Spike Lee's Crooklyn

     This was the first time I had ever seen Crooklyn and I was amazed by the film. My mother encouraged me to watch it because she grew up in the 70s and thought I should see what her childhood looked like. I absolutely loved the film because of the storyline, Lee is incredible at writing and directing, he has made so many films and every single one of them is different. This makes it hard to find something about his films that connect to each other. My favorite movie ever is Love and Basketball because of his main character struggling to choose between her dream and the love of her life. In Crooklyn, a mother of 5 children dies from cancer. She leaves behind her only daughter who then steps into a mothering type of role to take care of her brothers, who are all older than her with the exception of one younger brother. If I could connect all of Lee's films together, I would say that he favors female protagonists and complex relationships.
     Crooklyn is about a family just trying to survive in the summer. The protagonist is the only girl in the family and she is teased by her brothers and all of the other boys in the house and neighborhood. She is constantly trying to find her place in the family being that she was the only girl. The parents have a fight and end up separating because the father wants to pursue music. The mother becomes very sick and dies, which leaves her to step up and take care of the house as a ten year-old girl with help and support from her father.
     My favorite part of the movie was when the little girl went to visit a different part of her family for the summer. She had braids in and short and a t-shirt on, and her cousin had on a dress and her hair was pressed. This side of the family was much more feminine. She ended up bonding with her cousin and was sad to leave her, but happy to go back home, which was when she found out her mother was sick. The cinematography of the film was great, all of the wide shots were amazing because there was so much to look at, every part of the neighborhood looked busy. I thought the angles he used were very effective because they showed just enough of what we needed to see in order to get the point across. I highly recommend seeing this film, I loved it!