Da 5 Bloods

Karsten4.0

I hope this makes sense: the colorful, psychedelic imagery in the poster wasn’t really in the film, but I still felt that. Ya know? Spike Lee is so good at giving you a physical reaction.

Brian Tallerico4.5

Felt like a shock to the system after weeks of lazy, passionless filmmaking. It is the story of two wars that never ended - Vietnam and civil rights - and it contains stunning work from Lindo, Majors, Blanchard, and Lee.‬

Josh Lewis4.0

Spike lee does The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as men-on-a-mission, hangout/heist picture through black history and Vietnam only instead of being slowly corrupted by greed Lee wrestles with how we are already corrupted and haunted by imperialism, whether we understand exactly how or why or the all-consuming depth of it or not. Delroy Lindo gives one of the most brutally sad, destructive performances in a Lee joint (no small feat, especially considering his own in Crooklyn) playing a man whose seething rage, political contradictions, and emotional complexities are as direct a counter-point to retroactively trying to "win" this conflict through cinema as there's ever been. Nothing easy or fair or righteous about the application of violence or the allocation of resources as dictated from the top down so if you manage to survive the senseless carnage on the ground you might as well take what you can and give to the cause.