Autobiography has always been a strong element of Spike Lee’s work. Of his first six full length films (as well as his thesis film), four take place in his native New York City, a metropolis that seemed as much a character as a setting. Similarly, his early work tended to feature him in supporting roles (She’s Gotta Have It and …

Despite the heavy controversy that swirled around its 1992 release, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X has by now established itself as a bulwark of the biopic genre: a stately, gravitas-streaked portrait of a great man, as helmed by a preternaturally wild director learning to quell his more destructive impulses. This doesn’t mean that it’s a great movie. Lee’s longest feature is …

The United States has been shaped by its history of racial, ethnic and cultural difference more than any other factor, and it is Spike Lee’s commitment to using cinema to investigate these differences and the friction they generate that makes him an important American filmmaker, not just an “African-American” one. This is apparent even in his first feature-length film She’s …

It was never going to be easy for Spike Lee to follow up his 1989 masterpiece Do the Right Thing, a film which generated enormous critical acclaim and cemented Lee’s reputation as a talented director. It’s possible, then, that the slow pacing and low-key affect of his followup Mo’ Better Blues was deliberate, an opportunity to work within a more …

When history comes knocking, Shelton “Spike” Lee will be remembered for many things. He will be Spike the demagogue, the angry young man with loud opinions and an articulacy that demands to be heard. He will be Spike the cultural provocateur, unafraid to stir up feuds and controversies both deserving and facetious. He will even be Spike the Knicks fan, …

There’s a strong chance that School Daze will forever remain the weirdest film in Spike Lee’s oeuvre. As the (relatively) big budget follow up to She’s Gotta Have It, Lee likely felt the need to show off some versatility and make the use of his new funding, but the odds of anyone predicting that Lee would make a college musical …

As difficult as it may seem now, there was a time when Spike Lee was less of a cultural provocateur than he was a black New Wave icon, a director as concerned with experimental verité framing as he was urban confrontation and class struggles. To that end, She’s Gotta Have It wasn’t just the film that brought Spike Lee into …

Many filmmakers begin their careers with student films or college theses, and while for many people “student film” is lazy critical shorthand for “amateurish,” let us remember that Killer of Sheep is technically a student film. With that in mind, Spike Lee’s own thesis and his first major work, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, is as valuable a part …