AVClub: Out of all the wildly gifted black movie directors this country produced during the latter part of the last century, Spike Lee is the only one who ended up getting something like the career he was owed, and the only one who’s been able to hold on to what should be a basic right extended to all artists: the right to fail. His work swings unpredictably from fresh to lame, often within the space of one movie, but sometimes that’s just what you get with a director who hits the sublime by risking ridicule (see: the kick-off of Do The Right Thing or the end of 25th Hour), and whose movies never feel more real than when they overheat with theatrical flourishes. Lee always speaks his mind, but then again, so does the guy on the street corner with the UFO sign; the difference is that when Lee hits on something cogent, even in his bad movies, he lets it out so hard that it makes the entire idea of completely didactic filmmaking seem thrilling. And, anyway, if we can’t tolerate bad art, how can we ever expect the good stuff?
Does the ultra-violent new movie, Boy Kills World, glorify violence or encourage a world without it? We see the latter.
Secrets of the Neanderthals Review: The Netflix documentary unearths some new discoveries about the Neanderthals, who disappeared off the face of Earth.
Shaz from GL takes a new look into the broader themes of one of Pixar's oldest animated feature films.
