BlacKkKlansman

BlacKkKlansman is an understated, feel good movie with some hints of blaxploitation and is sharply critical of Donald Trump. Racism, the black power movement and the KKK are dealt with here, meaning that the film will not be everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s clever, with Spike’s typical light and precise direction, and can score John David Washington some roles that would make him a new African- American star on a level with Denzel Washington. P.S.: Paul Walter Hauser (the fat little “secret agent” from I, Tonya) is an incredible fit for these ultra-redneck characters. [Cannes] (05/17/2018)

Spike Lee made a decidedly interesting film about the first black cop and his infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan, which is both unprecedented and attractive stuff, but it lacked balls. John David Washington is unexpectedly good and if he becomes a star I won't be angry at all. Adam Driver surprised me as well and Jasper Pääkkönen was a proper sleazeball. The film is a bit too long for my taste and offers no eye candy sequences; it’s emotionally cold, there’s no action empty, and the humour passed me by, but still I wasn't bored and finished it with curiosity without any problems. But I am not the target audience.60% (11/06/2018)

Spike Lee is an extremist, and also a big asshole. BlacKkKlansman is a film with a humour so black that it could pick cotton in the fields of Birth of a Nation; it pushes political incorrectness to the limit and works very smartly with the development of the two lead characters, who first must pretend they are one, in order to really become one in the end. There are moments that are packed with ideas and satirical jokes, but also others when its formally artificial and lacking credibility, but Spike compensates that with the use of archive footage and explicit allusions at Trump. In any case, heavy-hitting quality that, thanks mainly to the dynamic narration and the amazing actors, never falls into a sterility that it obviously fears like the Devil fears the cross. 80% (11/07/2018)

Spike Lee, as an infinite supporter of black acting culture, has his movies often full of minority views, which go right over my European head. So I had to focus on his filmmaking qualities and there are undoubtedly plenty of them. In this movie he even brilliantly balanced white power and black power into one coherent story, which even though it seems absurd, actually really happened. And as I said, it might still be a reality in USA, but to me as a European it sounds unbelievable. Maybe this is the part of the film’s charm. To be honest, in the first 20 minutes he couldn’t resist to include some in my opinion unnecessary black scenes. But after a while you focus on young Washington and Adam Driver’s excellent performances which are in turn absurd, ironically funny but also thrilling and the movie ends with a good political chapter and a brief attack on Trump. Definitively a good movie and one of the most interesting ones on the topic of oppression of black population in the USA. (01/14/2019)

Campaigner Spike Lee is this time (traditionally) a hindrance to filmmaker Spike Lee. And so a good film is clearly ruined by not being satisfied with the hints that are not said between the lines and the viewer's intelligence, but has (traditionally) a need to say everything on its mind and what timeless parallels it wants to outline. And so here and there the characters recite, here and there documentary shots from the present, etc. are incorporated here. However, which (this time) is clearly annoying, because in the core of the film it is all that way anyway. In addition, very nice in terms of keeping on top of things view and from filmmaking as well as acting point of view. (08/19/2018)