Crooklyn is not in any way an angry film. But thinking about the difference between its world and ours can make you angry, and I think that was one of Lee's purposes here.
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This remarkable movie will haunt you for a good long time.
Crooklyn comes to the screen with an upbeat tone and a lot of heart. Beneath the surface of this deceptively simple motion picture lurks a keen insight.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Spike Lee's Crooklyn is a charming little movie. [14 May 1994]
On its own intimate terms, it's one of the most winning films on family life to reach the screen in ages.
70
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Messy as the semiautobiographical Crooklyn often is, it succeeds in becoming a touching and generous family portrait, a film that exposes welcome new aspects of this director's talent.
Modulating from heavy to light, from angry to lyrical, and so on, the movie's an enjoyable, emotional symphony.
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Crooklyn has a warm, nostalgic, spilling-over-the-edges effusiveness that is new to Lee's work. At the same time, the movie often seems every bit as high-strung as the family it's about.
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Despite very good performances, this is anemic and uninspired filmmaking: shapeless as narrative, awkward and drifting as drama.