53 Spike Lee Movies & TV Shows, Ranked Best to Worst

Sal Fragione, owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn, thinks of his eatery as a part of the community. Local customer Buggin’ Out objects that pictures of only Italian-Americans are displayed on pizzeria’s wall of fame, but being an African-American neighborhood, the wall should have black celebrities. As Sal differs, tensions over racism escalate and on one hot summer day, the frustrations explode.

The movie is a dramatization of different events of the life of controversial African-American icon, Malcolm X. The film focuses on his early criminal endeavors, his imprisonment, his conversion to Islam, his joining and leaving the Nation of Islam, his marriage, his experiences with racial violence against blacks, his fight for racial unity and his assassination.

The plot of the movie revolves around an elaborate bank robbery planned by a perfectionist robber Dalton Russell. He takes hostages and detective Keith Frazier is called upon to take charge of the negotiations. The bank president, concerned about something important, hires his own negotiator. However, Russell and his team are always ahead.

Monty has 24 hours before he begins his seven years of prison term for drug dealing. He decides to meet his father, catch up with his childhood friends, Jacob and Frank and meet his girlfriend Naturelle. During the time, he looks back at his life to understand why he is in his current situation.  

This biographical black comedy film, tells the story of how Ron Stallworth, an African-American detective, embarks on a mission to infiltrate a branch of the Ku Klux Klan, an infamous white supremacist group.  

Troy is a high school student who lives with her parents and her four brothers. When she learns that one of her relatives are gravely ill, she is forced to face some grown-up facts about life and loss.

He Got Game is an American sports drama film, which tells the story of a convict, whose son is a brilliant basketball player. However, the convict needs to convince his son to go to college in order to reduce his sentence. 

Clockers is a crime drama mystery film which tells the story of a few young drug pushers who find themselves trapped between their drug bosses and detectives who are pursuing them.

A group of African-American men on the way Washington DC develop a unique bond on the bus, after sharing their stories and experiences.

During the summer of 1977, New York City is terrorized by a serial killer who is known as Son of Sam. When a philandering man named Vinny almost becomes a victim, he teams up with numerous people, including his wife and his friend, to figure out who the killer is, before it is too late. 

Nola Darling is a beautiful young woman who is unable to determine what kind of man she wants in her life. She soon starts dating three different men. However, this eventually causes various problems in her life.

The Original Kings of Comedy is a concert film which features four African American stand up comics, who talk about various subjects such as marriages, racial differences, etc.  

Jungle Fever is a romantic drama film which tells the story of Flipper, an African American lawyer who begins an affair with his secretary. His wife throws him out of the house, when she comes to know about this. Soon he decides to begin courting his mistress, although other people don’t approve of this.

Forced by his mother to take trumpet lessons, Bleek Gilliam eventually becomes the leader of a successful jazz quintet. However, although he is in a relationship with a girl named Indigo, he is unable to commit to her, since he is also interested in other women.

Pierre is a TV writer who is quite frustrated as none of his concepts go into production. Therefore, in protest, he proposes a minstrel show, but things get interesting, when the show becomes a hit.

Miracle at St Anna is a war drama film which takes us to the time of the Second World War, and revolves around four soldiers stationed in Tuscany. They find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them puts his life at risk to save an Italian boy.       

School Daze is a musical comedy drama film which takes us to a college in the South of the United States, and revolves around two groups of students having different ideas and beliefs, which lead to various conflicts among them.

After a stray bullet kills a child, a group of women decide to organize against the on-going violence and crime going on in Southern Chicago. Eventually, this  becomes a big movement that gains nationwide attention.

An alcoholic advertizing executive is kidnapped and kept in solitary confinement in a hotel room for twenty years. Although he is provided with everything he needs, he does not have a clue about his captor or his motive. Then one day he is dumped in a field, with a cell phone and a small amount of money. He now has to find out the truth.  

John Henry is a biotech executive who is terminated from his job for exposing corruption in the business practices. He soon agrees to impregnate his ex-fiancée along with few other wealthy lesbian women for money.

Judy is a young and timid African American woman living in New York, who aspires to become an actress. She attends an audition with Quentin Tarantino for a film. Initially, she does quite well, but upon asked to undress herself, she decides to storm out. This infuriates her agent who had worked hard to get her an audition with the director. He drops her from his roster of clients. Unable to secure any regular acting work, and disappointed by her treatment in the film industry, Judy decides to turn to phone sex to make a living.

Joe’s barbershop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, is used as a front by the local kingpin Lovejoy to run his numbers racket. When Joe is killed by gangster Zack Homer, the new manager, tries to run the shop in a legitimate way, but the business is slow. When Lovejoy comes over with the same offer that he gave to Joe, Zack needs to take a call. 

After the owner of a barbershop passes away, all his illegal affairs are passed down to his manager.

Sal Fragione, owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn, thinks of his eatery as a part of the community. Local customer Buggin’ Out objects that pictures of only Italian-Americans are displayed on pizzeria’s wall of fame, but being an African-American neighborhood, the wall should have black celebrities. As Sal differs, tensions over racism escalate and on one hot summer day, the frustrations explode.

Troy is a high school student who lives with her parents and her four brothers. When she learns that one of her relatives are gravely ill, she is forced to face some grown-up facts about life and loss.

Clockers is a crime drama mystery film which tells the story of a few young drug pushers who find themselves trapped between their drug bosses and detectives who are pursuing them.

During the summer of 1977, New York City is terrorized by a serial killer who is known as Son of Sam. When a philandering man named Vinny almost becomes a victim, he teams up with numerous people, including his wife and his friend, to figure out who the killer is, before it is too late. 

Nola Darling is a beautiful young woman who is unable to determine what kind of man she wants in her life. She soon starts dating three different men. However, this eventually causes various problems in her life.

Jungle Fever is a romantic drama film which tells the story of Flipper, an African American lawyer who begins an affair with his secretary. His wife throws him out of the house, when she comes to know about this. Soon he decides to begin courting his mistress, although other people don’t approve of this.

Forced by his mother to take trumpet lessons, Bleek Gilliam eventually becomes the leader of a successful jazz quintet. However, although he is in a relationship with a girl named Indigo, he is unable to commit to her, since he is also interested in other women.

School Daze is a musical comedy drama film which takes us to a college in the South of the United States, and revolves around two groups of students having different ideas and beliefs, which lead to various conflicts among them.

Judy is a young and timid African American woman living in New York, who aspires to become an actress. She attends an audition with Quentin Tarantino for a film. Initially, she does quite well, but upon asked to undress herself, she decides to storm out. This infuriates her agent who had worked hard to get her an audition with the director. He drops her from his roster of clients. Unable to secure any regular acting work, and disappointed by her treatment in the film industry, Judy decides to turn to phone sex to make a living.

The movie is a dramatization of different events of the life of controversial African-American icon, Malcolm X. The film focuses on his early criminal endeavors, his imprisonment, his conversion to Islam, his joining and leaving the Nation of Islam, his marriage, his experiences with racial violence against blacks, his fight for racial unity and his assassination.