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).
To capture the electricity of a live show, Lee filmed the last three performances of the Broadway production of this 2008 Tony-award winning musical written by singer/songwriter Stew. The autobiographical story follows a young Black man on his artistic journey from Compton to Europe. Of Lee’s theater projects, this one is the most alive. The film opened New York City’s IFC Center on August 29, 2009.
“Lee doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel when it comes to filming live theater, but he moves the camera artfully and edits with an energy that matches the music.” —Noel Murray, AV Club