Blackkklansman

Year: 2018

Grade: C+

Country: USA

Director: Lee

Review

Spike Lee Joint that got some Oscar buzz, but shouldn’t have. It’s like Lee’s 8th best movie, and it’s not in the top ten for the year by any stretch.
As serious commentary it was more balanced than you might expect considering the source. There’s a good deal of nuance when depicting some of the less savory aspects. At the same time he basically shows that most of the KKK members are just stupid hicks. I expected it to take the tack that KKK sentiments are actually a more widespread problem – this is the tack of many on the woke left today.
“White supremacism is widespread and pervasive.” Instead the bumbling idiots populate the KKK and there’s room for reasonable whites outside of it.
Plot-wise there really wasn’t all that much to write home about. Not exceptionally interesting or compelling. The “climax” wasn’t all that exciting or compelling. Acting was good.
The end was more along the lines of what I was expecting – capitalizing on the mood of the moment with Trump in office and racial tensions inflamed. It was really jarring to bring in Charlottesville after the rest of the movie. It was sad to see the footage, but it wasn’t because of anything that Lee did. It was actually a cheap move to insert it to achieve an emotional reaction at the end of his lackluster film.
It would be like remaking The Siege and then ending it with the twin towers falling down. It’s an okay movie followed up by an intense real life event in order to give more import to the former. Cheap and uninteresting.