Club Benefits
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Verdict: This movie is directed by Spike Lee, and the filmmaking talent is undeniable on the screen. But much like the jazz music it portrays, "Mo' Better Blues" is at times meandering and gets lost in its own artistry. Still, it all comes together for an incredible, heartbreaking ending, making the journey worth a few wayward moments. Plus, you get an incredible lead performance from Denzel Washington, with a sprinkling of Samuel L. Jackson and John Turturro turning it up to 11 for good measure.
Where to watch: Buy or rent "Mo' Better Blues" from Amazon
I'm now in week 9 of my Denzel Watchathon, and this movie is one I've been waiting for. That's because this week, I watched "Mo' Better Blues," the first movie in a five-film, 35-year (and counting) partnership between Denzel and the legendary director Spike Lee. It's a partnership that would define both their careers, even though (perhaps ironically) each would produce the greatest movie of their respective filmographies without the other.
Starring Denzel as jazz trumpeter and band leader "Bleek" Gilliam, this first collaboration between him and Lee isn't flawless. The cinematography is excellent; this might be the best-looking Denzel movie I've seen so far in this year-long movie marathon. There are camerawork and directing choices that are truly sublime. But like with jazz, sometimes you get lost in the music and start noodling on a riff when you should be bringing things back to the main theme of the piece, and that certainly happens on a few occasions. Still, Denzel's starring performance is worth sitting through a deviation or two, and small supporting performances from Samuel L. Jackson and John Turturro immediately grab your attention.
If you want to watch this movie before you read on, you have a few options. "Mo' Better Blues" isn't available on any of the best streaming services, but you can buy or rent it from Amazon. Trust me, it's worth the $4.
Malcolm has been with the Streaming team at Tom's Guide since 2023, reviewing dozens of movies each year so you don't have to watch the bad ones.
'Mo' Better Blues' allows Denzel to shine as a star
Here are the other Denzel Washington movies I've covered so far in our Denzel Watchathon:
Having now seen the first nine films in Denzel's filmography, one thing you notice in the earlier ones is that he's rarely the lone driving force of the movie. He's only a supporting actor in several of these early movies. The two films where he is, "For Queen and Country" and "The Mighty Quinn," have him doing serious accent work. So this movie is really the first instance of Denzel being Denzel as the star of a film.
And it works. While sometimes the movie lingers too much on a certain scene, and the jazz score, while excellent, is never silent throughout the film, Lee always gets the right notes from Denzel. Or maybe Denzel just knows how to take the notes on the page and improvise.
Either way, as far as star performances go, Denzel's in this film is excellent. We buy him as Bleek, a cocky band leader at the start of the movie. We buy him right away as the type of womanizer who somehow is keeping two relationships afloat with ease.
We also buy him later as the same man, but one who has totally lost control of the situation. The man who knows that he's got a liability for a best friend in Giant (played by Lee), who is managing his band poorly and costing him serious money. He also knows that he has a bandmate trying to snake his band (and one of his girlfriends) out from under him, and when Bleek chooses to egg on his antagonist, we can buy the character's hubris with ease. When Bleek finally snaps, and it gets him in trouble, we buy that too, and by that point, Denzel and the character are totally indistinguishable.
Verdict: This movie gets much 'Mo' Better' at the end
As great as this movie can be at its best, there are definitely some times when my interest wanes, or when it simply feels like Lee is doing too much.
But there are two characters who, without fail, provide a shot in the arm when they appear briefly on screen. John Turturro plays Moe Flatbush, who, along with his brother Josh (played by John's real brother Nicholas) owns the nightclub that Bleek plays at. He gets basically one scene with Lee, and one with Denzel, and in both, he totally steals the scene out from under them.
Then, there's Samuel L. Jackson, who plays a loan shark that Giant is in deep with. He, too, only appears twice, but, like Turturro, each time is a scene stealer. Maybe that's because now, in 2026, he's a massive star that I recognize the second he's on screen, but regardless, it's a highlight of the movie.
Jackson's character is also integral to the end of the movie, and while "Mo' Better Blues" may wander on occassion it arrives at its end to deliver a cohesive, heartbreaking finale that only turns towards a happy ending in the final moments. It truly takes the movie up another level, almost bordering on greatness, and saves it from being just a merely fine movie with a stellar Denzel performance at its core.
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