Wake up! The 20 best Spike Lee Films, ranked

It's rare when an auteur is praised for filming a comedy, largely when the action is self-sustaining and out of the filmmaker's control. But Lee earns praise for "The Original Kings of Comedy," if only for presenting to a wider audience how great comedy shows come together, and more importantly, for creating a trend of all-star shows that would later be followed by "The Queens of Comedy" and the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour."

Post-"Malcolm-X," a film that took a heavy toll on Lee in many ways, "Crooklyn" is the perfect, almost apropos, film to tackle after such a herculean effort. A semi-autobiographical film, "Crooklyn" is a family affair in practically every way as it was written as a collaboration between Lee and siblings Joie and Cinque. Depicting the lives of the Carmichael family in 1970s Brooklyn, the film is told through the eyes of nine-year-old Troy (Zelda Harris) as she comes of age amid the joys and sorrows of the toughest year the family had to face. 

"Jungle Fever," Lee's follow-up to "Mo' Better Blues," tackles the still-controversial (in the '90s) topic of interracial dating, as a couple (Annabella Sciorra and Wesley Snipes) comes together in the midst of marital strife and naked racism. While Lee could've created an amped-up "Romeo and Juliet" fable, he takes great care to show the duality of families and how skin color is not nearly as important as the heart, even as it sometimes manages to get in the way. 

Lee's first adaptation of existing material comes in the form of "Clockers." Based on the Richard Price novel, the film follows a low-level hustler (Mekhi Phifer) as he finds himself caught up in the throes of a murder investigation. Unlike Lee's previous films, which portray a more idyllic version of Brooklyn, Lee goes for a much more authentic vision of the borough he loves, warts and all. 

A follow-up to 2005's "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts," Lee returns to New Orleans to see what life has become for those who stayed and those who chose to return in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Lee takes things one step further by also focusing on the 2010 BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and its effect on those who live and work in the area. Lee won another Peabody Award for this documentary, which was praised for his coverage of not only the devastation, but also his depiction of how New Orleans endured and grew in the wake of the chaos.

"BlackKkKlansman" wasn't the only thing Spike Lee was up to in 2018. Filmed from both the perspective of the audience and the performers, "Pass Over" is an interesting and compelling film that partially adapts the stage play by Antoinette Nwandu about young black men trying to survive the violent streets of inner city Chicago, making it into more than just a filming of the play's performance. Lee, as one might do for a comedy concert film, intersperses reaction shots from the audience, and that has quite an effect during some of the more dramatic scenes, making it so much more than a standard "filmed play."

Lee's second documentary focuses on the complicated life of NFL Hall of Fame running back, actor and activist Jim Brown detailing how his successes, failures and controversies molded him into the sometimes legend, sometimes terror that he is well-known for. While it's clear Lee looks up to Brown for his achievements, he isn't afraid to look into the darker parts of Brown, which include charges of domestic violence balanced against the sometimes racist fervor some have taken to prosecute him. 

The third of four collaborations between Denzel Washington and Lee, "He Got Game" features NBA star Ray Allen as Jesus Shuttlesworth. Shuttlesworth is a phenom basketball player who has yet to make a decision on which college he'll play for, something a governor is trying to sway by releasing his estranged father (Washington) to help woo him to the fictional Big State University. The film takes a hard look at the strained relationship between father and son, with a sense of freedom for both despite the reality of the obligations they've been forced into.

After a string of films that brought mixed reviews, Lee roared back to relevance with this adaptation of the classic Greek comedy "Lysistrata" in which women withhold sex from their husbands as punishment for fighting in the Peloponnesian War. Here, Lee changes the venue from ancient Greece to modern day Chicago, a city whose inner-city violence is at epidemic levels. Featuring stellar performances from Teyonah Parris and Nick Cannon, alongside a reunion with former Lee contemporaries Samuel L. Jackson, Wesley Snipes and Angela Bassett, "Chi-Raq," while not a perfect film, is important in its scope and intensity.

The second of two films directed by Lee in 1996, "Get on the Bus" is a small yet powerful film chronicling a group of black men on their way to Washington D.C. for the Million Man March. Employing cinéma vérité techniques, Lee tells a personal story of men who, despite their backgrounds and differences, find themselves aligned with the same goal of self-actualization in the midst of a one-of-a-kind event. 

Lee's first theatrical release fresh from film school, "She's Gotta Have It" is an apt sex comedy that takes one step forward and one step back in depicting modern black relationships through the eyes of Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns), a free spirited Brooklynite whose passion simply can't be contained to one man. Much of the humor (and uncomfortability) comes from Nola's trio of eclectic lovers, including Mars Blackmon (Lee) who would spin off into Nike commercials featuring Michael Jordan. Controversial for its depiction of what amounts to a rape scene, Lee has since modernized and updated the original story as a Netflix series that is now in its second season.

An epic two-part documentary for HBO, "When the Levees Broke" is a chronicle of the devastation in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lee pulls no punches in delivering a harrowing mix of footage and live interviews that give a stark look at those whose will to survive was greater than the obstacles, both natural and man-made, placed in their path. Winner of a 2006 Peabody Award, the film features more than 100 interviews of those who lived through this great American tragedy.

The fourth film collaboration between Lee and Denzel Washington, "Inside Man" is also Lee's most financially successful film. Boasting solid performances from an all-star cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen and Willem Dafoe, "Inside Man" is a modern-day heist film done right, all while maintaining and progressing Lee's penchant for social commentary that viewers from all walks of life can digest and enjoy.

Like most of Lee's best films, New York City is every bit as much a character as any of the actors, and this is more so the case in "25th Hour," the first of Lee's films that he did not write the screenplay. Instead he directed a script from novelist David Benioff depicting the last 24 hours of freedom for a man (Edward Norton) before he serves a lengthy prison sentence. One of the first films to depict New York post-9/11, "25th Hour" stands as a lasting testament to the undying resolve of the city Lee calls home.

Lee's first film post-"Do the Right Thing" is a change of gears that highlights Lee's true versatility as a filmmaker. "Mo' Better Blues," a tribute of sorts to the art of jazz music while wrapped within the drama of a love triangle. The film marks the first of many collaborations between Lee and Denzel Washington, who stars as central character Bleek Gilliam. Although one of Lee's more neutral affairs, the film was not without controversy as the Anti-Defamation League went after Lee for the portrayal of two Jewish business owners as predatory in nature. 

In 1988, black film wasn't even near the mainstream, and here Lee delivers a story about colorism within a historically black college. "School Daze," Lee's first studio-funded film and the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Universal Pictures, opens up audiences to a view of life inside Mission College, where even among black folks there are lines of division, whether it's class, politics or even skin tone. Lee does a solid job of weaving humor and drama to show how at the end of the day, struggle is where you find it unless you truly wake up.

"BlacKkKlansman is an absolute tour-de-force for Lee, who is channeling the younger, more daring version of himself to tell this story based on true events about Colorado Springs' first black cop (John David Washington) and how he managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a white counterpart (Adam Driver). While the film is set in the late '70s, the story is in every way tied to current events, with a finish that delivers a gut check about the current state of America. An absolute must-see and easily one of Lee's finest moments.

A passion project for Lee since his days as a film school student at NYU, "4 Little Girls" is his first feature-length documentary, and the impact lands with all the concussive force of the blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that took the lives of four young girls, victims of the Ku Klux Klan. The documentary is a heart-wrenching account of the days leading to and the aftermath of the church bombing and earned Lee an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary.

While "Malcolm X" just misses being Lee's best film, it is without question his most ambitious, proving his worth not only as a filmmaker but an essential one. Denzel Washington makes an Oscar-nominated turn as the slain civil rights leader, born from a life that led from prison to redemption. Lee famously fought Warner Bros. to make the film he wanted to make, in the end relying on black celebrities such as Prince, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and Janet Jackson to donate (not invest) funds to ensure Lee's vision was preserved. The result is a sweeping epic depicting a slice of black history that may have gone untold otherwise.

A cinematic Molotov cocktail, "Do the Right Thing" mixes humor, tension and frank honesty to depict how people can break down on the hottest day of the year. One of the first films to seriously depict the effects of police brutality on the black community, Lee takes great care not to turn any of the represented groups into a caricature in order to sell their grievances. The final act of the film still confuses some viewers to this day, but in today's climate, it may make more sense now than ever before. By far Lee's finest work to date.