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Crooklyn

Crooklyn (1994)

May. 13,1994
|
7
|
PG-13
| Drama Comedy

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

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Actuakers
1994/05/13

One of my all time favorites.

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Console
1994/05/14

best movie i've ever seen.

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FuzzyTagz
1994/05/15

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

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Fairaher
1994/05/16

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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jasmine williams
1994/05/17

i grew up on this movie, its really funny. i love the Crooklyns. its funny,joyful, and a family movie to watch. its about family and growing up. singing and dancing fighting with your family. its a great movie and i love it. I HOPE THE COME UP WITH A NUMBER TWO AND ADD ME. THEY NEED A NUMBER TWO TO BETTER THE FILM.i grew up on this movie, its really funny. i love the Crooklyns. its funny,joyful, and a family movie to watch. its about family and growing up. singing and dancing fighting with your family. its a great movie and i love it. I HOPE THE COME UP WITH A NUMBER TWO AND ADD ME. THEY NEED A NUMBER TWO TO BETTER THE FILM.

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jjbsdoll
1994/05/18

I am a long-time Spike Lee fan and I saw Crooklyn when it first came out. I just watched it again. Seventeen years later, my love for this movie hasn't waned. This is a simple movie about regular human beings living ordinary lives in a specific time and place fondly remembered by Spike Lee (and those of us who grew up in large urban centers in the 70s). It's not in your face, it doesn't preach, it doesn't alienate. It just is-and it's something everyone can relate to who has been a sister/brother/child/parent/close relative/kid enjoying his or her summer. Because of that, I believe this movie is Spike Lee's crowning achievement. Indeed, I think it's a movie that could be envied by other film makers who attempt "slice of life" movies.

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jzappa
1994/05/19

There is just something about Spike Lee's films that has such an intensity and a natural beginning-to-end flow to its jabs at the heart. They're not sentimental nor are they necessarily depressing or mournful; they simply send you head first into the action of the characters, making you literally feel as if you are actually there with them. At least for me, he succeeds in doing this almost magical thing with every single one of his films, from She's Gotta Have It to Inside Man. Even with the films of his that aren't very good, like Girl 6 and She Hate Me, I'm still completely enthralled in the story. Crooklyn has a story with no main focus. Its characters just exist, and life just happens to them, sometimes nudging them like a begging dog and sometimes splashing in their faces like a bucket of soap. I feel cleansed while and after watching it.Anyone who's clicked on my name and has read through other comments of mine on other films may not find it surprising that I'm appalled at the scene where the dog pops out of the couch when the bed is being pulled out. There is really no need for this scene at all. Why kill the dog? Like it's some joke to get back on the woman for being annoying? However, miraculously, as it's very hard for me to forgive a movie when an inexplicable animal death or scene or cruelty towards any animal occurs, I still love this film. The single bias I have that can nearly always ruin a movie for me otherwise is hesitantly but irresistibly dismissed. Spike Lee's films are things we should put in time capsules if global warming dooms the world. When some civilization discovers the ruins of our ravaged existence, they are some of the things that should be found. And of course a projector or a TV or something to play the movies on, otherwise there's no point.Crooklyn is one of the great family films and also one of the great slice of life movies, because it does what the majority of movies don't do but are supposed to do, which is send you through the emotions that the characters are feeling and become immersed in their world. The music, its placement, the clear and forceful and even sometimes jolting cinematography, the strong performances by Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, and virtually all of the children, and the intense and inspiring reality and freshness of the writing making Crooklyn very much worth a look.

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Jason Forestein
1994/05/20

Another reviewer referred to Crooklyn as Spike's most underrated joint, and I heartily agree. This film is a wonderful achievement and much more mature and sure-handed than a lot of the films Spike has made since. It's not quite Do the Right Thing (but that film feels, quite simply, like a blessed and untouchable project), but it holds up better than Malcolm X or Jungle Fever or Clockers or He Got Game--all very good films as well.Why do I like this film so much? It's sweet-natured. In many ways, it reminds me of a film like Millions, which I also adored. There are too many nasty movies (don't get me wrong, I enjoy nastiness from time to time) and too few nice ones. Or rather too few nice ones that don't drop into cliché and cloying sappiness. Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard are excellent as always, but the kids here really steal the show (the same was true of Millions--maybe I just like movies with realistic, precocious kids). The film has a bright palette similar to Do the Right Thing and the early scenes in Malcolm X that works perfectly. The story too is something to behold. It doesn't follow a typical path and, as a result, feels more like the realistic life and times of a black family in New York in the 1970s. The film is really touching and, perhaps, that's because Crooklyn feels more personal than many other Spike Lee films. All in all, this is a great and underrated film. If you think you understand Spike, you're wrong until you've seen Crooklyn.

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