Monday, October 1, 2018

BlacKkKlansman


BlacKkKlansman

Anyone who knows the name "Spike Lee" probably has a few associated thoughts that immediately come to mind. Things like how outspoken he is in real life, how prolific he is, how much of a mixed bag his filmography is (leading me to refer to him as the Stephen King of filmmaking), but they probably won't associate him with the word "subtlety." This is often the punchline to any Spike Lee joke, whether it be how he portrays white people (or even how he sometimes displays black people), or how he'll sometimes break the fourth wall to practically scream the point of his movie directly at the audience; the man is known for hitting his viewer over the head with his message. But sometimes he strikes gold with this style, whether it be Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, or now, BlacKkKlansman.

In the words of Troy Barnes from Community: "There is a time and place for subtlety, and that time was before Scary Movie." (This is particularly funny when Donald Glover (also known as Childish Gambino) is the one delivering that line, with his now-iconic, in-your-face music video for This is America gloriously damning subtlety to hell in the first ten seconds.) There is no time for subtlety in this day and age, because the majority of people aren't going to take the time to read between the lines, and things are a little too crazy right now to hope people are going to understand cryptic symbolism. This movie couldn't be Annihilation because the subject is simply too important to risk people not getting. Therefore Spike Lee makes direct allusions to current events throughout the film, and a surprise ending that is absolutely gut-wrenching. While the movie is often incredibly fun and funny, it never takes its finger of the trigger of its message. This movie needed to be made now, and it needed to be made by Spike Lee, because otherwise it would never be in multiplexes and therefore be given a chance to be seen by the masses.

Steering away from the sociopolitical angle of the film, the actual plot and characters are a tense joy to watch. It took me a bit to warm up to John David Washington (Denzel's kid), but by the end of it I absolutely adored him. Him and Adam Driver give perfectly grounded performances, helping create the illusion that these two guys are cops and not actors, despite the fact that both of them have to go undercover and act their way out of some scary situations. And boy, are those situations scary. I call it a "tense joy" because there's never a moment where I felt like these guys were safe (especially since this is somehow all a true story), but there's often surprisingly effective humor that gives very necessary breaks to the tension. Topher Grace is the only person who could play David Duke, Laura Harrier is wonderful as Patrice, Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen is terrifyingly believable as the shrewd klan-member Felix, and a special shoutout goes to Corey Hawkins who expertly delivers one of the most powerful speeches I've seen in a modern movie. The soundtrack and the score are also a joy, and the cinematography has that trademark exaggerated Spike Lee style of canted angles and frequent intermittent style changes. 

I'm not gonna get into spoilers because I think it's important that everyone go see this movie, mainly because this really happened, and because these guys are still out there. But if you watch movies to escape and don't want to be reminded of what's going on in the world, then it's definitely not for you.

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