Staying Fit
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So you want to be a Spike Lee completist? And why not? When it comes to engaging the Black — and therefore deeply American — experience, the Brooklyn-born director is among the most relevant filmmakers of the 20th century. The Library of Congress’ measure for inclusion in the National Film Registry is that a film has historical, cultural, aesthetic significance; that it be worthy of preservation. In December, Lee's She's Gotta Have It joined Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and 4 Little Girls (his documentary about the domestic terrorist bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.), on the registry.
Those are titles irrefutably touted on top 10 lists of his work. Others — Inside Man, 25th Hour and Jungle Fever — are routinely ranked high. All exemplify Lee's deft generosity with actors: new (Tisha Campbell in School Daze), established (Denzel Washington in He Got Game) or seemingly revealed for the first time (Samuel L. Jackson in Jungle Fever). He's been on an artistic roll recently with BlacKkKlansman (the screenplay garnered him his first Oscar) and Da 5 Bloods on Netflix. American Utopia, his documenting of the Broadway musical that David Byrne brought to such timely life, is due out in October. Before that, here are five Lee films streaming now to add to your watchlist.
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School Daze (1988)
Long before being “woke” became a thing, antiapartheid activist Dap (Laurence Fishburne) summons his fellow students and school administrators to the central lawn of Mission University (a fictional historically Black college) on the Sunday morning of Homecoming Weekend and admonishes the crowd to “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” Lee, a Morehouse man, plays the too servile fraternity pledge Half-Pint. Giancarlo Esposito brings indelible edge and arrogance as Julian, head of Gamma Phi Gamma. It is a tale of near-fratricidal (pun intended) conflict between Wannabees and Jigaboos, Dap and Julian. This quasi-musical brims with ridiculously fun scenes that pose still-pointed questions about the varieties of blackness and community. West Side Story is famously teased in the number “Good and Bad Hair,” a face-off set in a hair salon.
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RELATED: Give your watchlist another dose of perspective with our critic's collection of 13 remarkable women filmmakers you should be streaming: 13 Female Directors You Should Discover Right Now
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