SPIKE LEE: Crooklyn (1994)
“Hey, Miss Commish Mimmish…”
CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism, childhood grief, dysfunctional families, parental anger, drugs, poverty, grief, loss.
After another Spike masterpiece (one we’ve both seen already), Spike geared up for one of his most personal projects to date. Written as a TV pilot by Spike’s sister Joie and brother Cinqué, Spike reigns everything back in to show a family, both good and bad, living in Brooklyn in 1973. It moves more like a series of scenes than an actual movie, but the characters here are among some of his best, and Spike is willing to lay everything in front of us: the anger, the dysfunction, the sorrow, and the love. It doesn’t hurt that he’s got Alfre Woodard and Delroy Lindo as the parents either, nor an outstanding child performance from Zelda Harris. It’s a really good movie, subtle but true and a delight to watch. Turn the TV off and make sure you clean your dishes as we discuss 1994’s Crooklyn this week on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?!
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Intro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.
Excerpt taken from “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone, copyright 1968 Daly City Music.
Excerpt taken from “He Got Game” from the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, written by LuQuantum Leap featuring Stephen Stills, and performed by Public Enemy along with the Voices of Shabach Community Choir of Long Island. Copyright 1998 Def Jam Records, Inc., a PolyGram Company.
