Do the Right Thing The Rewatchables
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Do the Right Thing

Apex Mountain

Spike Lee as a fiction filmmaker; Danny Aiello

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:24Read transcript
  • This is Lee at the peak of his filmmaking powers, a firm yes, rather than Malcolm X, 25th Hour or Mo' Better Blues.
  • 4 Little Girls is raised; Lee is one of the best nonfiction filmmakers, so the apex claim is limited to his fiction filmmaking.
  • Some of his films, even good ones like BlacKkKlansman, have screenwriting problems; Inside Man is perfection; here the screenplay is perfect.
  • Losing Original Screenplay to Tom Schulman is called the real travesty; the missing Best Picture nomination is not, since it would never have won even in 2019.
  • Danny Aiello: yes, the best performance he ever gave in a movie.
  • John Turturro: no; Jungle Fever, Barton Fink, his self-directed films, Transformers, Gloria Bell and Miller's Crossing are cited, with a joke that he gets sexier as he ages.
  • No one else in the cast is at the peak of their powers; it is Lee's apex.