Passing Strange

2009

English

7.3

Spike Lee Director

De'Adre Aziza as Edwina / Marianna / Sudabey

Eisa Davis as Mother

Colman Domingo as Mr. Franklin / Joop / Mr. Venus

Daniel Breaker as Youth

A young black artist leaves his Los Angeles digs and travels to Europe to find himself. A theatrical stage production of the original Broadway musical.

Clockers

1995

English

6.9

♡ 9

75%

74%

Action

brooklyn, new york city

Spike Lee Director

Keith David as André the Giant

Rick Aiello as Cop #2

Harvey Keitel as Det. Rocco Klein

J.C. MacKenzie as Medic Frank

Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Detective Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.

Chi-Raq

2015

English

5.9

♡ 16

82%

Spike Lee Director

Nick Cannon as Chi-Raq

Samuel L. Jackson as Dolmedes

David Patrick Kelly as General King Kong

Angela Bassett as Miss Helen

A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.

School Daze

1988

English

6.1

♡ 10

58%

Spike Lee Director

Laurence Fishburne as Dap

Kadeem Hardison as Edge

Giancarlo Esposito as Julian

Samuel L. Jackson as Leeds

Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.

Jungle Fever

1991

English

6.6

♡ 22

81%

interracial relationship

new york city

Romance

xenophobia

Spike Lee Director

Gina Gershon as Angie's Neighbor

Annabella Sciorra as Angie Tucci

Samuel L. Jackson as Gator Purify

Halle Berry as Vivian

A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.

Crooklyn

1994

English

7.0

♡ 6

79%

jazz singer or musician

teacher

urban

Spike Lee Director RuPaul

RuPaul as Bodega Woman

Manny Perez as Hector

David Patrick Kelly as Tony Eyes / Jim

Arthur French as West Indian Store Manager

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

Da 5 Bloods

2020

English

6.5

♡ 52

92%

Spike Lee Director

Jonathan Majors as David

Jean Reno as Deroches

Malcolm X as Self

Quoc Tuan as Tam

Four African-American Vietnam veterans return to Vietnam. They are in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure. These heroes battle forces of humanity and nature while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.

Red Hook Summer

2012

English

5.3

♡ 1

57%

34%

Action

Drama

Spike Lee Director

Colman Domingo as Blessing Rowe

Jonathan Batiste as Da Organist Tk Hazelton

Stephen Henderson as Deacon Yancy

Arthur French as Mr. Curtis

When his mom deposits him at the Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn to spend the summer with the grandfather he’s never met, young Flik may as well have landed on Mars. Fresh from his cushy life in Atlanta, he’s bored and friendless, and his strict grandfather, Enoch, a firebrand preacher, is bent on getting him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Only Chazz, the feisty girl from church, provides a diversion from the drudgery. As hot summer simmers and Sunday mornings brim with Enoch’s operatic sermons, things turn anything but dull as people’s conflicting agendas collide.

Miracle at St. Anna

2008

English

6.1

♡ 36

33%

Spike Lee Director

Walton Goggins as Captain Nokes

Waldemar Kobus as Colonel Pflueger

Curt Lowens as Dr. Everton Brooks

John Leguizamo as Enrico

Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four American soldiers who are members of the all-black 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II.

Girl 6

1996

English

5.4

♡ 6

39%

Spike Lee Director

Richard Belzer as Caller #4 - Beach

Quentin Tarantino as Director #1 - NY

Debi Mazar as Girl #39

Halle Berry as Self

A struggling actress in New York City takes a job as a phone sex operator.

Inside Man

2006

English

7.6

♡ 283

86%

Spike Lee Director

Peter Gerety as Captain Coughlin

Willem Dafoe as Captain John Darius

Denzel Washington as Detective Keith Frazier

Jodie Foster as Madeleine White

When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

John Leguizamo: Freak

1998

English

8.1

♡ 4

Biography

Comedy

stand-up comedy

Spike Lee Director

John Leguizamo as Self

John Leguizamo's semi-falsified, one-man stand-up performance as...himself. This is his autobiographical story, about his life growing up, and his journey to try to be accepted by his father. We see this story through a bizarre myriad of characters and situations, which include the eccentric Uncle Sanny, the Fat Boy Called Bitch (John's little brother, Poochie), his mom, his evil grandmothers, and Lee Stratsberg, not to mention a brief appearance by Cantinflas as God.

Oldboy

2013

English

5.8

♡ 95

39%

Spike Lee Director

Rami Malek as Browning

Samuel L. Jackson as Chaney

Linda Emond as Edwina Burke

Josh Brolin as Joe Doucett

A man has only three and a half days and limited resources to discover why he was imprisoned in a nondescript room for 20 years without any explanation.

Mo' Better Blues

1990

English

6.7

♡ 13

71%

Spike Lee Director

Denzel Washington as Bleek Gilliam

Giancarlo Esposito as Left Hand Lacey

Samuel L. Jackson as Madlock

Wesley Snipes as Shadow Henderson

Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.

He Got Game

1998

English

6.9

♡ 56

82%

parent child relationship

prison

release from prison

Sport

Spike Lee Director

Milla Jovovich as Dakota Burns

Charles Barkley as Himself

Denzel Washington as Jake Shuttlesworth

Kim Director as Lynn

A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.

Rodney King

2017

English

6.2

100%

55%

Comedy

Drama

Spike Lee Director

Roger Guenveur Smith as Rodney King

25 years ago, four LAPD officers were acquitted in a state court for beating King, sparking three days of rioting that left 53 people dead. Now, around the anniversary, this Spike Lee-produced one-man show (Roger Guenver Smith) will be streaming on Netflix. A complex, semi-tragic figure, King drowned in 2012. His life was rarely smooth, or simple – its telling makes for a sober, moving watch.

Katt Williams: Priceless: Afterlife

2014

English

6.4

♡ 1

Action

Comedy

stand-up comedy

Spike Lee Director

Katt Williams as

Noelle Mahasin as

Phedra Syndelle as Metador Girl

Alecia Hamilton as Vanna Black / Cage Dancer

Katt Williams performs in an all-new stand-up special recorded in front of a live audience at the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, California. Williams takes the stage and launches into an hour of frenetic stand-up comedy, covering such topics as the allure of California weed dispensaries; how America handles tragedies; getting rid of racism in 2014; his inspirations and his favorite TV show; homophobia and the first openly gay players in major sports; aggressive police tactics; being sent to a mental institution; doctors and the problem with drug commercials; the pros and cons of being single versus being in a relationship; and more.

She's Gotta Have It

1986

English

6.8

♡ 6

94%

72%

Action

breaking the fourth wall

brooklyn, new york city

Spike Lee Director

S. Epatha Merkerson as Doctor Jamison

Erik Dellums as Dog #3

Ernest R. Dickerson as Dog #8

Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon

The story of Nola Darling's simultaneous sexual relationships with three different men is told by her and by her partners and other friends. All three men wanted her to commit solely to them; Nola resists being "owned" by a single partner.