Crooklyn (DVD, 1999)

Call me crazy, but I believe this is Spike Lee's greatest film, or will eventually be seen as such. All the rest are either dated political missives, or they attempt something like this film but fail miserably (Summer of Sam). This is an utterly perfect film, carved from life knowledge but shaped into a highly entertaining, objective and pragmatically truthful docu-drama. Like "Fellini Roma", this film is nearly experimental in plot, structure, style and technique. Yet it's the kind of story that comes right out of the bones of poetry and personal experience, and can be appreciated universally for that reason. Hard to believe that the same person made Bamboozled; a sloppy, culturally-late attempt at satire that wrong-headedly breaks every rule of the genre. It's one of the most self-important, didactic films I've ever seen. Guess Spike had his one moment of clarity.