Spike Lee's vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school teacher, her stubborn jazz musician husband and their five kids living in Brooklyn in 1973.
A middle-class boy from Atlanta finds his worldview changed as he spends the summer with his deeply religious grandfather in the housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Director:
Spike Lee
Stars:
Jules Brown,
Thomas Jefferson Byrd,
Toni Lysaith
An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer. As he makes his rounds, the film takes a satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood.
Director:
Robert Townsend
Stars:
Robert Townsend,
Craigus R. Johnson,
Helen Martin
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American Northeast Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.
Spike Lee's vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school teacher, her stubborn jazz musician husband and their five kids living in Brooklyn in 1973.
After the years of hard work and controversy surrounding Malcolm X (1992), Spike Lee wanted to a make a film with a smaller scale and lighter tone which led him to this project. See more »
Goofs
In the store, Troy buys a bag of chips, lemon heads, bazooka gum, licorice, fireballs and Boston baked beans. When she gets home all of the boys pull out all of the candy from the bag and Troy is seen eating a candy necklace, obviously something she did not buy. See more »
Quotes
[Clinton, Wendell and Nate watching the Knicks game at Troy's room, Carolyn comes into her room]
Carolyn:
Surprise, boys!
[turns off the television set]
Clinton:
What's wrong with you? I'm watching the Knicks!
Carolyn:
Boy, I'll knock you out.
Wendell:
Yeah, what's the big deal?
Carolyn:
The big deal is I said no TV on a school night, damn it! The Knicks got a job! You need an education or I will throw this idiot box out the window!
See more »
Crazy Credits
The closing credits play over old footage of several episodes of "Soul Train". See more »
CROOKLYN isn't Spike Lee's greatest, but it comes very close. Parts of the film hit so close to home with me - the sense of community so vividly depicted, and the 70s soul music (which is nearly ubiquitous through CROOKLYN) makes this film something much like a musical, with the grit and intimacy of Lee's visual realism constantly balanced against the idealism and romanticism of the music. As slice-of-life Americana, this is about as good as it gets. I disliked the scenes with the Aunt & Uncle - I felt that they were being ridiculed mercilessly, for no good reason (they are the living embodiment of the idealism contained in at least some of the music heard at other times in the film, whether they know it or not), and I wished those scenes were handled with more subtlety - Lee, like his NYC bretheren Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen has major issues with suburban types (this hits a peak in Lee's later BAMBOOZLED - an almost brilliant, but also almost cruel expression of rage at the excesses of the entertainment industry that also aimed merciless fury at uncritical audiences - audiences of any and every race and class).
But this scene aside, the remainder of CROOKLYN is so strong, and very well-made - I'd still offer a recommendation.
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CROOKLYN isn't Spike Lee's greatest, but it comes very close. Parts of the film hit so close to home with me - the sense of community so vividly depicted, and the 70s soul music (which is nearly ubiquitous through CROOKLYN) makes this film something much like a musical, with the grit and intimacy of Lee's visual realism constantly balanced against the idealism and romanticism of the music. As slice-of-life Americana, this is about as good as it gets. I disliked the scenes with the Aunt & Uncle - I felt that they were being ridiculed mercilessly, for no good reason (they are the living embodiment of the idealism contained in at least some of the music heard at other times in the film, whether they know it or not), and I wished those scenes were handled with more subtlety - Lee, like his NYC bretheren Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen has major issues with suburban types (this hits a peak in Lee's later BAMBOOZLED - an almost brilliant, but also almost cruel expression of rage at the excesses of the entertainment industry that also aimed merciless fury at uncritical audiences - audiences of any and every race and class).
But this scene aside, the remainder of CROOKLYN is so strong, and very well-made - I'd still offer a recommendation.