Review: BlacKKKlansman

In the 70s, African-American cop Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is tasked with first infiltrating a Black Power rally, and later a Colorado chapter of the KKK. In order to pull off the ruse, Stallworth uses fellow detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to be the physical stand-in whilst Stallworth chats to KKK members and even their leader David Duke (Topher Grace, entirely out of his element) over the phone. The kicker being that Zimmerman is actually Jewish. Laura Harrier plays a black student activist Ron falls for, Robert John Burke is Ron’s boss, with Michael Buscemi another colleague. Nicholas Turturro turns up briefly as a KKK man.

I really do try with Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing”), but aside from his masterpiece “Malcolm X” and the straightforward caper “Inside Man” aside, we’re completely worlds apart in regards to his films. This 2018 true-to-life flick from the director and his co-writers David Rabinowitz (who comes from a short background), Charlie Wachtel (one of the film’s co-producers), and Kevin Wilmott (Spike’s “Chi-Raq”) seemed to have a can’t miss premise so far as blending potential entertainment with also being informative and worthy in its very serious themes. I figured with “Malcolm X” and “Inside Man” he proved he could make either type of film, and judging by the trailer this looked to be a good mixture of both. As it turns out, it doesn’t work on either entertainment or artistic/social statement levels. At all. It’s not the worst film of his that I’ve seen (that’d be the wretched, self-indulgent mess “Summer of Sam”), but it’s a massive disappointment given what the basic elements here could’ve resulted in. It’s a pretty flimsy, caricatured and unconvincing look back at some historical events in 70s USA. I was quite surprised by how corny and phony it all seemed, not to mention that the elements I was most interested in, don’t get much of a look in.

Things don’t start well with an odd cameo by a phlegmatic and unrestrained Alec Baldwin that is far too “Summer of Sam” in its heavy-handedness. Even worse, the scene is followed by a too-cute tag ‘Dis Joint is Based Upon Some ‘Fo Real Sh*t’. Yes, that’s literally what it says, asterisk included. What a nice way to stereotype yourself there, Spike. Mad props, ‘yo. I wasn’t bothered that the film appears to be a blend of truth and Spike, just that the blend is so poor. Lee’s staging and framing of a black power meeting/speech is especially cornball, I was worried I’d roll my eyes so hard back into my skull that they’d never return to their rightful position. And that’s a shame, because the sticky position this African-American cop finds himself in early on being asked to pretty much spy on these meetings with his own ‘people’ as it were, it’s potentially riveting stuff. Not the way Spike does it, because I didn’t believe it. Nor did I believe the portrayal of the KKK and its schmuck leader David Duke, played by Topher Grace. I know it’s difficult not to portray KKK members as foolish numbskulls because that’s pretty much what they are. However, they’re real foolish numbskulls and Spike and co did not in any way convince me that these guys actually existed in any real world I’ve either encountered or learned about. They’re caricatures of stereotypes of clichés (Spike even gets a MAGA gag in there from Grace’s idiot Duke). Thus, any potential for tension is completely obliterated and rendered moot. Even if this were a comedy, being based on fact and real-life characters, I’d still need to believe in what I was being presented.

John David Washington got his start in “Malcolm X”, which is unsurprising given his dad’s Denzel. I must say I very rarely picked up on any familial resemblance throughout the film, but I must also say that Washington’s performance is pretty much the best thing here. He’s solid and likeable, which is important for someone we’re gonna be following for 2 hours or so. He’s the most believable thing in the entire film. A lot of the other African-American actors (especially Laura Harrier) come across like millennials playing Blaxploitation dress-up based on a Wikipedia entry’s idea of what Blaxploitation cinema was. I love Blaxploitation (way more than Spike apparently, given the dismissive attitude towards them he inorganically writes into Harrier’s character), and I’m all for Spike delivering a ‘fun’ film, but not at the expense of authenticity and some multi-dimensional characters. This is surface-level storytelling at best and not much fun at all.

The best scenes in the film are fairly early on with Washington teaming up with white cops Michael Buscemi (who looks and sounds like brother Steve) and Adam Driver. Their characters feel real, are fun to have around, and are genuinely funny at times. I particularly liked the bit where Washington calls the KKK and his white/Jewish colleagues overhear him pretending to be a racist white guy. Meanwhile, the great Harry Belafonte turns up late to deliver a harrowing, ghastly monologue in a film that is otherwise content to be shallow and cartoony. Shame. After all of this surface-level mediocrity, Spike has the gall to put real news footage of a recent far-right rally (where only some people’s faces are concealed – what the hell?) after his film fails to adequately deal with racial themes in a 3D manner, seriocomic or not. It’s insulting. Oh, but we do get an upside down American flag. Oh, that’s so deep, Spike. So very deep. Spike (who has never been my favourite filmmaker or person for that matter) will want to crucify me for saying this, but Tarantino took racial themes more seriously with “Django Unchained” than Spike does here, and we all know that film was largely influenced by Blaxploitation (the subpar “Mandingo” in particular) and spaghetti westerns, not real-life. However, it actually painted its characters in more than broad strokes, gave them some depth. Way more depth than Spike affords anyone here.

Although the basic plot sounds like a doozy of a real-life story, the filmmaker chooses a (to this reviewer at least) rather inauthentic, corny and cartoony way in which to tell it (I hear the book on which it is based was less comedic, which perhaps means ‘less cartoony’). “Inside Man” might not having been “Malcolm X”, but in its caper movie goings on it managed to be entertaining without being one-dimensional and flimsy. Funny, I figured if anyone could make an authentic film out of a story like this it’d be Spike Lee. However, instead of being light-hearted, he’s simply lightweight here. Lead actor Washington is really good, the film is a miss and surprisingly dull for long stretches. But hey, Spike and co won a Best Adapted Screenplay award at the Oscars, so what do I know?

Rating: C