Film Review: BlacKkKlansman

"We Think You Might Be The Man To Open Up Things Around Here..."

With a staggeringly eclectic back catalogue which ranges back a whopping thirty five years, director Spike Lee knows a thing or two about film-making, and whilst recent projects from the influential American haven't exactly been front and centre of the cinematic spotlight, the release of BlacKkKlansman opens to a wide audience bearing high expectations after reported critical acclaim and the prestigious honour of winning the Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Based upon former police officer and detective Ron Stallworth's 2014 novel "Black Klansman", a written account of Stallworth's infiltration into the Ku Klux Klan during the late 1970's, Lee's movie undoubtedly lives up to expectations, a staggeringly powerful and entertaining multi-layered drama which sees John David Washington, son of Denzel Washington, as the cocky, undenaibly likeable, Afro-wearing Stallworth who persuades his superiors within the Colorado Springs Police Department to be placed undercover alongside Adam Driver's (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) Detective Flip Zimmerman in order to gain access into the secretive local Klan led by Topher Grace's (Interstellar) unbelievably racist and anti-Semitic, Grand Wizard, David Duke.

Mixing comedy with police procedural drama alongside an overarching political cornerstone which not only emphasises the race-relations issues of the 1970's period setting but the state of the United States political spectrum today, BlacKkKlansman combines the harsh, dangerous perils of undercover policing seen in the likes of The Departed and Eastern Promises with a constant stream of rib-tickling satirical gags as it moves deftly through its' two hour plus runtime with considerable ease and a gloriously well-mannered pace. With Lee relishing the chance to emphasise the racial undertones to alarming degrees, the movie's obscenely vile character's are as hateful as the heroes of the piece are joyful to be around, with Washington, Driver and Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Patrice all on the top of their game in their attempts to create three dimensional, believable personalities, each with their own personal sufferings and crusades. With Lee's skilful eye orchestrating a number of superb set pieces, including a heartbreaking juxtaposition between an old man's tale of murder and the KKK applauding to a screening of D. W. Griffith's 1915 controversial picture, The Birth of a Nation, BlacKkKlansman is undoubtedly Lee's best movie for over a decade, a stunning work of blended drama which barely puts a foot wrong. 

Overall Score: 8/10