The 16 essential Spike Lee movies everyone should see — including his latest film 'Da 5 Bloods'

Lee's Oscar- and Emmy-nominated documentary delves into one of the most horrific moments during the Civil Rights Movement: the murder of four African-American girls when the Birmingham, Alabama, Baptist church they were in was bombed in 1963.

Based on the David Benioff novel, Lee follows the last 24 hours of a New York drug dealer (Edward Norton) before he goes to prison. It looks at race, friendship, family, and post 9/11 New York City.

Filmed on mini DV cameras and featuring an ensemble cast — including Damon Wayans, tap dance legend Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Mos Def, and Michael Rappaport — this is perhaps Lee's most underappreciated work.

The director explores the hypocrisy in the entertainment business as we follow a Black TV writer (Wayans) who in frustration pitches a minstrel show where Black people put on blackface. The show becomes a sensation.

Lee received a best screenwriting Oscar for his look at Colorado Springs police office Ron Stallworth (Washington), who in the early 1970s successfully infiltrates the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan.

Lee takes many aspects from his childhood to tell this story of a Brooklyn family in the early 1970s. Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard as the parents give incredible performances.

Lee's latest movie is a powerful look at friendship and coping with the past. Four Vietnam veterans (Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Washington Jr., and Norm Lewis) return to the country to find gold they buried during the war and bring home the remains of their fallen squad leader (Chadwick Boseman).

But things get complicated when greed between the group begins to spread, leading to a scenario on the level of the John Huston classic, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

Through it all, Delroy Lindo gives a chilling performance as a man who gets gold fever while also keeping a troubling secret from the group.

It's the movie that made Lee famous. The director's examination of the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn on one of the hottest days of the year came at a time when race and police relations were at a boiling point in not just New York City but across the country.

Lee uses his love for basketball to weave a complex story about a Coney Island high school star (played by pro player Ray Allen) who is trying to decide if he's going to go straight to the pros or to college.

Things get more complicated when his father (Denzel Washington) is deliberately released from prison to convince his son to go to a specific school.

Lee examined an interracial relationship at a time when that was never explored in movies or TV.

Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra play the couple, who are in a heated affair despite the objections of their friends. The movie also features Samuel L. Jackson in a powerful role as Snipes' drug addict brother.

Lee's most ambitious undertaking is this epic biopic on the 1960s activist.

Starring Denzel Washington in one of his best performances, we follow Malcolm from his early days to his converting to the Nation of Islam and becoming a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement before being assassinated in 1965.

Having done multiple projects on Michael Jackson, Lee was the perfect person to look at the moment when Jackson truly became the King of Pop. This documentary chronicles Jackson growing out of his role as leader of The Jackson 5 and preparing for his first solo album.

You would think doing a stand-up special would be beneath someone like Lee, but what he captures are some very funny sets from some of the best Black comics of that time — Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac.

The Bernie Mac set is still the one that cracks me up to this day.

Lee shot this story of a 13-year-old Atlanta boy's summer vacation in Brooklyn with his grandfather on the super-cheap. It paid off, as it focused more on the powerful story and great performance by Clarke Peters.

Delving into the world of pledging a fraternity at a historically Black college, Lee looks at how far people will go to get accepted, and how women are used to simply appease those with perceived power. The movie ends with Laurence Fishbourne screaming "WAKE UP!"

Lee's second feature film would launch not just his career as a director, but his Mars Blackmon character that would later be immortalized in Michael Jordan Nike commercials (which Lee also directed).

This dramedy about a woman and her three lovers is a landmark movie in Black cinema.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans is showcased in Lee's powerful two-part HBO documentary that explores how the people of the "Big Easy" rebounded from one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory.