Starring: Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Spike Lee, Raye Dowell, Bill Lee
We end our journey through Spike Lee’s New York where it all began, with his feature film debut, SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT.
Taking place primarily in Fort Greene, Bed-Stuy, and Brooklyn Heights, this groundbreaking film introduces us to Nola Darling (a lovely performance from Tracy Camilla Johns) who refuses to be tied down to a single man, and instead dates three of them. We meet straight shooter Jaime Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), egocentric model Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), and the juvenile motor mouth Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee, in one of his most well known performances) as they all vye to be Nola’s one and only.
Ahead of its time as an exploration of sexuality and polyamorous relationships, SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT was shot on a shoestring budget in only twelve days and opened up the door for the rest of Spike’s illustrious career. This film also marks his first collaborations with cinematographer Ernest Dickerson and Production Designer Wynn Thomas; and is truly a family affair, with his sister Joie making her film debut, his father Bill Lee who composing the music (and making an appearance as Nola’s father), and Spike’s brother David, taking the beautiful still photographs seen throughout the film.
SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT was not only part of the change in how Black folks were portrayed on screen, it also shifted the way Brooklyn was represented in films from then on.
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Milla Jovovich, Rosario Dawson, Hill Harper
It was only a matter of time before Spike Lee made a film centered around his favorite sport. Basketball.
In He Got Game, we travel to Coney Island for another Spike/Denzel joint. Here, Denzel plays one of his most complicated roles to date as Jake Shuttlesworth; a man imprisoned for killing his wife and the mother of his children. Jake is released on parole for a week by the Governor for one reason, and one reason only: to convince his prodigious Basketball player son, Jesus (portrayed with a layered sensitivity by NBA player Ray Allen) to attend the Governor’s alma mater for college. In exchange, Jake will get a reduced prison sentence. With a severely broken relationship between Jake and Jesus, and many others in Jesus’ ear, tempting him with big college contracts (including his girlfriend played by Rosario Dawson), the stakes are high, and Jake is running out of time…
He Got Game features Spike Lee reunions with John Turturro, Zelda Harris, Bill Nunn, Lonette McKee and Roger Guenvuer Smith, a very slick performance from NBA star Rick Fox, and an original soundtrack of songs written and performed by Public Enemy that are interspersed with selections by legendary Brooklyn-born composer Aaron Copland.
All at once a powerful musing on Black Father and Son relationships and Spike’s love for the game of Basketball, He Got Game was Lee’s first film to open at number one at the box office, and the first time he takes a step back, doesn’t appear in the film and let’s his filmmaking alone work its magic.
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Ossie Davis, Spike Lee, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Lonette McKee, Anthony Quinn
Famously unavailable to watch or rent on any streaming service, JUNGLE FEVER in many ways feels like a cousin to DO THE RIGHT THING. In this film, Spike Lee brings us to Harlem and Bensonhurst to further explore the fraught relationship between Black folks and Italian Americans in New York City. This time, Spike dives head first into this racial tension through an affair between a married Black man named Flipper (played by Wesley Snipes) and a new secretary at his workplace named Angie (played Annabella Sciorra)…who’s Italian. As you can imagine, things get very messy, very quickly. Spike continues to impress with his fine tuned specificity of dialogue spoken by the Italian American characters, and he makes a strong and subtle statement by casting the cops who murder Radio Raheem as the same cops who accost Wesley Snipes during the climax of this film.
Add in an incredible subplot featuring Oscar nom. worthy performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis, John Turturro playing the opposite of Pino from DO THE RIGHT THING, and an iconic soundtrack of original songs written and performed by Stevie Wonder, and you get the brilliance that is JUNGLE FEVER.
Be prepared for long discussions with your friends about the controversial ending of this one.
Starring: Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin, Vincent Gardenia, Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell-Martin
Meek flower shop assistant Seymour (Rick Moranis) pines for co-worker Audrey (Ellen Greene). During a total eclipse, he discovers an unusual plant he names Audrey II, which feeds only on human flesh and blood. The growing plant attracts a great deal of business for the previously struggling store. After Seymour feeds Audrey’s boyfriend, Orin (Steve Martin), to the plant after Orin’s accidental death, he must come up with more bodies for the increasingly bloodthirsty plant.
Starring: Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton, Matteo Bocelli
Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is an academic — content with life and a creature of reason. While in Istanbul attending a conference, she happens to encounter a Djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.
Starring: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley
Idris Elba stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator. Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Garret Dillahunt, Michael Hyatt, Ahna O’Reilly
From the best-selling novel comes a captivating mystery. Where the Crawdads Sing tells the story of Kya, an abandoned girl who raised herself to adulthood in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world; but when one of them is found dead, she is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what actually happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal the many secrets that lay within the marsh.
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Jonathan Avigdori, Kim Yarbrough, Gina Gershon, Bernardo Badillo
Saddled with student debt and unable to find work, a college graduate becomes involved in a credit card scam, acting as a dummy shopper and buying increasingly risky products with stolen credit cards.
Warning: Images are not from the movies we’re showing. Trust us, you can’t imagine what we’re showing!
The second Sunday of every month sees Subway Cinema take over the Nitehawk to unleash an action classic from the golden days of Hong Kong movies and this time we’re setting the seats on fire. We’re not telling you the title until it appears onscreen because it’s more fun that way but, trust us, we’re celebrating the biggest stars of the ‘80s and ‘90s in their best movies, all presented in glorious 35mm and this particular movie is guaranteed to knock your block off, then shoot you in the face.
One of Hong Kong’s most acclaimed action directors delivers a high-impact contemporary action flick that gives an all-star cast a whole bunch of ballistic kisses. The show almost gets stolen by a knuckle-shredding, sneaker-to-the-face performance from an up-and-coming action star, but everyone holds their own until one more pitch black plot twist leaves them bleeding out in the streets. Straight out of the ‘80s it’s got that big shoulders, big hair, big squib energy.
Starring: Takuya Kimura, Yū Aoi, Tadanobu Asano
A daredevil driver and his secret love face off in the most dangerous and exciting car race in the universe, the Redline. Takeshi Koike (The Animatrix) directs and animates this high-speed thrill.
