BlacKkKlansman
(2018)Infiltrate hate.
An African-American police officer from Colorado teams up with a white counterpart in an audacious double-act to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Spike Lee crime drama based on a true story.... More
It’s the early 1970s, and Ron Stallworth (John David Washington, Love Beats Rhymes) is the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself, Stallworth sets out to infiltrate and expose the local Ku Klux Klan. He soon recruits a more seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation of a lifetime as the pair join forces to impersonate a new KKK member. Topher Grace co-stars as KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, on a mission to present a friendly, corporate face to the violent, racist organisation.Hide
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Directed by Spike Lee ('Malcolm X', 'Jungle Fever', 'Do the Right Thing')
Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Robert John Burke, Corey Hawkins, Paul Walter Hauser, Craig muMs Grant
Written by Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, Kevin Willmott (based on the book 'Black Klansman' by Ron Stallworth)
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BlacKkKlansman
BY Alissa-Warren superstar
BY MariaC superstar
I wasn't sure what to expect after seeing the trailer and knowing Spike Lee's reportoire - I was surprised, it was funny but still the serious element. You could have heard a pin drop with the ending. Recommended.
BY lost10 wannabe
This film was a real surprise, easily the best film I have seen for a while and I highly recommend this film.
The trailer makes this look like a 70's comedy and there are funny moments it is no comedy and the suspense near the end for the characters was very intense.
BY JaMueller nobody
I don't remember being so tense throughout the entirety of a movie before - was super confronting and the ending was incredibly powerful. Very important film and worth any unease you might feel watching it.
BY Aucklander nobody
Had no expectations but was entertained and challenged by the movie. Some classic Black humour great moods of the times and characters, but terrifying to realise that thinking is still radiating. Good night out
Showing 5 of 12 reviews. See all reviews
The Press Reviews
BlacKkKlansman's joke is an indictment of complacency, particularly that of white liberals who'd rather not confront the distressing fact that not much has changed in 40 years, beyond a re-styling of old, old ideology. Full Review
As much a compelling black empowerment story as it is an electrifying commentary on the problems of African-American representation across more than a century of cinema. Full Review
Lee never takes his eye off the connecting thread between the events of 1978 and the present. The result is one of his most flat-out entertaining films in years, and also one of his most uncompromising. Full Review
Lee's most flat-out entertaining film in quite a long time, as well as his most commercial. Full Review
Spike Lee hits his targets effectively enough - again and again. They keep popping back up like the targets in a fairground shooting gallery, and get shot back down again with a clang. Full Review
A crusading Spike Lee is often the best Spike Lee. He's a powerful artist and when he has a lot to say, as in the case with BlacKkKlansman, he simply won't let you forget it. Full Review
If "BlacKkKlansman" is not above turning its characters into mouthpieces for its ideas, it wards off excessive didacticism by giving those ideas a heady flow and a sustained pulse. There's real, expressive joy in its anger. Full Review
A straight up, fierce, political polemical from an acknowledged master of the form, who has not and will not run out of reasons to be justifiably angry. Full Review
An engaging, hilarious, still topical-as-hell forty years later and ringingly smart film from the startlingly prolific and restless Lee. Full Review
It is all a funny, pointed experience until the spine-chillingly poetic coda, which hurls us into the modern-day and renders the officers' victories almost totally hollow, calling into question the ability to do good in a fundamentally flawed system. Full Review
The more I think about this film, the deeper it seeps into my consciousness. So simple, so clever, so entertaining as it delivers a king punch to the solar plexus. Full Review
BY Katie Parker Flicks Writer
In the time since Donald Trump was elected US President, a number of theories have emerged within the greater public consciousness to justify this turn of events: it was the Russians; it was Hillary’s emails; it was the weird US electoral system that no one really understands. Underlying each of these explanations, of course, is the myth: that no one could have seen this horrible situation coming. Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman is an indictment of this myth.... More
His film is the true story of the first black cop to join the Colorado Springs police force in the early 1970s, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), who, with his colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) goes undercover to infiltrate the KKK. Quickly revealing both the open racism of the local community and the complete apathy and complicity of their superiors, the investigation also indicates that white supremacy is not waning - and, instead, steadily working its way into the mainstream.
Despite its period setting, BlacKkKlansman is spectacularly direct in connecting the dots between Stallworth’s story and the current American political situation. KKK Grand Wizard David Duke (played with chilling geniality by Topher Grace) even expresses a desire to Make America Great Again.
Lee’s lack of subtlety regarding these connections may be entertaining - many members of our predominantly white audience roared with laughter at these moments - but it is also brimming with impatience: the urgency to spell out what is really going on for those still under the illusion that Trump is an aberration and not a symptom of long brewing, purposefully neglected racial animus.
BlacKkKlansman may be the most accessible, and perhaps most entertaining, work of Lee’s latter day career but it is also his most important. An epilogue, in the form of news footage from the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville where counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed (an event which BlacKkKlansman’s release coincides with and commemorates), is a perfect, sobering conclusion to a truly scathing critique of a culture and a history that created the world we see today.Hide
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