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

Synopsis 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

Direction Spike Lee

Synopsis 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

Synopsis 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 friends for support: Frank Slattery (Barry Pepper), a cocky stock...

7.5

34K votes

7.5

34K votes

Direction Spike Lee

Synopsis 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 misery, despair and triumph. The film also looks at a...

Max

7.4

279 votes

7.4

279 votes

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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

Synopsis 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 create a cinematic project that would raise awareness about the...

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

Synopsis 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 to find "the real". He finds new experiences in promiscuous...

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

Synopsis 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. Mookie, Sal's delivery boy, manages to always be at the...

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

Synopsis 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 the dangerous cat-and-mouse game unfolds, a wild card emerges: Madaline...

7.1

48K votes

7.1

48K votes

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Malcolm X

1992 · Movie · 193 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

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

Synopsis 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 Little, son of a Nebraska preacher, on May 19, 1925,...

6.9

10K votes

6.9

10K votes

4 Little Girls

1997 · Documentary · 102 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

Synopsis 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 Church in Birmingham, Alabama. In that attack, four little African-American...

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

Synopsis 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 housing project, selling drugs for a local supplier named Rodney...

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

Synopsis 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 vision. With complete creative freedom, the directors bring their own...

6.8

1K votes

6.8

1K votes

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He Got Game

1998 · Movie · 130 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

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

Synopsis 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 basketball are overshadowed by his father, Jake, who is spending...

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

Synopsis 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 adulthood and forms his own band - The Bleek Gilliam...

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

Synopsis 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 even worse.

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

Synopsis 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

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Summer of Sam

1999 · Movie · 136 min. · United States

Direction Spike Lee

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

Synopsis 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 in fear and distrust of one another.

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

Synopsis 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 Bad tour, from Kanye West to Mariah Carey and Sheryl...

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

Synopsis 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

Direction Spike Lee

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

Synopsis 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

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