Review: Spike Lee is still doing the right thing with terrific 'BlacKkKlansman'
Brian TruittSpike Lee’s terrific '70s-set "BlacKkKlansman" pits crusading cops against white supremacists and mirrors our contemporary struggles with civil rights and inequality. What makes Lee one of our finest and always relevant filmmakers, though, is how he also finds time for the satisfying hilarity of a black police officer making a fool of the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
“God bless white America,” Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) deadpans to David Duke (Topher Grace) during one of the many comedic phone calls that bring a welcome levity to the more serious material of "BlacKkKlansman" (★★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters nationwide Friday). Directed by Lee and produced by Jordan Peele, the movie chronicles the stranger-than-fiction tale of how Stallworth successfully infiltrated the Colorado Springs, Colorado, chapter of the KKK.
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Washington (son of Denzel) has an impressive Afro and winning charisma as the first black cop in town, who initially gets assigned to the records room to pull paperwork for white officers – it’s so maddening, he busts out kung fu moves to vent his anger. The ambitious rookie finally gets his chance when he's sent undercover at a speech by Black Panther leader Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) and meets cop-detesting Patrice (Laura Harrier), an activist and president of the local college’s Black Student Union.
At the same time, the KKK is on the recruitment trail in an effort to go more mainstream - less cross burning, same great hate. Ron sees a classified ad to join and calls the “organization” on a whim; when they take a liking to him, thinking he’s a white guy, he applies to be a member (and accidentally uses his real name). Since his showing up to a KKK meeting isn’t the best idea, Ron teams up with fellow cop Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), who poses as the in-person “Ron Stallworth” embedded among the racist extremists to find out their villainous plans.
Washington and Driver have a sensational buddy-cop chemistry as both their characters navigate interesting arcs. Ron has to spout racial epithets and hate speech while fostering a phone relationship with Duke, but also keep his job secret from love interest Patrice. And Flip, who figures out he’s passed as white all his life, comes to grips with his own Jewish heritage at the same time he's hiding it within a group that despises his people. (Also strong among the cast is Grace, who plays Duke as both smooth politician and prejudiced buffoon.)
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Lee pays homage to blaxploitation films (in one scene, Ron and Patrice debate the virtues of "Shaft" and "Super Fly"), yet as much as "BlacKkKlansman" is retro in story and style, it also echoes the present. The phrases “America first” and “Make America great again” have eerie resonance when spoken at a Klan event, where a screening of the 1915 movie “Birth of a Nation” and shouts of “White power!” are interwoven with black college kids listening to a civil-rights legend (played by Harry Belafonte) and yelling “Black power!” with equal fury.
The film’s release is timed to the one-year anniversary of the Charlottesville, Virginia, protests and the death of Heather Heyer, and Lee has included footage of hate speech and brutal violence, remembering Heyer with the words “Rest in power.”
Between this and 2015's lyrical comedy/drama "Chi-Raq," Lee proves he's still as fiery and meaningful a filmmaker as the man who made "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X" back in the day. "BlacKkKlansman" is a sobering, affecting commentary on right now, yet it’s also a thrilling celebration of real brotherhood – and not one of hate.
