Review of BlacKkKlansman (2018) by M F — 15 Aug 2018

In your face. So this is the story about a man by the name of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington). He is the first black police officer in a small Colorado town, but he has his sights set high: he wants to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.

With the right "why-te" man (Adam Driver), this might actually be possible. Did I mention that this is based on a true story? Now this was another small summer film that I was hotly anticipating.

The trailers looked great, and with seeing Blindspotting and Equalizer 2 earlier in the week, I figured why not keep this black cinema train rolling. I think it is positively wild that this isn't a story that was fabricated for the movies, and I feel that this is a film that accomplishes what it sets out to do for the most part.

Now I don't have a lot of familiarity with Spike Lee's filmography. I looked up his library and I've only seen Inside Man, Chi-Raq and now this. I think that this is his best movie that I have seen, although I do realize that is not saying much coming from me.

It is no accident that this is being released now. In this political climate we are in, people are angry, and rightfully so. Racism is very much alive today, years after these events, and as much as I can champion the cause, I will never be able to put myself in the shoes of a black man.

I will do what I can in raising awareness with films like this so that a broader range of perspective can be put out there. This is understandably a tense situation, and once the investigation gets going, you are on the edge of your seat.

There are three excellent performances given in this. John David Washington is terrific as the lead, and he is so good that it is surprising that he doesn't have more acting credits under his belt.

Adam Driver is great, but this is just another notch on an already impressive résumé. What may really take you aback though is how effective Topher Grace is as David Duke. It is a tall order to play a villain like this one, but he doesn't go over the top even though he has fun with it, and he nails what this white supremacist is all about.

Now I don't think that this is a perfect film, and I do have a few criticisms. When there isn't anything happening with direct conflict, I feel that the scenes had the tendency to fall flat. It usually had to do with the manner that Spike Lee chose to film those scenes, but that's doesn't come as a shocker, because he's not afraid to try something experimental and different.

This is not a big detriment, though, because it is quick to get right back into this insane undercover operation, and it always picks right back up. Also, I didn't care for the last five minutes of this.

It's not that I am not a supporter of this cause, because I absolutely am, but it just felt like a cheap way to get an emotional reaction out of the audience when the film was already over. I deducted points for the opening of Zero Dark Thirty for the exact same reason.

These are relatively minor complaints, but I just wanted to tell you why I am not rating this higher than I am. This a passionate period piece that you should definitely see.