq, a movie set on the South Side of Chicago and telling a music-centered story of the violence in that area. The movie's story is based on a classical greek play, Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, which finds women withholding sex from their husbands as punishment for fighting in a war; here, the women organize together in the same way to protest against the violent men after a death via stray bullet. A stacked cast here includes Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack, Jennifer Hudson, Nick Cannon, Angela Bassett, Wesley Snipes, and Teyonah Parris. Stream Chi-Raq on Amazon Prime Video See the original post on Youtube Movieclips Trailers@Youtube
