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BlacKkKlansman
****
Dir: Spike Lee
Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Isiah Whitlock Jr.
(USA, 15, 2hr 8 mins)
Spike Lee’s films have varied over the years since his debut with She’s Gotta Have It and the furiously excellent Do The Right Thing; he’s dabbled with documentary (When the Levees Break), biopics (Malcolm X), pop videos for the likes of Eminem and Michael Jackson and soggy remakes (the disappointing Old Boy).
Never easy to confine to one genre or one form, the prolific writer/director has not had a major commercial and critical success with a crossover film for a while, and BlacKkKlansman should change all that.
A superb and timely drama based on an unbelievable true story, the film follows a black Colarado Springs police officer, Ron Stallworthy, who went undercover in the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1970s. Played by John David Washington, he poses as a bigoted racist dialing up the local chapter of the hate group and amazingly gets closer and closer to the centre of power in David Duke, the National Director, played with uneasily likeable charm by Topher Grace.
So far so apparently ludicrous, but it gets crazier. To get close to the KKK, who are supposedly going legitimate, Stallworthy needs a white man to show up to meetings as him, and this takes the form of Adam Driver as his partner Flip Zimmerman. The pair spark well together, full of spiky bonhomie, but the actual danger they become embroiled in is never underestimated despite the film’s often comedic tone.
This hate group killed people in the 70s and with the rise of white supremacy once more in this ignorant Trumpian world, this danger still seems all too prevalent, as Lee reminds us with some very pertinent final images. Lee’s direction keeps a tight hold on tone – racism is seen in all its ugliness, but the film never ceases to entertain even while chilling your soul. It’s superbly acted, shot through with some poetic images courtesy of Chayse Irvin’s cinematography and has a fine R ‘n’ B score from regular Lee collaborator Terrence Blanchard. Confident, entertaining and thoughtful, this is Lee’s best film in an age and an angry, pertinent call to battle racism in all its repugnant forms. Very much a Spike Lee joint to inhale.
words Keiron Self
Opens August 24