An early film by Spike Lee, She's Gotta Have It revels in an old-fashioned look and sound to tell a palpably modern romance. The jazzy music tracks, the black and white cinematography, the presentational acting, and even the movies referenced, all speak to an early time. Lee is tapping into classic cinema. His subject matter, Nola Darling, a young woman with three lovers, each desperate to be her only one, upends the Hollywood formula suggested by the format, however. Nola is no slut, or giddy thing who doesn't know what she wants. She's a free feminist spirit. This IS what she wants. And loving her means loving that part of her too. Impossible? Told as a series of testimonials intercut with actual scenes, this lively film finds its comedy in that conundrum. And its larger truth as well.

Spike Lee's first movie, and one of my very favorite movies, possibly mainly for nostalgic reasons (I loved it when it came out, but I haven't seen it again since then).