BlacKkKlansman
2018
***½
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Jasper Pääkkönen, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser, Ashlie Atkinson, Corey Hawkins
In the early 1970s, a young black officer joins the Colorado Springs PD and is quickly assigned to undercover work. He establishes contact over the phone with the local Ku Klux Klan and convinces his white (Jewish) colleague to impersonate him. Spike Lee has never shied away from dealing with racial issues, but unfortunately this darkly comic drama doesn't have the subtlety or quality of Do the Right Thing. The characters are broadly drawn and the plot relies on too many coincidences, even if it is based on Ron Stallworth's 2014 memoir Black Klansman. The film is often funny, but when the Klan begins to take action and the undercover operation is in jeopardy, there is never any sense of danger. The performances are great, though. The epilogue reminds us that racism is raising its head once again in Trump's America. The screenplay by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee won an Academy Award.
