Why does this look like crap?

I've seen other movies from this era that were made by unknown indie filmmakers who couldn't afford to make a feature any other way (although I still think they shouldn't have bothered until they could either raise more money or digital video technology improved). But Spike Lee had several films before this that looked great. How could he bear to make something that looks like rancid garbage, no matter how good the writing, acting, and editing might be?

I turned it off after a couple minutes because I just can't stand to look at this kind of cheap video.