It’s been a while since I last reviewed a film and when I searched the Internet for advice, I found out that a review should begin with an interesting fact or opinion about the movie. I’ll give it a shot: I thought, all the way to “BlacKkKlansman’s” credits, that Steve Buscemi had gotten his crooked teeth fixed, but go figure! The supporting actor with the exact same voice, an almost identical face and notably better teeth turned out to be his brother Michael.
The aforementioned thought about the supporting cast shows that there really was nothing surprising or gripping about the plot. Spike Lee presents the adventures of a coloured policeman, who has decided to join the Ku Klux Klan, at a relaxed, nonchalant pace. When it comes to the KKK there is no shortage of clichés – similar white-hatted imbeciles have previously made an appearance in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”, but seeing as “BlacKkKlansman” is based on a true story, it can be presumed that Spike Lee and his scenarists have taken a more creative approach to portraying the association. On top of that, the timeline of the events is altered, which made me wish for that creative freedom to have been used to its limits, adding in fictional chunks then and there. The biggest weakness of the film is probably the lack of a proper antagonist, which leads the main character and his white right hand to lack proper obstacles. There are no hidden agendas and no moments where the viewer has to read between the lines.
There is no bad without the good – I had a few laughs, but how many times can you laugh at white countrymen? It should be noted that the rural policemen are a bit brighter than the rural civilians and one of them, Adam Driver’s character, almost becomes the lead at one point, leaving Stallworth to drag along. I’ll also mention that the perspective was constantly changing – at first I was expecting the focus to be on blaxploitation, then the main character’s weird karate moves made me anticipate a slapstick-comedy, and the blacks’ disco scene reminded me of “Mamma Mia” – this kind of abrupt change of tone continued throughout the film. As could be expected of Spike Lee, he ends the movie with unnecessary (in the context of the film, specifically) political messages, which beg the question: did I come to the cinema to be entertained or to ponder about racism?
