A still from Spike Lee's Crooklyn.
Hopscotch, stick ball, dominoes, and double-dutch: the 1994 film Crooklyn opens with all of this and more playing out on the stoops and sidewalks of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, where people of all ages live, work, play, and play out their daily lives.
Under the direction of Spike Lee, the viewer soon comes to know and care deeply about one of the families living on this street, The Carmichaels, as well as their neighbors, friends, and extended family members at their best, their worst, and everything in between.
Tuesday night saw the film as the first in Best Video’s July screening series focusing on Lee and his storied career. Other films to be shown in the series include 1998’s He Got Game on July 16, 1989’s Do The Right Thing on July 23, and 2018’s BlacKkKlansman on July 30.
Karen Ponzio Photo.
The films being shown for the retrospective.
According to Best Video’s own Teo Hernanadez, Lee was a director the staff wanted to showcase for a while. The films were chosen by him, Rai Thayer, and Rob Harmon, though Tuesday’s film was actually chosen by member Marquon Albright via the store’s suggestion box (yes, Best Video reads those suggestions!). He was there Tuesday night to introduce the film as well.
“It’s a transformative movie for me,” said Albright before the show. Earlier in his life, he said, it had been a “family favorite.” After learning more about film as a media arts major in college, his admiration for the film grew.
“That helped me to appreciate more about the movie. It helped me understand why I love the movie so much,” Albright said. Asking the crowd to imagine a Spike Lee film “through the lens of a child,” he emphasized Lee’s focus on community in this film through the family and friends in it, and how the structure of the film is more of a “slice of life” than narrative.
“There’s no real plot,” he said. “It’s people just living … like putting cameras in a house” and “watching family and friends at home.”
Karen Ponzio Photo.
Albright introduces the film.
Family is at the heart of Crooklyn in more ways than one. It is a semiautobiographical account of Lee’s own family, based on a story by his sister Joie (who also appears in the film) with a screenplay written by Joie and brother Cinque. The film centers on the Carmichael family, which includes father Woody (played by Delroy Lindo), who dreams of playing his original music for money, and mother Carolyn (played by Alfre Woodard), a teacher who works overtime at home to keep her husband and five children — Clinton, Wendell, Nate, Troy, and Joseph — in line.
But the true star of the film is the only daughter, Troy, played with fire and delight by Zelda Harris. On the cusp of her 10th birthday, we see her navigate bullies and big brothers while coming of age during a time when women’s rights were considered even less than now. Through a series of vignettes, we see the family laughing and fighting their way through mealtimes, a conflict with a neighbor over his trash, the fight to keep the bills paid on time when “all daddy wants to do is play his music” and so much more, along the way not only seeing Troy struggle with her place in the world but also observing how others are trying to do the same. We experience a wide array of emotions with her: the fear of getting caught shoplifting, the embarrassment of not wanting to use food stamps, and the disappointment of watching a family friend getting taken away by the cops. But then there are the simple joys, like singing along with the Partridge Family on TV and watching cartoons while eating Trix cereal out of the box.
Lee gives the viewer enough ’70s throwbacks to make anyone who also grew up in that era smile (yes, this reporter would be one of those people), but never lets the proceeding become drenched in nostalgia. Rather, Lee uses his keen eye for detail as well as his empathy for the individual to really let the viewer feel they are experiencing these lives right along with those who are living them. And let’s not forget the music, which includes some of the greats of that era: the songs “ABC” and “Never Can Say Goodbye” by the Jackson Five and “O‑o-h Child” by the Five Stairsteps at the most apropos moments in Troy and her family’s life.
Coming of age stories can be painful and beautiful, but the most memorable of them — of which this could be considered one — show that those growing pains can lead one to a different kind of beauty, and the ability to translate what has been learned into a new phase of one’s life.
Lee, a master of getting the viewer involved with his characters and their situations in all of his films, offers us much to think about as to how we might translate those lessons into our own lives as well.
Best Video’s July Spike Lee retrospective happens every Tuesday in July at 7 p.m. Admission is free for members and $10 for nonmembers. See Best Video’s website for more details.