'She's Gotta Have It' reboot is some of Spike Lee's best work in years

In 1986, She's Gotta Have It, a black and white 84-minute film made on a shoestring budget introduced the world to a 29-year-old Brooklyn director named Spike Lee.

It also introduced the world to its heroine, Nola Darling, played by Tracy Camilla Johns, a sexy, smart, creative black woman determined to live life on her own terms and trailing in her wake the three men obsessed with her, including Mars Blackmon (played by Lee himself and later destined to become part of American pop culture thanks to a series of adverts for Nike Air Jordan sneakers).

The film, funded with seed money from Lee's grandmother and shot for less than $200, 000, went on to become one of the most successful independent features of its day, grossing over $7-million at the box office and launching its director on a path to becoming one of the most respected and influential directors of his generation.

Thirty years later and Lee (who now lives in Manhattan but still has his office in Brooklyn) has returned to his beloved Brooklyn streets to present a 10-episode, five-hour do-over of his original, ground-breaking debut feature, with more money and freedom.

In the age of #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, the relevance of Nola Darling's struggle to maintain her freedom on her own terms is refreshing - and still as dishearteningly relevant as ever.

Lee's colourful, often angry but always loving and innovative reimagining of the material is some of his best work in years and provides a timely interrogation of pertinent issues in the age of the Orange Man - sexual harassment, the threat to black bodies by those meant to protect and serve, gentrification and the indelible contributions of black art and culture to the shaping of all things American.

WATCH | The trailer for She's Gotta Have It

Lee packs in every aesthetic trick - straight-to-camera monologues, dolly shots, a neat insertion of the album covers of artists featured on the soundtrack and the use of still photographs and text.

Working with a group of female writers, including Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynne Nottage, Lee directs all 10 episodes with a view to changing the perspective of the original film - which included a rape scene that he has described as one of the biggest regrets of his career - from that of men trying to understand women to that of women being freely able to express themselves irrespective of the judgments of men.

SEX APPEAL

Played with charisma, intelligence and plenty of sex appeal by DeWanda Wise, the 21st-century Nola Darling is alluring, intriguing and aware.

Her four lovers provide a self-assertive attempt to provide for all the different elements of her complexity. There's the way-too-good-looking and vainer-than-Narcissus Haitian model Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony); the self-made wealthy, married financier Jamie Overstreet (Lyriq Bent); the street-hustling, bicycle-riding, slightly anachronistic half-Puerto Rican Mars Blackmon (Anthony Ramos); and single mom and reliable nursery owner Opal Gilstrap (Ilfenesh Hadara). They're all besotted with Nola.

Lee and his writing team use the five-hour version of the story to explore their stories and make them more than mere ciphers for Nola's own ambitions, anxieties and needs. While some of the diversions into their stories don't always come off as narratively satisfying, the explorations ultimately serve to broaden the story and create a richer tapestry of black life in New York.

The last three episodes of the show - which include a tribute to black artists and writers, a hard-hitting dig at Brooklyn gentrifiers and the police, and a suitably exuberant tribute to Prince - are particularly excellent, and ultimately She's Gotta Have It in series form is a celebration of everything that Lee loves about his childhood neighbourhood and the people who have lived there for generations, and a brilliant demonstration of his ability to entertain, inform and critique the still troubled issue of race in the US.

It stands as a testament to the unique talents of one of his generation's greatest filmmakers and demonstrates that he's still got plenty to say and many in-tune ways to say it.

• The original 'She's Gotta Have It' and the series are both available on Netflix.