Mo’ Better Blues
1990, R, 127 min.
Directed by Spike Lee, Starring Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro.

The first of Denzel Washington’s collaborations with Spike Lee – and the one right before his Oscar-nominated performance in Malcolm X – Mo’ Better Blues charts a jazz trumpeter on the cusp of making it big. Branford Marsalis Quartet and Terence Blanchard supply the jazz sounds, and Spike’s dad Bill Lee wrote the title composition.

This article appears in August 1 • 2025.

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