Reed’s War on Black Cinema Ends

By Rob Redding

Editor & Publisher

NEW YORK, May 12, 2026, 3 p.m.— Rex Reed, the longtime film critic known for his acerbic prose and often‑controversial commentary, left behind a decades‑long record of blunt and thinly veiled racist assessments of Black filmmakers and Black‑led films, including repeated clashes with director Spike Lee.

Reed, who died today, frequently criticized Lee and other Black political directors in print, lambasting the Black film icon. He also lashed out at independent film maverick Tyler Perry and others. These literary lashings were punctuated by only a few moments of praise for other Black films.

In a rare moment, he praised Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight and Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. Still, his reactions to Jordan Peele’s work were mixed. Reed wrote that Get Out was “a clever idea stretched too thin” and said the film’s racial allegory was “obvious.” Reviewing Us, he said Peele was “talented but undisciplined.”

His reviews of mainstream Black‑led blockbusters were more skeptical. Reed wrote that Black Panther had “more style than substance,” though he called Chadwick Boseman “magnetic.”

Reed’s harshest comments were reserved for Tyler Perry, whose films he repeatedly dismissed. In a 2011 column, Reed wrote that Perry “makes junk” and described the filmmaker’s work as “a minstrel show in drag.”

Still, Reed’s long and combative history with Spike Lee stands as one of the most contentious critic–director relationships in modern American film culture, marked by decades of direct insults, racial provocation and dueling visions of what cinema should be. Reed repeatedly targeted Lee in print and on television, using language that drew condemnation from filmmakers, journalists and scholars. His comments, delivered in Reed’s signature staccato, became a running subplot in the story of how white establishment criticism responded to the rise of Black independent cinema.

Reed’s most infamous remark came during the Malcolm X press cycle in 1992, when he referred to Lee as “a professional racist” during a televised panel discussion. The comment was widely reported at the time and resurfaced in retrospectives following Reed’s death. He doubled down in the same appearance, calling Lee “a loudmouth” and accusing him of “turning every movie into a grievance.”

In another 1992 segment promoting Malcolm X, Reed said Lee was “a propagandist,” adding that the director “doesn’t make movies, he makes arguments.” The remark became shorthand for Reed’s view that Lee’s films were too political, too confrontational and too rooted in Black social critique for Reed’s taste.

Reed’s hostility toward Lee began with his review of Do the Right Thing in 1989, where he called the film “angry, loud, and exhausting” and dismissed it as “a shouting match disguised as social commentary.” The review was one of the earliest high‑profile attacks on the film and helped cement Reed’s reputation as a critic out of step with emerging Black cinema.

In a 1990s interview, Reed said Lee “stirs things up because that’s his brand,” a line that critics later cited as evidence of Reed’s discomfort with Lee’s political filmmaking. Reed framed Lee’s work as intentionally provocative, saying the director “thrives on confrontation.”

Reed also described Lee as a “race agitator” in a late‑1990s radio interview, a remark that circulated widely in coverage of their feud. The phrase, which Reed used while discussing Bamboozled, became one of the most quoted examples of his racially charged rhetoric.

Despite decades of antagonism, Reed occasionally praised Lee’s work. Reviewing Crooklyn in 1994, he wrote that the film was “a pleasant surprise” and said Lee “finally shows warmth.” He later called 25th Hour “Spike Lee’s best film since Malcolm X.”

These moments, however, were exceptions in a relationship defined by hostility. Reed’s comments about Lee were often framed by his broader critiques of Black cinema. He repeatedly said Hollywood “doesn’t know what to do with Black stories,” even as he attacked the filmmakers telling them. He praised individual actors, calling Denzel Washington “one of the greatest actors alive,” while dismissing the directors shaping Black film language.

Lee rarely responded directly to Reed, but he frequently criticized white critics who, in his view, misunderstood Black cultural expression. Their conflict became emblematic of a generational and racial divide in American film criticism.

Reed’s remarks about Lee remain among the most controversial of his career. The remarks did not go unchallenged by Lee and others who defended many of the Black films Reed appeared to hate. Their responses formed a counter‑narrative that followed Reed throughout his career.

Armond White, the National Review critic and one of the most prominent Black film writers in the country, repeatedly accused Reed of failing to grasp the aesthetics and politics of Black filmmaking. White said Reed demonstrated “a refusal to engage Black aesthetics,” calling Reed’s review of Do the Right Thing evidence of “a blindness to Black cultural nuance” and “a hostility toward Black political expression.”

Cultural critic Nelson George made a similar argument, writing that Reed represented “the old white critical guard that never understood the rise of Black independent cinema.” George cited Reed’s early reviews of Spike Lee as examples of a critic unable to read Black cultural language on its own terms.

The late scholar bell hooks did not name Reed directly, but her writing on film criticism has been widely applied to him. hooks argued that many white critics “misread Black expressive culture through a white patriarchal lens,” a framework later used by academics to analyze Reed’s reviews of Black‑directed films.

Greg Tate, the influential Village Voice critic, wrote that reviewers like Reed “couldn’t see Black film on its own terms,” pointing to Reed’s reaction to Do the Right Thing as part of a broader pattern of white critical resistance to Black political cinema.

The Village Voice echoed that view in a retrospective on Spike Lee’s early work, writing that Reed’s review of Do the Right Thing “revealed a deep misunderstanding of Black cultural expression.”

Writers at The Root also criticized Reed’s approach, describing his reviews of Black films as “condescending at best, racially tone‑deaf at worst.” The site frequently cited Reed’s comments about Lee and Perry as examples of a critic out of step with contemporary Black storytelling.

Shadow and Act, a leading Black film publication, argued that Reed’s reviews showed “a pattern of dismissing Black storytelling,” pointing to his reactions to Get Out, Black Panther and Do the Right Thing as evidence.

Ava DuVernay, speaking broadly about film criticism in 2016, said “some critics don’t have the cultural vocabulary to understand what we’re doing.” Though she did not mention Reed by name, her comments were widely interpreted as a response to critics like him who dismissed Black political cinema.

Film‑studies scholars have also cited Reed in discussions of white critical reception to Black film. Academic journals including Black Camera, Film Quarterly and the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies have used Reed’s reviews as examples of “white critical resistance to Black aesthetics” and “misinterpretation of Black political narratives.”

On social media, Reed’s reviews of Get Out and Black Panther circulated widely as examples of what users described as white critics who “don’t get Black cinema.” Though less formal, these reactions reflected the same critique voiced by scholars and filmmakers.