'BlacKkKlansman' Movie Review

The story of Ron Stallworth in BlacKkKlansman is absolutely insane. Midway through the film, I forgot that these things really happened because everything about it seems so surreal. Spike Lee has had a wildly inconsistent career. You don't know whether his next film will be a radical, powerful masterpiece (Do The Right Thing), a monumental failure (his Oldboy remake) or an alright experiment (Chi-Raq). The fact that he received the Grand Prix at the 2018 Cannes film festival for his newest film BlacKkKlansman confirmed that perhaps this could be in the same vein as Do The Right Thing. Is it radical? Yes. Is it powerful? At times. Is it a masterpiece? Sadly, no. I found this film to be very entertaining and thought-provoking like Lee's best work, but it fell short of greatness due to it being extremely simplistic in its display of the KKK or why racism exists in this country. The conversation stops at racism is bad and racists are dumb republicans. I wanted to see something deeper as to why this hate is alive and well, but I didn't get that.

There are some things that I really liked in BlacKkKlansman. For example the performances are pretty great. John Washington (Denzel's son) is very good as Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in 1970s Colorado Springs. Adam Driver is also very good as the cop working with Stallworth in order to establish a relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. There are also a few very funny moments including a bit with a Polaroid picture that had me in tears with laughter. Most of the comedy comes from just how absurd this situation gets, which also adds to the tension. The deeper these two get into their investigation, the more suspenseful it gets. There is also a powerful scene where Harry Belafonte tells a disturbing story to a group of activists that is one of the best scenes I've seen all year. I also respect the ending of BlacKkKlansman with its in-your-face style. Overall, I didn't regret seeing this movie, but I am disappointed in how it depicts racism and hate in such a (pun not intended) black-and-white way. Maybe that was Lee's intention, but I expected a deeper level of thinking from this year's Grand Prix winner.

Maybe Lee intended this film to be a comedy, but, considering this film portrays real people and a very real problem in this country, a goofy caricature of racists doesn't quite work out. This could have been a deep film about why this type of hatred exists and why it has survived for so many years... but, this being a Spike Lee joint, I should've expected a very simple and accessible look at racists. All you need to know is "racists are bad so these people are bad," but I wanted to know why these people are so racist or see any type of personality outside of "redneck, evil, and racist." In Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Bastards, we get a well-rounded look at certain Nazis in which we see that some are racist but others are just soldiers doing a job. Sure there are goofy characters in Inglourious Bastards, but they serve the point of being alternate-reality figures. I wanted to think more about the hate in this country that has been alive and well for many years, but this film left me feeling hollow.

Overall, this is an entertaining and at times powerful film from Spike Lee, but don't expect something deeper than a good time that gives you pause but doesn't make you think that deeply.

3.5/5