Spike Lee has been making movies for more than 30 years now, racking up some two dozen feature credits leading up to the release of “BlackKklansman” this weekend.
And I’m happy to say: I knew him when. Way back at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, I was approached by an aggressive PR rep to cover the first feature by a director he identified as “the black Jim Jarmusch” — a promising up-and-comer named Spike Lee. The description was intriguing, but the film itself, “She’s Gotta Have It,” is what really made me take notice. Decades later, I’m still following the career of the young upstart who has aged gracefully into grey eminence without any diminution of his willingness to take risks, or his ability to surprise and provoke. Of his several exceptional films, these are the ones I would select as his ten best.
10. Jungle Fever (1991)
Call it a double...
And I’m happy to say: I knew him when. Way back at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, I was approached by an aggressive PR rep to cover the first feature by a director he identified as “the black Jim Jarmusch” — a promising up-and-comer named Spike Lee. The description was intriguing, but the film itself, “She’s Gotta Have It,” is what really made me take notice. Decades later, I’m still following the career of the young upstart who has aged gracefully into grey eminence without any diminution of his willingness to take risks, or his ability to surprise and provoke. Of his several exceptional films, these are the ones I would select as his ten best.
10. Jungle Fever (1991)
Call it a double...
- 8/10/2018
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
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