She's Gotta Have It

Spike Lee's first picture, and it's a winner in every way. The guy is a natural. The picture has incredible charm, humor, and warmth. It personifies without stereotyping, and illuminates without exploiting. I reject the phrase "Black Woody Allen" (Lee is an original) but I can see where it comes from. Interestingly, this picture helps to illuminate the later “Do the Right Thing” in that you see the start of Lee's authorial ambiguities; in this film too he simply presents the facts, letting characters speak for themselves, and leaves you to draw the conclusions about what is going on and why, and whether it is OK. But because he deals here with the less inflammatory arena of sexual politics (rather than racism) it raises fewer hackles (i.e., nobody is likely to get killed from any particular interpretation of this film). The principle is still there, however, and in this less threatening guise it lightens and validates the approach when used in the later film. A real winner.