Crooklyn (1994) on Netflix
In 1973 Brooklyn, nine-year-old Troy Carmichael lives with four brothers, a schoolteacher mother and a jazz-musician father. His music does not pay the family's bills.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.1/1012,485 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes77%
Trailer
Plot summary
During the summer of 1973 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, nine-year-old Troy Carmichael and her four brothers, Clinton, Wendell, Nate and Joseph, fill their days with street games and chores. Their mother Carolyn teaches school and runs a strict household. Their father Woody plays jazz, but his music brings in little money, and bills go unpaid. Neighbors include Tony Eyes next door, Tommy La-La singing on the stoop, Snuffy and Right Hand Man sniffing glue, and Vic Powell, a veteran, in the upstairs apartment. Troy watches her parents argue about money and goes with her friend Minnie to the corner store, where Minnie slips an ice cream bar under her shirt.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Crooklyn (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- For the scenes set in the South the shots were filmed with an anamorphic lens, producing a squeezed appearance that expressed the alienated feelings Troy was having in a place very strange to her. During the original run audiences assumed it was a technical error, so the studio put signs up in theaters.
- The concept and story came from Joie Lee's first screenplay, which she sold to her older brother Spike Lee to direct; all three siblings, Spike, Joie and Cinqué Lee, took a co-writer credit, and there was said to be creative and financial conflict among them.
- RuPaul makes his feature film debut here, playing Connie, a woman customer who dances with another customer at the bodega in the neighborhood.
- In the 2017 "One Film, One New York" contest, New Yorkers selected Crooklyn for free, simultaneous screenings across all five New York City boroughs.
