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).
Lee has never been afraid of throwing every idea he has about a subject into a single film, and he proved that again with his Vietnam War movie, released on Netflix in 2020. After an initial montage that reads as political, the film shifts into an ensemble dramedy. A war film is introduced, followed by a heist thriller, a father-son melodrama, and eventually a western shoot-em-up. This overabundance gets out of control at times, but the impressive performances by Isiah Whitlock Jr., Norm Lewis, Clarke Peters, and especially Delroy Lindo keep the film grounded.
“This is a lobbed grenade. But it’s also personal filmmaking at its prodding, profound best. This is a Spike Lee joint and a Spike Lee history lesson. Prepare to be schooled.” —Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
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