Review of Mo' Better Blues (1990) by Money G — 23 Aug 2017

What a great Spike Lee film. Mo' Better Blues follows a jazz musician named Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) who is obsessed with his art, but because of that he starts down a path that breaks him away from the people that are closest to him.

He has a problem with another band member in his quintet named Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes) which leads to issues with everyone on the band. Their manager Giant (Spike Lee) is Bleek's best friend since he was a kid, but as a manager he is absolutely terrible and is deep in gambling debts.

Giant keeps telling the quintet that On top of all this Bleek is balancing his love life between two women Indigo (Joie Lee) a teacher and another woman named Clarke (Cynda Williams) an up and coming singer.

He movie has a strong message about cause and effect and a bit about fate (which is foreshadowed early on). The movie is well acted. Washington and Snipes do great in this one. They have some arguments that are really realistic.

I'm not the biggest fan of Spike Lee acting in his own films, but he does a good job here too. The movie does slow down a bit in the middle of the film, but after a tragic turn of events the movies last third works out very well.

This is a well done drama that tells the story about a man who has everything he could ask for and how it comes crashing down. Definitely, give this one a look if you've never seen it!