SCFZ poll: Spike Lee

[thoxans]

when the levees broke: a requiem in four acts
she's gotta have it
25th hour
bamboozled

*seen eight

[john ryan]

Seen 9

1. Malcolm X
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Inside Man
4. Blackkklansman

[wba]

That's something that can come up with any movie from another cultural context, but it's often set aside or seen as close enough to universal to make strong sense of it via secondhand sources since that is how we approach movies generally. That's fine and necessary to an extent, but also has to be approached with the knowledge that lived experience or deep knowledge is something more than can be passed on via light reading and/or seeing it onscreen alone. It doesn't invalidate one's own response, but renders the appreciation distant. That's almost easier to accept when the distance is actually literal rather than of that of shared space but different cultural understanding.

I have to say that I think all art has an individualized context that you could say cannot be fully appreciated by another person who didn't actually create it. But in the end the work of art is also more powerful, wiser, more open and more complex than the person(s) who created it. Cause that's what art is: more than the parts just adding up. In the end, everyone has to experience a work of art for herself and try to make sense of it from their own perspective. I don't think that's actually a problem but a gift, as thus we are able to understand and appreciate the world from multiple perspectives (that is, when we engage and communicate with others).

In my opinion, it's a nationalist ideology to say, for example that only an Indian can "truly" appreciate an Indian film, or a German a German one or an American an American film. That in this cultural essentialism lies the "inherent" value of a work of art that must be approached. True, that someone more familiar with a cultural context can understand certain aspects of an artwork much easier, and someone else might not understand them at all. But that "someone else" will bring another, no less valid perspective to the game (and so on and so on).

[karl]

Sidney Pollack and Spike Lee? Sounds like you all are running out of directors.

[flip]

Sidney Pollack and Spike Lee? Sounds like you all are running out of directors.

we got buster keaton next!

[fabricix]

Seen 12.

1. Chi-Raq
2. Crooklyn
3. Do The Right Thing
4. Bad 25
5. When the Levees Broke

[Curtis, baby]

Okay I watched BlacKkKlansman. Amazing. His best (that I've seen)

And to think that white liberal jerkoff shit Green Room won an Oscar over this? If I were Spike I would've walked out too! The Academy is really voting itself into future historical irrelevance

[wba]

Okay I watched BlacKkKlansman. Amazing. His best (that I've seen)

And to think that white liberal jerkoff shit Green Room won an Oscar over this? If I were Spike I would've walked out too! The Academy is really voting itself into future historical irrelevance

I thought Blackkklansman was pretty much liberal jerkoff shit of a similar caliber as Green Book. The film was totally middlebrow to me, and Lee's direction outright lazy. Farrelly in my opinion out-directed him and actually made a more poignant film about class (rather than race), which I thought was better made on most accounts (and as relevant as Lee's film on thematic grounds), even though of course both films are a looooong way removed from anything actually deserving best picture considerations - but that's the academy: it sucks! Also Mortensen is such a fantastic actor, he out-acted every single other character in either "Klansman" or "Book" with a frightening ease, which is also something.

[eleanor]

seen 4
1. bamboozled
2. blackkklansman
will try to watch more today if i have the time

[grabmymask]

was gonna try to watch more for this, but it just never panned out—oh well.

1. Do The Right Thing

[Curtis, baby]

flip can you please keep this open an extra day? i want to watch another so i can vote for three

[flip]

sure, i'll leave this open another day, but if anyone needs more time than that, i can leave it open until friday, just let me know!

[Curtis, baby]

done, thanks flip!

[flip]

results

1. Do The Right Thing (1989) -- 42 pts
2. When the Levees Broke (2006) -- 19 pts
3. Crooklyn (1994) -- 18 pts
4. Malcolm X (1992) -- 14 pts
5. Bamboozled (2000) -- 10 pts
5. BlacKkKlansman (2018) -- 10 pts
7. She's Gotta Have It (1986) -- 9 pts
8. Mo' Better Blues (1990) -- 8 pts
8. Jungle Fever (1991) -- 8 pts
8. Summer of Sam (1999) -- 8 pts
11. 25th Hour (2002) -- 7 pts
12. Chi-raq (2015) -- 5 pts
13. Inside Man (2006) -- 4 pts
14. Bad 25 (2012) -- 2 pts
14. Red Hook Summer (2012) -- 2 pts
14. Clockers (1995) -- 2 pts

[fabricix]

WOW. When The Levees Broke is high!

[flip]

up at letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-145/

[cinesmith]

No one voted for '4 Little Girls' !?!

[john ryan]

I hadn't seen it yet. It would be in my top 5 now.

[cinesmith]

Just for the record, seen 21

4 Little Girls 97
25th Hour 02
Mo Better Blues 90
Clockers 95