Direction: Spike Lee

The best movies, series, and documentaries directed by Spike Lee. Explore exceptional titles that showcase a unique filmmaking vision.


American Utopia

2020 · Documentary · 105 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast David Byrne

Plot Spike Lee documents the former Talking Heads frontman's brilliant, timely 2019 Broadway show, based on his recent album and tour of the same name.

7.8

223 votes

7.8

223 votes

NYC Epicenters: 9/11-2021½ (TV Miniseries)

2021 · Documentary · min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Plot TV Mini-Series (2021). Explore an epic chronicle of life, loss and survival in the city of New York over the twenty years since the September 11th attacks.

7.5

37 votes

7.5

37 votes

25th Hour

2002 · Movie · 134 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Edward Norton · Philip Seymour Hoffman · Barry Pepper · Rosario Dawson

Plot Edward Norton plays Monty Brogan, a harmless drug dealer who has 24 hours of freedom before serving a seven-year jail sentence. Nervous, confused, and terrified, Monty turns to his closest...

7.5

34K votes

7.5

34K votes

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (TV)

2006 · Documentary · 240 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Plot This intimate portrait of New Orleans in the wake of the destruction tells the personal stories of those who endured this harrowing ordeal and survived to tell the tale of...

Max

7.4

279 votes

7.4

279 votes

All the Invisible Children

2005 · Movie · 116 min. · Italy

Direction Mehdi Charef · Emir Kusturica · Spike Lee · Kátia Lund

Cast María Grazia Cucinotta · Jiang Wenli · Francisco Anawake · David Thewlis

Plot Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist. This film is a very special initiative. Three years ago, the project’s producers sought to...

7.3

1K votes

7.3

1K votes

Passing Strange (TV)

2009 · Movie · 135 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast De'Adre Aziza · Daniel Breaker · Eisa Davis · Colman Domingo

Plot A young black musician travels on a picaresque journey to rebel against his mother and his upbringing in a church-going, middle-class, late 1970's South Central Los Angeles neighborhood in order...

7.3

115 votes

7.3

115 votes

Do the Right Thing

1989 · Movie · 110 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Danny Aiello · Ossie Davis · Ruby Dee · Giancarlo Esposito

Plot It's the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and tensions are growing there, with the only local businesses being a Korean grocery and Sal's Pizzeria....

7.3

12K votes

7.3

12K votes

Inside Man

2006 · Movie · 129 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Denzel Washington · Clive Owen · Jodie Foster · Willem Dafoe

Plot Inside Man is the story of a tough cop, Detective Frazier (Denzel Washington), who matches wits with a clever bank robber, Dalton (Clive Owen), in a tense hostage drama. As...

7.1

48K votes

7.1

48K votes

Malcolm X

1992 · Movie · 193 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Denzel Washington · Angela Bassett · Albert Hall · Al Freeman Jr.

Plot Spike Lee brings the life of African-American leader Malcolm X (an intense Denzel Washington in an Oscar-nominated performance) to the big screen in this sprawling, epic biographical drama. Born Malcolm...

6.9

10K votes

6.9

10K votes

4 Little Girls

1997 · Documentary · 102 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Plot This film recounts the people and events leading up to the one of the most despicable hate-crimes during the height of the civil-rights movement, the bombing of the 16th Street...

Max

6.8

78 votes

6.8

78 votes

Clockers

1995 · Movie · 128 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Harvey Keitel · John Turturro · Delroy Lindo · Mekhi Phifer

Plot Fully capturing the thoroughly researched detail of Price's novel, the film focuses on Strike (newcomer Mekhi Phifer), a young, ambitious "clocker"--or drug dealer--who works the streets of his New York...

6.8

6K votes

6.8

6K votes

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet

2002 · Movie · 92 min. · Germany

Direction Wim Wenders · Víctor Erice · Werner Herzog · Chen Kaige

Cast Chloë Sevigny · Amber Tamblyn · Ana Sofía Liaño · Pelayo Suárez

Plot Unique in the history of cinema about the most universal of all subjects: Time. Each of the 15 directors has been given exactly ten minutes on the screen for their...

6.8

1K votes

6.8

1K votes

He Got Game

1998 · Movie · 130 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Denzel Washington · Ray Allen · Milla Jovovich · Rosario Dawson

Plot Tells the story of Jesus Shuttlesworth, the most sought after high school basketball prospect in the nation. Jesus and his dream to make it to the big ranks in professional...

6.6

6K votes

6.6

6K votes

Mo' Better Blues

1990 · Movie · 120 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Denzel Washington · Spike Lee · Wesley Snipes · Samuel L. Jackson

Plot Opens with Bleek as a child learning to play the trumpet, his friends want him to come out and play but mother insists he finish his lessons. Bleek grows into...

6.6

2K votes

6.6

2K votes

Jungle Fever

1991 · Movie · 135 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Annabella Sciorra · Wesley Snipes · Spike Lee · Debi Mazar

Plot A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship...

6.6

7K votes

6.6

7K votes

She's Gotta Have It (TV Series)

2017 · Series · 30 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast DeWanda Wise · Cleo Anthony · Lyriq Bent · Chyna Layne

Plot TV Series (2017-2019). 2 Seasons. 19 Episodes. The story of one woman and her three lovers. TV series based on the film by Spike Lee.

6.6

428 votes

6.6

428 votes

Summer of Sam

1999 · Movie · 136 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast John Leguizamo · Adrien Brody · Mira Sorvino · Jennifer Esposito

Plot Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American South Bronx neighborhood who live...

6.6

3K votes

6.6

3K votes

Bad 25

2012 · Documentary · 123 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Michael Jackson · Martin Scorsese · Mariah Carey · Sheryl Crow

Plot A documentary on Michael Jackson and the legacy of his record Bad, which features more than 40 interviews conducted by Spike Lee with friends, collaborators and musicians involved in the...

6.5

312 votes

6.5

312 votes

BlacKkKlansman

2018 · Movie · 128 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast John David Washington · Adam Driver · Topher Grace · Laura Harrier

Plot The story of Ron Stallworth, a detective in Colorado, who dared to challenge the Ku Klux Klan and thwart its attempts to take over the city.

6.5

20K votes

6.5

20K votes

Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall

2016 · Documentary · 93 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Cast Michael Jackson · LaToya Jackson · Janet Jackson · Joe Jackson

Plot A look at the life of the late pop star Michael Jackson from his early days at Motown Records to the release of his hit 1979 album, Off the Wall.

6.5

332 votes

6.5

332 votes