Crooklyn

Rating:
Summary: Crookly is like memory lane
Review: I grew up in a large house with lots of kids running around so the film brought back memories. The hair the music the clothes took me straigh back to the 70's. It's my favorite film.

Rating:
Summary: I just like the movie.
Review: I guess this picture gets less attention than most of Spike Lee's other films. I generally like Lee, even though I don't like everything he does. This film caught me, brought me into it, and stayed with me, which I give Lee credit for being able to do well. I don't see it as a mess of reflections or arbitrary story-telling, as the editorial review says. The emotional life of the daughter is very well-realized through the story-telling, without being sentimental or simplified. Actually, that's what stood out to me after I first saw it; even though it's not just about the girl, there are not too many movies that capture the relevant joy, frustration, and point of view of an ordinary girl like this one does, especially coming from a man. Just look at the scene at the end when she combs her sibling's hair the way her mother used to, even though she hated it when her mother did it. It's subtle, yet says so much. I can't help it; I like movies that pay off if you let yourself get lost in them. I was happily lost in this one.

Rating:
Summary: Quit Hatin!
Review: I saw this movie for the first time 10 years ago with my family and fell in love with it. I was however like 9 so I decided to watch it again to see if I still liked it and I must say that this is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It reminds me so much of my own personal life it was scary. All these people who didnt like the movie are too focused on the unimportant facts of a movie and not looking at the movie itself. It has alot of truths in it and I think it is well worth th time and money to explore it and figure out where it parallels your life.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films I have ever seen
Review: I stumbled over this film on television on something called the African American Family Theater, a program I'd never seen before (I'm white). Two hours later, I'd realized I had just seen one of the most profound and moving films I could recall watching. Crooklyn takes you to another time and another era, is a humorous and poignant character study, and should be seen by anyone who claims to love movies.

Rating:
Summary: This film's a mess, but still enjoyable.
Review: I think Spike Lee was trying to make an African American version of the wonderful book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" -- but all of the Gershwin-esque music and fabulous camerawork can't hide a story severely lacking in purpose and that wastes too much time on irrelevancies. When it suddenly turns to serious drama, the performances warrant it but the tone and direction of the film do not. The most glaring shortcoming of the film is the attempt to pull of the various "characters" of the neighborhood -- with very little to no success. It's a shame because this was one of the great things in "Do The Right Thing." Still, he has such fabulous style and such an ear for dialogue that this film is a rich pleasure to watch. If it weren't for Lee's masterful talents this film would be quite poor -- maybe even a one-star review. That's quite a complement to him I think.

Rating:
Summary: This film's a mess, but still enjoyable.
Review: I think Spike Lee was trying to make an African American version of the wonderful book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" -- but all of the Gershwin-esque music and fabulous camerawork can't hide a story severely lacking in purpose and that wastes too much time on irrelevancies. When it suddenly turns to serious drama, the performances warrant it but the tone and direction of the film do not. The most glaring shortcoming of the film is the attempt to pull of the various "characters" of the neighborhood -- with very little to no success. It's a shame because this was one of the great things in "Do The Right Thing." Still, he has such fabulous style and such an ear for dialogue that this film is a rich pleasure to watch. If it weren't for Lee's masterful talents this film would be quite poor -- maybe even a one-star review. That's quite a complement to him I think.

Rating:
Summary: bad editorial reviews for a great movie
Review: I was upset to see the not-so good editorial reviews that were given for this movie. I think that this movie is great and that the reason that Spike Lee directs it as he does (that the editorials led to believe as being confusing or going nowhere) is because it is supposed to be from a little girls point of view. A little girl who is going through a lot in her life from annoying brothers and friends to separation of family and learning about things like drug abuse from people on the street. Not to mention that she is growing up fast. Anyways this is a great movie with all the elements of being funny, sad, and nolstalgic of the 70's

Rating:
Summary: because this movie is excellent!!!!
Review: I'm a black man who grew up in this same type of scenario and can literally re-live my childhood with this movie. I recommend this movie to all.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films about Family ever made
Review: Nine-year-old Troy stares in astonishment at the spectacle before her. The Puerto Rican shopkeeper is dancing sensuously with a transvestite. As they bump and grind, she leans against the deli case, mouth agape in fascination. The cashier speaks impatiently to her. "Okay, okay, keep your shirt on!" she says, not taking her eyes off the strange couple by the dairy case. "Gimme two sticks of licorice, some lemonheads..."

Introducing Troy Carmichael, the pluckiest, scrappiest bundle of brains and mouth and bones you'll ever meet. She fights a protracted, sneaky Dirty Little War with her oldest brother Clinton. She wrestles boxes of Trix cereal from her no-good brother Wendell. She skips rope with the girls, eats ice-cream on the stoop of the ramshackle, delightful brownstone she shares with her family and a boarder (her hero) who is gentle to her. And she evolves into an astute observer of humanity and--as the result of a family tragedy--a responsible woman..just like her mother.

Whoever cast the astonishing Zelda Harris as the indomitable Troy should get an award. This little girl is mesmerizing to watch; utterly natural and completely believable. You drink her in. She's the daughter you'd want. She's the kid you wish you had been. She can lay you flat with a look and a twist of that mouth. And Spike Lee coaxes a remarkable performance from her as he leads us through a series of vignettes in a summer on the Block with her family, friends,and the myriad neighbors around them.

The critics seem to think Crooklyn is a well-intentioned but meandering mess. I utterly disagree. Troy's world is filled with the little steps in time that make up a life. Her parents fight--and briefly separate--not over grand infidelities but instead over money and family management. She's frightened by, and later triumphs over the encroaching glue-sniffers on her block. She makes an enlightening journey into Darkest Maryland to visit her bizarre Aunt Song and her cousin Viola ("Don't worry," says Viola, rolling her eyes. "I'm adoped."). And Spike returns her to her kitchen which, with a resigned air, she finally cleans up.

Not one note in this quiet film rings false. Not one scene is staged or dishonest. And everything has the look and sound of the Seventies. A glorious soundtrack brings it all back. I grew up 3000 miles away and white, but I, too, sat on the bed fighting over the Partridge Family and Deputy Dog and Soul Train with my siblings. I found myself warmed clear to the bone by this gentle setpiece.

Spike Lee is a genius who has made more "important" films than this (the remarkable and disturbing Do The Right Thing is now part of the western film canon). But as a mother, I find Crooklyn to be ultimately the more profound film. Little Troy takes on the mantle and role of her mother not through harrowing cliffhangers and a histrionic plot but through the quiet everydayness of little gifts of love from her family and neighborhood. It's Spike's Gift of Love to us. If we're smart, we'll take it. Gratefully.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT!
Review: Oh this is a good movie! I first saw it when I was maybe around 9 or 10, I loved it! Its about a girl growing up with her family probably around the 70's in a city of New York. A Very good movie!