BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Director: Spike Lee. (15)
Synopsis
Rookie cop Ron Stallwood (John David Washington) starts his police career for the Colorado Springs for stuck in the files department. Cocky, ambitious and hungry for action, he pushes himself forward for undercover work and quickly finds himself a unique opportunity.
Spotting an advert for the Ku Klux Klan in a local paper, he poses as a white man wanting to sign up. The KKK take the bait and Stallwood finds himself coaching Jewish colleague Flip (Adam Driver) to pretend to be him in order to bring down the Klan’s chief David Duke (Topher Grace).
Review, by Jason Day (@Reelreviewer)
Spike Lee, the iconclastic, 'new black cinema' agitator who burst onto the movie scene in the late 80's with a series of white hot movies about the lives, loves and losses of African Americans, is in surprisingly reflective mode here.
This satirical drama about undercover ops with the KKK and the emerging Black Power movement in the 1960's is a more nuanced movie than I was expecting.
I half thought I would be soundly whacked on the head with the 'racism is bad - geddit?!' hammer, and indeed that serious message is still here.
But Lee tempers it with a broad comedy-drama about supremacist machinations, with the racial power struggle clearly depicted as two sides of the same coin, with history and political fashion deciding which one is flipped for.
This is a clever and funny story and, incredibly, based on a true story, humorously written and Lee captures the mood of change at this point in America's history.
Its played to the hilt by a fine cast, led by the stunning John David Washington (yes, son Denzel) who proves here that he may need a bigger load-carrying awards shelf than his Dad in the future.
For more, read the full film review: http://bit.ly/klansmanfilm
Cast & credits
2hr 15 mins (135mins). 40 Acres & a Mule Filmworks/Blumhouse Productions/Legendary/Monkeypaw Productions/Perfect World Picgtures/QC Entertainment/Universal.
Producers: Jason Blum, Spike Lee, Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele, Shaun Redick.
Writers: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee.
Camera: Chayse Irvin.
Music: Terence Blanchard.
Sets: Curt Beech.
John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Ryan Eggold, Jasper Pääkkönen, Michael Buscemi, Robert John Burke, Topher Grace, Paul Walter Hauser, Ashlie Atkinson, Alec Baldwin.
Image courtesy Universal International Pictures
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