Every Spike Lee Movie, Ranked
Updated 9/11/20 to add American Utopia.
Spike Lee's new Netflix film Da 5 Bloods has been earning mostly terrific reviews, but where does it rank among the veteran director's best films? In the gallery above, we rank every feature directed by Lee in order by Metascore (reflecting the consensus of top professional film critics) from worst to best.
Note that a few made-for-television films are not included because there were not enough reviews available to calculate a Metascore. These include Spike Lee & Company: Do It a Cappella (1990), Sucker Free City (2004), Kobe Doin' Work (2009), and 2 Fists Up (2016).
The interracial romance between Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra was the provocative selling point of this 1991 release, but Samuel L. Jackson, as Snipes’ crack-addicted brother, ends up being the heart of the movie. Jackson was so good, in fact, that the Cannes jury gave him a rare best supporting actor award that year.
“The disparate themes never quite come together, but with many fine performances—John Turturro and Lonette McKee are especially good—you won't be bored for a minute.” —Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader