Part of Love Week and Music City Mondays and Pizza and a Movie
Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) is a trumpeter at the top of his game. Amid a lengthy NYC residency, he’s contending with a shifty manager (Spike Lee), his hot-headed sax player (Wesley Snipes), greedy club owners (brothers Nicholas and John Turturro), and questions of loyalty between a new lover and a deeper but non-committal relationship with long-term girlfriend Indigo, who might just be his salvation. Spike Lee’s fifth feature boasts a post-bop soundtrack of stalwart 1960s tracks and live sequences that sub lead performers Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes with fiery musical stand-ins Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard — the so-called “young lions” of the era — and features familial contributions by father Bill Lee (original score) and sister Joie Lee (as Indigo). A stellar ensemble cast also includes memorable turns from Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbey Lincoln and more.
Pizza and a Movie, co-presented by Slim & Husky's Pizza Beeria and the Belcourt Theatre, is a series of the best Black movies from decades past.
“(It’s) full of the things that make Spike Lee films, well, Spike Lee films. Full of the fun, full of the spirit. And full of the people — the Spike Lee people. Perhaps the best thing about this jazzy love story is the combined presence of everyone, the sense that Lee's cast and crew is alive and well.” —Desson Howe, Washington Post (Aug 3, 1990) “The music is sensuous big-city jazz from around midnight, swirling through cigarette smoke and perfume and the musty smell of a saloon, and it’s good to listen to. On stage, Washington looks at home with his horn, and Wesley Snipes is also strong as Shadow, a saxophone player who likes to hog the solos…. And I liked Spike Lee’s acting, too: He has a kind of off-center, driving energy that makes you into an accomplice even when he’s marching straight for trouble. “Mo’ Better Blues” MO’ BETTER BLUES is not a great film, but it’s an interesting one, which is almost as rare.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Aug 3, 1990) “Like all Lee’s film, MO’ BETTER BLUES is a real ensemble piece, and the standard of the performances is uniformly excellent: but Washington, Lee himself and Joie Lee (whose wiry, big-eyed Simpson-haired Indigo is the guardian of the movie’s integrity) deserve extra plaudits. Spike Lee is the most genuinely stimulating and provocative film-maker around at the moment.” —Charles Shaar Murray, Empire Magazine (Jan 1, 2000)
