TinsHeadline Touches You

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

ElMaruecan82 Following a brilliant streak of socio-politically charged movies such as "Do the Right Thing", "Jungle Fever" and "Malcolm X", "Crooklyn" comes as a Spike Lee joint in the same vein than "Mo' Better Blues", a lighthearted slice of African-American life in New-York neighborhood centering on a protagonist coming to terms with his personal demons and in the same time, inspiring us in our own real-life situations… another gem that makes me believe that, directing-wise, Lee's "gotta have it."And Spike Lee movies never imitate one another and "Crooklyn" works on its own level, a "N" that evokes both Nostalgia and Neighborhood, Brooklyn where Spike Lee grew up in the 60's and 70's, a Brooklyn misled by that pun in the title, for there's no crook in this Brooklyn, the closest characters to criminals spend time sniffing glue, the closest moments to confrontations are family arguments and the closest to an act of violence is an accidental punch in the face of a noisy neighbor. I don't think I'm spoiling the film by inviting you to lower your guard and stop being afraid, this is a nostalgic film, a coming-of-age story whose heroine is 10-year old Troy (Zelda Harris).It seems like a decade starts to induce nostalgia when it's 20 years old, and like "Dazed and Confused" one year earlier, the 70's started to tickle the mind of nostalgic film-makers, "Crooklyn" is set in 1973 according to some researches, a time where soul music, TV sitcoms, in fact TV and candies defined the most of childhood culture. In one strike of film-making simple genius, the opening credits feature all the games kids were playing at that time and the trivia says that none of the child actors knew how to play these games anymore … these are the devastating effects of the video game generation, to which I belong. But being born in the early 80's, I remembered some of these games and I don't think I got interested in video-games that early, there is more to explain their sinking into oblivion.And the reason has to do with my preconceived ideas about the film, being a Spike Lee movie set in a African-American neighborhood, I expected scenes of violence to punctuate the film, I expected seeing one of the children being confronted to drugs or the use of a gun, I thought that Troy shoplifting and lying to her mother would ultimately lead her to a dangerous descent into crime, I thought the father would be an abusive alcoholic man who'd abuse his wife, and if one thing, it was Alfre Woodward, as the mother, who got on my nerves more than the cool and surprisingly sweet and tender Woody, played by a great Delroy Lindo. No disrespect to Alfre, she just reminded me of my own mother, you have fun with your Dad but not moms and apparently this was still true in Lee's years.Once again, Spike Lee comes with a surprise and shows his capability to be warm and tender, funny and sweet, conveying the real feelings of childhood, but it's not the kind of magic resuscitated through childhood memories, Spike Lee was a teenager in the 70's and didn't sugarcoat his memories or those of his sister Joyce who co-wrote he film, those were really innocent times where kids could be left near the home without fearing getting a stray bullet or something else, kids could play outside, could dance, their only homemade distraction were eating and watching TV, which left plenty of room for imagination. Times have changed, and video-games and violence-oriented TV programs say more about the changes of mentalities and environment that confined kids in the TV room.A film like "Crooklyn" can appeal to any kid who's grown up in any neighborhood, basically, all of us, because it simply tells the story from a grown-up's perspective of how great were these years, when family made one, when our parents were young, where each year featured a new step forward into life. I remembered when I was a kid, each birthday, each number had something special 7, 8, 9, 10 etc. etc. Now, I'm 32 and I couldn't care less … I guess childhood is the magical part of our lives because we can't be nostalgic as kids, we don't have any references from the past, and the future is like in light-years, like stuck forever in childhood, we cherish the present and embrace life with all the fun and all the greatness. And this is what Troy' story is about.Troy is a little girl who tries to make her place in a family full of boys, she's bullied but she always has a comeback, she's sweet and curious, and through her journey, we turn the pages of all inner childhood diary, remembering these days where adults were untouchables or when we had to spend time in a stranger's house. The film features a chapter set in the South where Troy spends some vacation I her Uncle's family, we take a cool breath of fresh air with a cute friendship with a girl. Spike Lee would shoot the scene in a panoramic views but I agree that was unnecessary for the film didn't need these stylistic tricks, it was a novelty on its own. Anyway, after that vacation, you'd expect things to change for Toy, it will but not as you expect, and again, Spike Lee knows how to surprise you.The film is served by a wonderful casting, a great soundtrack reviving all the classics of the 70's, some nice supporting performance, from David Patrick Kelly as the constantly bullied neighbor weirdo to Isaiah Washington and a scene-stealing Aunt Queenie …I still have a soft spot for the performance of Delroy Lindo as a sweet and caring father.

viewsonfilm.com The closing credits of Spike Lee's 1994 film Crooklyn state that what we saw as an audience was a work of fiction. They also state that Crooklyn had more than one writer and those writers (Lee and his real life brother and sister) drew some of their inspiration from their own lives growing up in a low rent Brooklyn neighborhood. If this is the case and the film is not exactly a true story, then after a recent viewing, I started to wonder why and for what reason, it was made. Now granted, Spike Lee always has good intentions. And most of the time he gets energetic performances from his cast. However, in Crooklyn's case, the material he is saddled with (the story and the monotonous, yet accurate script) is entirely lightweight, and it doesn't have the strength to fill a 2 hour-plus exercise. Whatever conflicts that occur between the characters (characters that fade in and out of the proceedings) are never fully realized and resolved, the one event or tragedy that occurs toward the film's conclusion does not fully beef up any dramatic momentum, and most of the scenes involving the main family depicted (the Carmichael family) feel tedious and in serious need of editing. In essence, Crooklyn would have more effective as a side plot of Lee's family childhood included in a T.V. special/documentary about his life as a director. What came out in 1994 though, is an authentic, yet unnecessary portrayal of a family of 5 kids (four boys, 1 girl) living in Brooklyn, NY in the summer of 1973.Using many unknown child actors and casting himself as a neighborhood glue sniffing junkie, Lee shoots a film that follows the lives of the fictional family, the Carmichaels. They consists of a hard working school teacher (always tough as nails Alfre Woodard), her calming, hard- up musician husband (with this film and Lee's Clockers, Delroy Lindo is now one of my true acting heroes), and their five children (the film slowly begins to put its main focus on the only daughter in group being Troy, played with confidence by Zelda Harris). Although they are the main tenants of the building they are living in, they are struggling to make ends meet (they fail to pay the electric bill for everybody else and the building loses power) and Carolyn Carmichael (Woodard) being the sole provider, puts a strain on the family dynamic. She and Woody Carmichael (Lindo) fight and argue because he is not able to make any money playing his music (he's a piano player and composer). Crooklyn also in the smallest detail takes a look at some of the other people that live on the same block as the Carmichaels. They are side characters that don't get a lot of screen time to establish themselves, let alone add to the workings of the plot (a plot with a very thin skin). As I stated a couple sentences ago, watching this exercise, you begin to realize that the young Troy becomes the focal point of the movie in general. It's not entirely known upfront. But by the last twenty minutes or so, you understand why. By then it's too late because too much running time is passed and not enough has happened. If the whole entire film focused on this little girl, I think it might have worked. I stress the words might have.When it's all said and done, this is a harmless motion picture that seemed close to Lee's heart. I don't think it's a bad film by any means. I just feel that the subject matter wasn't deep enough or potent enough to engage an audience seeking entertainment value or for lack of a better word, excitement. Yes, the period detail is pretty solid with the soundtrack being composed of some 70's classics and a few rap tunes. The opening credit sequence is excellent, depicting a normal routine of childhood antics (double dutch jump rope, tag, street races, etc.) on a hot summer day in NYC. And the closing credits are a delight leading with an intro by Soul Train creator Don Cornelius followed by a dance sequence on said T.V. show. But, in between, the movie glides by without really saying anything or provoking any deep meaning. So my high end analysis is this: instead of watching people's lives on screen, the only way to really embrace this film, is by being in that place and time, and actually inhabiting some form of their existence. If you lived in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood back in 1973, this flick might be your cup of tea. If you didn't, decide to take in a viewing, and wanted to immerse yourself in the world of Crooklyn, (you know its characters and its story) by hook or "crook", you'll ultimately feel cheated at what you just saw.

kimbakat The distortion doesn't complement anything...and certainly doesn't communicate the blatant literal attempt it tries to. It just takes away from the wonderfully acted and designed set that captures living in the midwest 1970s so well...that now the distortion takes away from it.The distortion is a really bad idea because your audience is immediately distracted by the first thought as to 'What is wrong with the projectionist?" Next thought is you are now well aware you are in a theatre watching a possible technically error. Thanks for reminding me I'm in a movie...watching a movie....because that's the goal of all filmmakers. At that point, your train of thought has taken you away from the action happening in wonderful detail in the actors expression and set design you fail to miss this "blatant literal" attempt to tell your audience that they can't possibly understand this change in the character's environment so now "I'm going to help you because you are too stupid by the 40 minutes of Brooklyn living to see the difference between the two environments!" Either Spike felt his actors were so bad or his audience to stupid to get it. Sorry Spike...most of us were exposed to slumber parties in other households as children where the culture and environment was vastly different from our own. We didn't need distortion glasses then to know our environment changed...trust me..your audience get's it and would've better appreciated your art departments, wardrobe's work and the actors performance better without the distortion. Do you really need to be that literal? Are Brooklynites that stupid to get and you put it in there for them? Or do you think people in the suburbs would be too stupid to get it? Really? Any chance of releasing a "Fixed Crooklyn" version so that every time I see that scene....I don't feel like I'm being spoon-fed a narrow viewpoint of a Brooklynite that never got out of their house for a slumber party in the 70s or couldn't fathom other lifestyles? I'm sorry..I don't know about the Brooklyn school system but we had geography and social studies in Middle School. We were taught about other cultures way back in the 70s. I would have expected you would've known about the other world outside your neighborhood by the time you made this movie.The distortion effect is an epic fail on really one of your best family drama films. It's like a turd in the middle of this great Brooklyn experience of a story.Other than that...it's a great movie with a lot of replay value. If you ever watch Soul Train back in the 70s or been to a slumber party.....this movie captures the period in a very realistic way! Too bad the distortion takes away from the reality of the suburb scene. I wonder why he didn't distort any of the reality of the Brooklyn scenes? I would think someone coming to Brooklyn from the burbs would expect to see all their movies shot in Brooklyn to have a distorted effect in their local theatres. Hmmm...call me stupid!!!

Jason Forestein 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.