Review: Da 5 Bloods
Sunday, June 14, 2020 at 4:00PM by Lynn Lee
Perfectly timed. The right voice for this precise moment. Spike Lee’s never been more necessary than he is now.
If you’ve read one variation of the “timeliness” reaction to Spike Lee’s latest joint by way of Netflix, Da 5 Bloods, you’ve read them all. It’s a truth so self-evident it practically amounts to a truism. Except the fact is that Spike Lee never went anywhere – he’s been here the last 30 plus years, educating us on the ugly persistence of systemic racism in the U.S. His movies have always been timely; it’s our fault if we’ve failed to heed their underlying admonitions or give them the sustained attention they deserve. It makes little sense, then, to accord his newest release any extra expectations that it will “speak to the moment.” Still, given that it's Spike Lee, it does speak to the moment, if less directly – or less crisply – than some of his previous films...