A Reel Review: BLACKKKLANSMAN

In 1972, Ron Stallworth, the first African American undercover detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department, infiltrated the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with a phone call. As a new member, he sent a fellow white (and Jewish) detective to take his place in the face-to-face meetings. It’s a tale that is stranger than fiction, and one that could easily be a barrel of laughs and a comedy of dominos. But to treat the material that way would be a travesty, as director Spike Lee finds a way to make this unbelievable true story one of the most profound cinematic statements America has ever seen.

Stallworth (John David Washington, son of Denzel), overcomes racial prejudice at his own police precinct to become an undercover officer, and manages to become a card-carrying member of the local KKK. To gather more intelligence, Stallworth enlists the help of fellow detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), who attends the face-to-face meetings. The two draw closer to what this local chapter is up to while hiding their identities, and eventually wind up meeting clan leader David Duke (Topher Grace).

BLACKKKLANSMAN is a film that is a web of undercover work, with Stallworth pulling the strings from behind the scenes, and Flip pretending he’s Stallworth as he meets, greets, and plots with the group of racist yahoos who meet in living rooms…who come across as clowns but still with the potential for causing some serious damage. On the surface it’s a police procedural, and Lee checks off the boxes of good cops doing their jobs nicely.

Beefing things up in the meantime is Stallworth’s budding relationship with Patrice (Laura Harrier), who is the president of a black student union who happens to despise the police, and Flip avoiding the suspicions of a clan member (Felix Kendrickson) who is also the loose cannon of the group. There’s a lot of dodging and cat-and-mousing going on, and Lee plays the film like an intricate chess match.

Lee keeps his two main characters of Stallworth and Flip at arm’s reach in the early goings. Their backgrounds and motivations are never explored, and time is instead spent on how this undercover work is affecting the unlikely duo. Stallworth questions if this is just another job or a personal crusade, while Flip, who was never proud of his Jewish heritage, questions his own faith when he is forced to praise the Holocaust in front of his KKK colleagues. The characters come off as cold to us, but what they go through is the connecting thread for the audience.

Lee, never one to hold back, drops us right in the middle of the clan meetings and lets the ugliness of racism speak for itself. From the smugness of David Duke to the casual hate spewed by the chapter president’s housewife (Ashlie Atkinson). There’s some serious material to work with here, and it keeps the film from going into comedic territory. But what really makes BLACKKKLANSMAN soar is the direct line Lee draws from the film’s events in 1972 to today, and also reaches back as far as the Civil War while taking Hollywood to task as well. Throughout the film there are reminders of just how far America has not come in the area of civil rights, and by film’s end no one will see things the same again. It’s not preaching as much as it is revealing.

Acting is superb. John David Washington and Adam Driver make a tremendous team, and one wishes to see more of them together. Laura Harrier is a delight, and Topher Grace shows the ability to play a great villain. Corey Hawkins drops in as a civil rights leader and lights up the screen, and Alec Baldwin provides some real chills as a white racial superiority. The show is stolen by Harry Belafonte, who is at the center of an outstandingly edited sequence which recounts the story of a murdered black boy.

The finale is a thriller which includes a race to keep their identities a secret while trying to prevent a bombing, and while the outcome isn’t quite clear (the result of the final chase is a little muddy), Lee puts a massive exclamation point in the closing minutes to make BLACKKKLANSMAN a powerful statement on race in America. Lee has done this before in his previous films, but not ever like this…and dead silence from audience’s as the credits roll is guaranteed. Lee has delivered a masterpiece; one that thrills, tells the truth, and allows no one to walk away unchanged.

BOTTOM LINE: See it