Crooklyn

1994's CROOKLYN is one of co-writer/director Spike Lee's most gentle films.  A recollection based on his younger days on the stoops of Brooklyn, co-written by his siblings, Joie Susannah Lee and Cinque Lee.  It shares a certain rhythm with earlier Lee dramas like DO THE RIGHT THING and JUNGLE FEVER, but does not possess their anger.  I'll bet Lee made the film as a sort of palate cleanser after MALCOLM X.  Spike's resume has always left room for the fiery and more light-hearted.

Curiously, the film also doesn't, at least in any overt fashion, deal with racism.  The Carmichael family lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a largely African American section of Brooklyn.  It is the early 1970s.  Walt Frazier was point guard for the Knicks and Soul Train was groovin' on TV.  We meet a few non-black neighbors, including one who has an apartment full of dogs and forgets to clean the place.  Tony Eyes (David Patrick Kelly) also accurately accuses the four Carmichael brothers of dumping garbage by his door.  But CROOKLYN makes him an innocuous foil, mild comic relief.

Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard lead the large family as Woody and Carolyn, a struggling jazz musician and schoolteacher, respectively.  They are loving parents attempting to wrangle a rowdy brood.  Money is very tight.  The sons are sassy and always taunting their sister Troy (Zelda Harris), who as the film progresses becomes the focal point of this story.  Oh, there's really no A-Z plotting, just a series of life moments.  Happy, sad, and in between.  Laughter and fights.  Everything is loud and messy, just as it would be for a large family. 

These descriptions are apt for CROOKLYN itself.   While most of the family drama plays convincingly and engagingly, there are some missteps.  Mainly Troy's visit to some relatives in Virginia.  These scenes do establish Troy's fish out of water struggles fairly well, but are just, odd.  You may have heard about Spike's use of a different aspect ratio to establish the young girl's (paradoxical) feeling of claustrophobia in a suburban landscape.  To me it felt like trickery, a stylistic that didn't work.  The bit with the dog was also out of place.

I was also somewhat disappointed at how rushed the last half hour or so felt, when life altering events befall the Carmichaels.   Life is like that, though.

My favorite moment is a small one - a nicely observed scene when Troy finally returns home, flipping all the light switches to make sure the power was on (right before she left Con Ed came to shut it off as the bill hadn't been paid). It's a moment that reveals a young girl's hope and expectation, one that will be exalted and let down before those fabulous end credits.

CROOKLYN overall is a vibrant and engaging nostalgia piece that I believe is a significant addition to Spike Lee's ouvre.  And that soundtrack is fantastic.