Every Spike Lee Movie Ranked Worst To Best
13. Clockers (1995)
Lee's adaptation of Richard Price's novel Clockers opens with a series of crime scene photos being shown over Marc Dorsey's R&B song "People In Search of a Life," and from there tells a thrilling and educational story about the causes and effects of crime in a Brooklyn housing project.
At once a striking look into the personal trials of drug dealer Strike (Mekhi Phifer) and a challenging portrayal of the local detectives (Harvey Keitel and John Turturro) on the case of a recent murder, Clockers finds Lee at his most inquisitive and doleful, attempting to unpack the reasons behind his characters' troubling actions.
Though there are moments where it struggles to balance the genre-blend of thriller, drama and police procedural, it's nonetheless a deeply affecting movie that tells a great story with even greater meaning.