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With: Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, David Patrick Kelly, Zelda Harris, Carlton Williams, Sharif Rashed, Tse-Mach Washington, Chris Knowings, José Zúñiga, Isaiah Washington, Ivelka Reyes, Spike Lee, N. Jeremi Duru, Frances Foster, Norman Matlock, Patriece Nelson, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Joie Susannah Lee, Gary Perez
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Written by: Joie Susannah Lee, Spike Lee, Cinqué Lee, based on a story by Joie Susannah Lee
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Directed by: Spike Lee
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 for drug content
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Running Time: 115
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Date: 05/13/1994
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Everyday People
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
After the rigors of making his masterful epic Malcolm X, Spike Lee turned to a smaller, more personal project, co-written with younger sister Joie Lee and younger brother Cinqué Lee, and based loosely on their childhoods. Struggling with a lack of income from their purist musician father (Delroy Lindo) and with their mother (Alfre Woodard) working her fingers to the bone teaching, cooking, and taking care of the house, this Brooklyn household — with four rambunctious boys and one rebellious girl, Troy (Zelda Harris) — is always in chaos. The episodic movie deals with food stamps, an obnoxious neighbor (David Patrick Kelly), sharing the TV set (The Partridge Family or the Knicks game?), being forced to eat black-eyed peas, and lots and lots of arguing. At one point, Troy is sent to live with relatives in the South; Lee presents this segment in a weird, distorted manner (shot via an anamorphic lens without readjusting, so the image appears squished). Through it all, though, there's a genuine love for one another among this family. Crooklyn is arguably a minor effort in Lee's filmography, but it's one of his warmest films. The director appears as the glue-huffing "Snuffy," with a permanent line of goo painted around his mouth.
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