Ryan Coogler is all class. The visionary behind Black Panther and Fruitvale Station just paid the ultimate homage to a bona fide legend. In a recent conversation on Carmelo Anthony’s 7 PM in Brooklyn show, Coogler didn’t hold back when reflecting on the deep impact of Spike Lee’s 1992 classic Malcolm X.
“I think that Malcolm X is the most important American film ever made. No question,” Coogler said, placing it above revered titles like The Godfather and Citizen Kane. “I don’t think they were as important Americans as Malcolm X was.”
Get this, Coogler praised not only the subject of the biopic but the film itself for its boldness, cinematic excellence, and unflinching truth. He credited Spike Lee for curating a powerhouse cast that included Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Giancarlo Esposito, and Lee himself. For Coogler, the movie didn’t just tell Malcolm’s story; it made his presence felt across time.
“The fact that they made that movie when they did, that it opens like it opens nothing lights you on fire like that,” Coogler said with admiration.
Spike Lee’s influence clearly runs deep in Coogler’s work. And the mutual respect came full circle when Lee gave Coogler his stamp of approval on Sinners, a film Lee praised as genre-defining.
Btw, Sinners is a box office smash hit.
“So for me to give Spike [Lee] a cinematic experience. I’m just paying him back with interest, bro,” Coogler explained. “It meant the world to me to hear him say that. I cried, bro I had to hide my he was jumping around like I was wiping tears out of my eyes, bro. I’m sitting in the IMAX theater showing Spike Lee the movie. He likes it?”
That moment in the IMAX wasn’t just a proud director reacting to praise. It was a student saluting a teacher. A torch being passed between two generations of Black cinematic storytelling.