Crooklyn (1994)

(On Cable TV, August 2021) It’s not quite fair to call Crooklyn a kinder, gentler Spike Lee movie —it’s just as engaged as other films, but it turns its attention to domestic issues in presenting a semi-autobiographical tale about growing up in Brooklyn in the 1960s/70s. As a result, you won’t necessarily find as many guns as other Lee films (despite a title that promises crooks), as this one focuses on the pressures that a mother has in taking care of her five children in a cramped apartment. The surrounding neighbourhood is portrayed with a great deal of affection, and the period soundtrack is nothing short of terrific. It’s not as if Crooklyn doesn’t pack a punch of a different sort — much of the third act is driven by a sudden death. While I’m not always a big fan of when directors turn to autobiographical stories, I think it’s an essential part of cinema — unlike, say, a novel, films take so much money to put together that they rarely turn toward that kind of intimate biographical storytelling. It does show Lee being at ease in a different register, and does make a statement about a specific kind of black life in America. Not bad — but Crooklyn does ask viewers to switch gears and not necessarily expect the usual Spike Lee joint.