BlacKkKlansman

It’s like Spike Lee got sick of hearing how funny Tarantino’s KKK scene was in Django Unchained and decided to stick two fingers up at him. Again.

The Partially Educated Review

When it comes to reliability, Spike Lee is something of a loose cannon. For every great film like Clockers, you get something like the Oldboy remake; ranking somewhere along the lines of rectal implantation on the scales of desirability. So when he’s handed a concept as dynamite as that of BlacKkKlansman, it’s not hard to get nervous over the very real possibility that he could have messed it up. He absolutely didn't though.

Based on the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), a black Colorado Springs detective who manages to receive an invite to join the Ku Klux Klan (“you probably shouldn’t go to that meeting” is the pretty damned sage advice he receives). Teaming up with white Jewish cop Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), the two set about infiltrating the Klan (or “Organisation” as they prefer to be referred to); Stallworth by phone and Zimmerman in person.

Washington is currently at the stage of his career where every mention of his performances contains the term “son of Denzel” at least 276 times. It’s an unavoidable pain in the arse, though let’s not pretend like it won’t have helped him in more than a few ways. Fortunately though, it should only take a few more performances like this before he can be billed in his own right. Except maybe in voice, this Washington is a whole different performer from his heritage. There is little to no point discussing who’s better as the younger will need to build up his portfolio before that can be done. What he does have is a certain understated everyman quality to him that his father perhaps doesn’t, instead consuming the life of every living organism around him by sheer force of unbridled magnetism.

Driver also does well in his role, benefitted by some smart writing when concerning the subject of his Jewish heritage. There’s some solid supporting performances also from the various Klan members (Ryan Eggold and Topher Grace in particular) and Laura Harrier does well with a slightly under-written role, verging dangerously close to “the love interest” at times but at least bringing some character motivation outside of just “ooh, isn’t he nice?”

It is perhaps the concept alone that has helped to fire up Spike Lee, bringing some gusto that has been absent from many of his recent efforts (I should probably note that I haven’t seen Chi-Raq though). Lee’s stylistic touches can sometimes be a little too blatant, but they are more than compensated for when he unloads his razor-sharp wit. It’s dripping in snark at times (particularly when white characters are discussing the manner in which black people speak) and barbed jabs at certain modern day political figures are hidden about as well as a cow going undercover in a cattery. Though I’m pretty sure that’s the intention, lest it go over the curiously coiffured heads of those certain figures.

All you need to do is look at interviews with Lee around the time of the film’s release to see just how fired up he was over this one. You can rarely accuse him of lacking dare when it comes to the films he makes, but with a number of black directors really starting to make their names as of late (still not enough exposure for them, but at least it’s steps in the right direction) it’s as though Lee knew that he had to come out swinging here to show them he isn’t backing off any time soon. The key now is keeping it up.

NINE out of 10